Tattoosday's First Ambigram Tattoo

Now that we have the horrific ink-hiding months of January and February behind us, I was looking forward to seeing what March provided.

I was rewarded by the cooperation of Brian, who shared this, one of his five tattoos:


For those readers unfamiliar with ambigrams, they are designs that reveal images or words from both perspectives.

Brian's tattoo, for example, reads "Life" from this perspective. But, when flipped, reads "Death". In this case, a perfect dichotomy, with each word opposing the other.


The better ambigrams have a correlating juxtaposition, emulating a yin and yang approach to the art form.

Brian got this done by Melissa at Sparrow Tattoo in West Hempstead, New York.

I must say, as ambigram tattoos go, this one is pretty cool, and I'm happy to have it be the first of its kind featured here on the site.

Thanks to Brian for sharing his life/death tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Tattoos I Know: Anna's Culinary Ink

Several months ago, one of my co-workers, Anna, wanted to commemorate the completion of her externship from culinary school.

It was funny, because at the time, she didn't realize I wrote Tattoosday and then discovered the site through googling. She stumbled upon this post that featured a chef's knife.

Anna liked the idea of using a knife, but wanted a whisk too. She spotted this piece and met with Vinny Romanelli at Red Rocket Tattoo in Manhattan, giving him the several source images she had found and explaining what she wanted.

He designed this for her and then completed the tattoo for her in about twenty minutes. She had him stick with black and gray and wanted him to emphasize the shading. This is the end result, positioned just above her ankle:


Other work from Red Rocket has appeared on Tattoosday here.

Thanks again to Anna for sharing her culinary ink with us here on Tattoosday!

Neal's Foo Dog

This winter has been an especially cold one here in New York and, as any loyal reader can confirm, I haven't reported on many tattoos that I have glimpsed in the city.

However, last night at the grocery store around the corner, I met Neal, who let me take a quick snapshot of his foo dog on the left side of his neck:


Foo dogs are traditional Asian-style tattoo designs, and have various meanings and interpretations. Click here to see some other posts on the site that have featured foo dog designs.

Neal told me that this was inked by Koji at Studio Engima on Avenue U in Brooklyn many years ago. Work from Studio Engima has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

Thanks to Neal for sharing his foo dog with us here on Tattoosday!

Tattoos I Love: Sweethearts for My Sweetheart

So what does an inkblogger get his sweetheart on Valentine's Day?

Why, a love-themed tattoo, of course.

Lucky me, the good folks over at Thicker than Water Tattoo had a Cupid special, $14 tattoos on February 14.


A lot like the Dare Devil Tattoo Friday the 13th Special (one of which is documented here), the lucky tattoo recipient can choose from an assortment of day-themed flash.


Here's what my lovely bride Melanie had to choose from:


When we got to the shop, Melanie signed in #53, and they were averaging a dozen or so per hour, so we knew we had a little bit of a wait.

I specifically selected Shon Lindauer, since he did such an awesome job with my tiger tattoo.

It was nice that Melanie got to meet Shon and the piece she selected was one that he had drawn up.

He tattooed her in the middle of the back and took just about fifteen minutes:


She was very happy with the end result:


When we left around 3:45, the waiting list was over a hundred, so they looked like they had a long night ahead of them.

Thanks to Shon and the staff at Thicker Than Water for another great tattoo experience!