Laman

The Return of Eryn's Ink: Frankenstein's Monster and the Little Girl

At lunch, I ran into Eryn, whose yarn skull, was one of my favorite posts of 2008.

We've been exchanging messages for a while, and I have been anticipating another sample of her work (she has a lot of tattoos).

She has added to her yarn skull, and her whole right arm is a sleeve-in-progress. We decided to wait and showcase the whole limb when it's complete.

Her January offering was this brilliant portrait from the 1931 classic Frankenstein:


The picture above is the one I took, the one below is from the artist's portfolio:


This tattoo is based on this famous scene from the movie:



That's Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster and Marilyn Harris playing the little girl. The scene is simultaneously poignant and horrifying. It is a commentary on the innocence of childhood and society's destruction of that innocence through its creations. The little girl does not see a monster, but someone with whom to share a beautiful experience.


But the end result is tragic. The monster is even more innocent than the child, until his unintentional curiosity drowns the little girl.

The scene can represent many different concepts. One of which is the way society judges people based on the way they look. Adults see the creation as a monster, whereas the little girl sees him for what he is inside: a child with a curious innocence (soon to be lost).

Eryn has a lot of tributes in ink, commemorating "the darker things [she] loved as a child". This scene is her favorite one in the film, for all the meaning she finds in the brief couple of minutes therein.

The tattoo is inked on the back of her right calf. The detail in the portrait of Karloff as the monster is phenomenal:


The piece was inked by Randy Hall at Hero Tattoo in Conway, South Carolina.


Jeff Cribb, who founded the shop, is credited by Eryn as being the leading force behind the legalization of tattooing in South Carolina.

I also photographed Eryn's knuckle tattoos, which will be appearing in the future on KnuckleTattoos.com.

Thanks again to Eryn for sharing her awesome body art here with us on Tattoosday!
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On the Bookshelves: A Few More at Borders

On Tuesday, I stopped by the nearby Borders and ran into Jill, who referred to this post, about the books on the shelves that are tattoo-related.

She showed me the photography section, where I found three more titles of interest.

The first was this title, Suicide Girls: Beauty Redefined:


For those unfamiliar with Suicide Girls, click the link on the sidebar to get a preview. It's basically a pin-up site, and most of the models are copiously inked. They're a lovely lot.





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Jill also pointed out this book, Heroines by Bettina Rheims:

Although not specifically tattoo-related, some of the models in this high-end photography book sport ink.



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And the third book I spotted was Celebrity Tattoos: An A-Z of A-List Body Art: 16 Temporary Tattoos to Wear by Chris Martin.






It's been extremely cold this week in New York City, so the inkspotting has been minimal. Bear with us. Pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training in less than a month, which means warmer weather is just around the corner!
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Cat's Ink Pays Homage to Her Experience on the Ocean


Over the last few months, I have reconnected with old friends through Facebook, many of whom I haven't seen in years. In so doing, many have discovered my burgeoning interest in tattoos, and the manifestation of that in Tattoosday. Many of these old friends are inked and I've posted their work here (i.e. this one form Michael).

Today's post comes to us from Catherine, the only person with whom I went to high school and college.

After college, Cat returned to Hawai'i, where she re-connected with the ocean, paddling and, among other things, taking a voyage on the Hōkūle‘a, traversing the sea in the style of the ancient Polynesians who settled on the Hawaiian Islands. That's an oversimplification but, rest assured, the journey is quite different from booking a ticket on a cruise ship.

So, it made perfect sense to me when Cat sent me an e-mail with the subject line "Cat's Tat," accompanied by the photo of her ink:


This amazing tribal piece on her lower back pays homage to her love of the ocean and Polynesian culture. I'll let her explain the rest, in her own words:

I had this done for my birthday a few years ago by Tricia Allen, who is well recognized for her knowledge of Polynesian tattooing. She's pretty much in demand for work, and is often on the BIG big island for jobs and conferences. I had known her a little bit while I was taking classes at UH, and met her again on Rapa Nui - we had a mutual friend there. Anyway, she did it in her living room in Palolo. I was sitting on a stool, bent over, with my face in a pillow. I was beginning to feel somewhat like Pavlov's dog, because ever time the buzz started, I'd get tense. She also seemed to enjoy pointing out where nerve clusters were located (owww).

Here's the story/reasoning/rationale: I had gotten a small one after our canoe club won the state championship in 1993 - my crew won the "blue ribbon" race for women, having been second all season. Anyway, once I really got into sailing, I wanted to design a new one that represented what I had seen and done in terms of canoes (both sailing and paddling). Canoes and canoe related activities have taken me all over the Pacific: The Society Islands (including Tahiti), The Marquesas, Mangareva, Rapa Nui, New Zealand, Australia, Fiji. It took 7 years of my trying out different designs before I found the concept I liked. I went for a consultation with Tricia, who gave me the idea; the Marquesans often use the idea of the human face, where each feature is a symbol in it's own right. Tricia had given me a diamond-shaped example, and from that I immediately saw what I would do.

So - the Marquesan concept, the shape of the hihimanu - ray - represents the twin-peaked mountain of Mangareva. As we approached it from the sea, it looked like a ray emerging from the sea. The eyes are Hawaiian honu - sea turtle, the wings are New Zealand Māori-style naia - dolphins, on the sides of the eyes are Rapa Nui makohe - frigate birds (separate story here - not getting into it), the mouth and nose are a double-hulled canoe and sail, with waves on either side, and the tail is supposed to be moons (for navigation and tides) and fishhooks done in a Tahitian style. Kinda ran out of room at the tail end, though! The whole represents Tangaroa/Kanaloa, who is the Polynesia-wide god of the sea. Not that I've been out there a LOT, but I have been out there...you see the myriad incarnations of Kanaloa: the good, the bad and the truly frightening. I guess the design is in homage of what's out there...

Now I'm contemplating the next one. I have some Cook Island Māori ideas, but I want to go there first. Have also had a few people ask me to design things for them. I have also met maybe three or four others with hihimanu on their lower backs...you see LOTS of tattoos at canoe regattas!
Mahaloa nui loa to Cat for sharing this awesome piece with us here on Tattoosday, and for providing such an in-depth explanation. Truly fascinating and inspiring! We're loking forward to seeing the next one!
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Tattoos and Poetry: A Call

I received an e-mail today from Claire Askew, across the pond, who runs a publishing house over in the U.K.

Among her many projects (Read the Miagazine and One Night Stanzas), she is working on an anthology of poems about tattoos and tattooing. They're seeking submissions from poets all over the world, and I encourage people to contribute.

Check here for more information.
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