The Tattooed Poets Project, Volume 4

It seems incredible to me that this April, in 2012, we’ll be celebrating National Poetry Month on Tattoosday for the fourth year in a row, by showcasing the tattoos of poets. Not necessarily literary tattoos, but tattoos of the literary.

When the idea first struck me in early 2009, I didn’t know if a) it would work, and b) if I would be able to pull it off. Every year, somehow, I manage to execute at least thirty days of inked poets, and, with apologies to Lennon/McCartney, I get by with a little help from my friends.

2012 is slightly different. Faced with a big family event in February, I got an early start and went from worrying about not filling the calendar to the heretofore unimaginable - too many contributions? Someone posted the call for submissions on a UK writer’s board, and I was flooded with e-mails offering up their poetry and ink. I started - gasp!- to decline inquiries.

The end result is a month packed with tattooed poets. There will be days with double posts so, if you are in the habit of checking in daily, you may want to visit back in the evenings, as well, so as not to miss anyone. Of course, I always point people to the Tattooed Poets Project Index (www.tattooedpoets.com) to get the complete rundown.

Thanks for checking in, and happy national poetry month!

Rodney Smith Photography

I love the peculiarity and otherworld vibes that I get from Rodney Smith's bizarre photographs....

[VIA]

Akira Beard Paintings

Akira Beard is an extremely talented artist from USA who has a wide range of painting styles. These however, are my favourites....

[VIA]

Sickboy Show In San Francisco

White Walls gallery in San Francisco is hosting 'Wonder Club', a new body of work from famed UK-artist Sickboy. The title refers to a meeting place in the mind of the artist, where his cryptic street messages, surreal abstraction and comical illusions all come together. Sickboy’s new works reveal inspiration drawn from anatomical studies, the age of enlightenment, romanticism, comic books and fairytales....

Stefan Glerum

Stefan Glerum (1983) lives and works in Amsterdam.
He's an illustrator with great retro style and a very good eye for typography.
He recently designed three t-shirts for the 'OBEY artist series'.


Stefan Glerum / OBEY Artist Series from OBEY CLOTHING on Vimeo.

Paolo Ventura

The Italian-born Paolo Ventura is an artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY.

Finding objects, mostly from flea markets, he builds miniature sets creating places and imageries from the past and shoot them to appear life-size.

SpY

SpY is an artist from Madrid. His works are ment to shake up the 'natural' equilibrium of the streets with a clever sense of humor.

This is a small selection of his most famous pieces.

Eric Standley Paper Cut Art

"Eric Standley makes staggeringly intricate, baroque and even byzantine paper-cut creations, perhaps even more glorious than famous church art masterpieces of stained glass and gothic architecture..."

 [VIA]

Typical Culture March Montage

Typical Culture March Montage from TYPICAL CULTURE on Vimeo.

Mysterious Al x Unwell Bunny x Shannon Crees Part 2

I wandered down to the George Lane Party on a very unseasonally cold March Saturday in St. Kilda, Melbourne to check out Mysterious Al, Unwell Bunny and Shannon Crees do their thing.

RoBear Shares a Pin-Up

A familiar face passed me in Penn Station a couple weeks back and I jumped at the opportunity to talk to him - it was RoBear, from the TLC series NY Ink.

For those of you not familiar with the show, RoBear is the floor manager at Wooster Street Social Club, the setting for the show.

I first encountered RoBear last May, when I was one of the lucky people selected to take part in "Roosterfest," a fundraiser segment of episode seven on season one. $50 rooster tattoos were on order and I got, in my opinion, the best one - from Megan Massacre. I documented the experience here.

So, here I was, talking to RoBear in Penn Station and, well, I had to ask, would he mind sharing one of his tattoos?

Much to my happiness, he was game and, after a moment of thought, rolled up his right pant leg to reveal this tattoo:

RoBear explained that the pin-up is based on his long-time friend Natascha de los Angeles, and he elaborated by e-mail:

"I got the tattoo to commemorate my friendship to the girl who named me Robear when I was sixteen. We met at a BIGLNY (Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian NY) youth group back in the day at the Gay & Lesbian Community Services Center on West 13th Street and right after meeting she said I was 'cute, a little furry and that she was going to call me Robear.' It totally stuck and she has never one since called me by my birth name, which is Robert.

So, after getting the job on NY INK, since the name was so catchy, I wanted to thank [Natascha] and celebrate our friendship that has spanned almost 20 years now ... my artist, Tony Silva of High Roller Tattoo in NY, and I came up with this pinup specifically for her. [Natascha] is a pastry artist and chef in Manhattan, so I did the bakers hat, apron and her holding one of her own cakes she has made. Her website is Artesenal Sweets ... She is a constant inspiration and muse for me and all I do with my fashion, interior design and culinary arts, since she emcompasses everything that is beautiful and creative to me. A truly unqiue and special woman that will be in my life forever."

RoBear was also kind enough to send a crisper photo of the tattoo

Pin-Up by Tony Silva, Photo Courtesy of RoBear

and a picture of him with Natascha for reference below: 

Natascha de los Angeles & RoBear, photo courtesy of RoBear

I want to thank RoBear for sharing this tattoo with us here on Tattoosday. It's obviously a piece with a lot of  deep personal meaning, and he was kind enough not only to let me take a photo in Penn Station, but also to send along more pictures and give me a complete back story.

You can catch RoBear on repeats of NY Ink on TLC. Still no word on whether the show will be picked up for a third season. You can also become a fan of RoBear on his Facebook fan page here.

This entry is ©2012 Tattoosday.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement. 

BluArch Ceiling

"New York architectural and interior design firm bluarch have recently completed work on a dramatic ceiling installation for the Port Washington, New York restaurant Innuendo. bluarch is known for their multidimensional, organic formations, and this latest installment is no different. Poplar wood members have been arranged in a fractal formation that explores the architectural notions of self-similarity and non-differentiability."

[VIA]

Eine In East london

Eine has a couple new works up in East london and I love the vivid colours he is using... Images taken from HowAboutNo's flickr account...

FSRECS007 Forbidden Society – To The Threshold

Forbidden Society has a forthcoming release that has some amazing tracks and really nice artwork too. Looking forward for this release.



Tracklisting:

A1	Forbidden Society & Deathmachine	Rude
B1	Forbidden Society & Sei2ure	King Of Pogo
C1	Forbidden Society	Slay
D1	Forbidden Society	Tokyo Hardcore
E1	Forbidden Society	Cobra
F1	Forbidden Society	Heavy Metal Tank

He stated:
"I have been working on this album over the past months, producing all tunes, working on the collaborations & remixes and finding artwork. For this release, I commissioned drawings from Tokyo based Anime artist Kikai, while Kristof of NOSQRL graphics provides artwork for FSRECS, and the cover of this album. I’ve been testing all those tracks live during my bookings throughout Europe and even got the chance to play them in Tokyo – Japan, and hope you will enjoy them as much as I did over the last months – it’s in your hands now.
The album consists of various kinds of music I like and love to procude, crossbreeding Drum & Bass, Drumstep, Electro and Dubstep – yet they are united by one common idea. They seek to push the boundries of heavy sound and are drilled to the maximum of hardness, hence the title: TO THE THRESHOLD. I would like to thank all the people who were involved in the project, artists, graphic designers, and everyone who helped making this possible."

Look out for it on Triple Vision

Here is also a promo mix he did for the release.

Mysterious Al x Unwell Bunny x Shannon Crees Part 1

I wandered down to the George Lane Party on a very unseasonally cold March Saturday in St. Kilda, Melbourne to check out Mysterious Al, Unwell Bunny and Shannon Crees do their thing.