Kristen's Trilogy of Knots

The 34th Street Platform for the A Train has been very kind to us here at Tattoosday, even more so this summer than in years' past.



Take Kristen, for example. She generously offered up this small portion of her corporeal canvas:

Estimating that she is at least a quarter covered by ink, this "trilogy of knots" was the artist's response to Kristen's request to attach the cobwebs on her elbow to the end of her wrist.



The artist, identified only as "Batman" near Canal and Broadway, was also asked to incorporate a Celtic pattern, as well.



The final result was to Kristen's liking and we here at Tattoosday thank her for sharing the tattoo with all of our readers!

Happy Bloggiversary to Me!

Three years ago today, Tattoosday was born.



On July 31, 2007, I put up a post on BillyBlog, featuring a tattoo on a co-worker named Sephora.



The idea was to post a weekly tattoo on Tuesday, and use this is a vehicle to expand my horizons a bit; meet interesting people and learn about tattoos.



There was one problem. I enjoyed it too much. There weren't enough Tuesdays in the week. I was impatient and wanted to post right away, not wait until Tuesday. And so, as Kurt Vonnegut would say, it goes....



So a month later I threw the previous months post up on the stand-alone blog, Tattoosday. And BillyBlog faded.



It's still there, but Tattoosday is my passion and I couldn't have even imagined, back in 2007, how easy it would become for me to talk to strangers about their ink.



The once-a-week project produced forty-five separate interactions in July, we have a 30-day backlog of material, and this past week we registered our 650,000th hit. Not too shabby.



Go see the original post here to see how far we've come.



And a hearty thanks to all our contributors, all our fans, and all the tattooists out there creating wonderful, interesting, portable art. Without all of you, Tattoosday would have been a blip of an idea, and nothing more.

Nick Remembers Billy, I Remember Siki

My first tattoo was modified from a piece of flash at Body Art Studios by an artist who goes by the moniker "Siki". Shortly thereafter, Siki left the shop and went on his way.



My friend Pete knows who he is but, until recently, I hadn't met anyone with ink from Siki, other than myself.



Then, I met Nick on the R train one day after work and, while discussing his many tattoos (he "lost count after 45," they've all connected) , I heard him talking about Siki.



So today's tattoo is by Siki and was, like my lynx, modified from an old piece of flash. Although he adapted it a lot more fully and developed a more unique tattoo.

Siki and Nick had a mutual friend named Billy, who Nick would often go with to get tattooed. When he passed away, they added Billy's name to the bottom of the tattoo as a tribute to their departed friend.



Thanks to Nick for sharing his tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Jessica's Feather for her Mother

I met Jessica on the express platform at 34th Street earlier this month.



She shared this gorgeous peacock feather tattooed on the upper right section of her back:

The piece is an homage to her mother, who loves everything peacock, and has countless items, like bracelets and other jewelery, that emulate the vivid colors of these beautiful birds.



She credits this tattoo to an artist known only as Allison.



Thanks to Jessica for sharing this wonderful tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Michelle's Tattoo Takes Your Breath Away

Michelle has a lot of ink, twenty-one tattoos, all told, but when I stopped her in Penn Station, she chose to share this one with us:

Boldly planted on her upper right arm, Michelle explained that she paraphrased and pared down a longer quotation to read, more simply, "Live for the moments that take your breath away". I believe she was referring to the saying, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."



The flowers in the photo are cherry blossoms that were done in blue, rather than the traditional pink because, as Michelle tells it, she's "not really a pink kind of girl".

This tattoo was inked by Fat Tony at Hobo's Tattoo Shop in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.



Thanks to Michelle for sharing this tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Timmy's Sophisticated Owl

Earlier this month, Melanie and I took advantage of having my sister's car while she was out of the country and we made an unusual shopping trip to the Fairway Market in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn.



There was a gentleman in the produce section with a lot of tattoos, and Melanie pointed out one to me that she thought was cool, this owl on his calf:

Turns out that the guy was Timmy from Timmy Tattoo, an artist whose name rang a distant bell. Work by Timmy appeared in one of Tattoosday's earliest posts, when I met Jackie,an FIT student whose tattoos appeared here.



Timmy's owl was inked by Garrett Ostrowski of Garrett's Tattoos.



Thanks to Timmy for sharing one of his many tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Ordering a Custom Temporary Tattoo For Your Business

Promote your business, entice school spirit, raise money, drive support for a cause; there are many great reasons to get a custom temporary tattoo. While the choice to get a custom temporary tattoo is an easy one, how to order one and what to consider when doing so can be difficult.

Fortunately, this article nails down the 5 elements you need to consider when ordering a custom temporary tattoo. Each element is simple and once you decide upon each you'll be well on your way to custom temporary tattoo success!

5 Elements to Consider When Ordering a Custom Tattoo:

1. The front design
Since the objective behind designing a custom tattoo is to make an impression, you'll want to use your logo or well known symbol. Using a business logo works well for brand building and a well-known symbol is more likely to draw attention and spark interest.

Simple enough; but there are a couple variations you can take advantage of to make your custom tattoos even more successful:

• If you operate a website, incorporate that site's URL on the front of the tattoo with your logo.
• For promoting a cause, start with a well-known symbol (like the pink ribbon or recycling symbol) and add the name of an individual or a meaningful date.

By incorporating your website and taking advantage of a well-known symbol or business logo, you can ensure that you are making the most of every impression your custom temporary tattoos will receive.

2. The back
A little known fact is that the back of the tattoo is just as customizable as the front. Take full advantage of this by including the company address, website and social media information. The majority of promotional, custom temporary tattoos are kept as opposed to worn. People will take them home and throw them on the counter or on a desk or keep them at the office. This turns your custom temporary tattoo into a business card of sorts-but one that stands out.

Information to include on the back of your tattoo:

• Name of your business or organization
• Website URL
• Facebook & Twitter information
• A coupon code or special offer

3. Size
The most popular custom temporary tattoo size is 2"x2". It's small enough that it can be applied and worn easily but large enough to accommodate contact information on the back. Plus, this is just the right size to fit into a wallet or pocket of a purse for easy transport to the home or office.

4. White Effect
When printing a temporary tattoo, there are 3 options regarding white ink: no white, spot white and flood white.

• No White: any areas of the design without color will print without ink, so that the skin shows through those areas
• Spot White: any areas of the design without color will print with white ink, so that that white ink-instead of the skin-shows through those areas
• Flood White: white ink will be printed underneath the entire tattoo, making the colors look more brilliant once transferred to the skin because the layer of white makes the image more opaque

Choosing the white effect for your custom tattoo depends upon your purpose. Do you want the tattoo to be applied to the skin or kept as a promotional product? For the latter, you'll want to go with either spot white or no white because that will look better on the tattoo paper. If it's more important that the tattoo look good once applied, then you want to choose flood white because, even though the tattoo will appear 'milky' on the paper, it will look great on the skin.

Generally, for the purposes of promotional tattoos, no white or spot white is chosen.

5. Quantity
Lastly, you need to determine what quantity you will order. Ordering quality tattoos printed on a press using silk screening technology means a minimum order quantity of 1,000 pieces because of how the machines are set up to run. As with anything else, the more you order, the less expensive each tattoo will be. Most companies offer quantity discounts at 5,000, 10,000, etc. Typically, 1,000 custom temporary tattoos will cost about $90.

So there you have it! The 5 elements to consider when ordering a custom temporary tattoo: design of the front and back, size, white effect and quantity. The custom temporary tattoo is one of the most inexpensive and unique promotional products, and outlining these elements also makes it very easy to order. Get yours today!