Elliot’s Serenity Prayer Tattoo Story

I got this tattoo in Casa Grande, Arizona. It is a tattoo of a prayer called “The Serenity Prayer.” The prayer reads as follows.. God grant me the serenity to accept the things i cannot change, the courage to change the things i can, and the wisdom to know the difference between the two. The name of the Shop is called Aces and Eights.

The motivation for me to get this tattoo was that i have had a problem with
drug addiction since i was about 16 yrs old. I pretty much was using cocaine about 4-5 times a week thru all 4 years of college. I managed to graduate from college (took me an extra year, so i graduated in 5 years)and all while being on a full athletic scholarship. My senior year with about 2 weeks left before winter break i got busted by campus security(luckily not police) and i od’ed and got kicked off campus and almost lost everything but i managed to work out a deal where if i could complete 60 days in a treatment center and then pass random drug tests and do outpatient 3 hours a week for rest of my senior year i would be able to stay in school and continue to play on the athletic team i was on.

Every day in treatment at least 3-4 times a day we had to recite that prayer and it just started to stick with me. I got the tattoo a week after i graduated and have been drug free since the day i got it. The tattoo stands for my sobriety and the commitment i have to myself and everyone that cares about me to stay that way.

- Elliot

Dragonfly Tattoo with Tribal Markings

I have always been fond of Dragonflies ever since I was a child. their free spirited movements, lust for life and never-ending vast array of color and structure always mystified me.

A few years ago I experienced a life changing event and realized that unbeknownst to me, I truly was a dragonfly at heart. I decided to tribute this piece to myself and my new life. I am an emerging free spirit with a zest  for life and change.

The artist-ink pusher is Pike, and at the time he was at Shivas in Ybor City, Tampa FL.

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Death Tattoo inspired by The Sandman

This lil ink blotch was probably around ten years in the making. It has been in my mind in some form for at least that long. About a year ago I decided to put things into motion and finally commit to getting it done.

I had originally intended to do the art myself but my once upon a time talent has over many years of neglect and un-use eroded away like a sand castle at high tide. I spent a few days doing very rough sketches and jotting down notes in the margins trying to get all the info from lo those many years onto the paper so I could hand it off to another more capable illustrator to bring to life.

I then put together a very short list of artists who had worked on The Sandman that I thought would be right for the job. I settled on Richard Case (remembered most for his classic run on Doom Patrol) for many reasons including a) He’s a super nice guy. b) He’s a fellow NCer. c) He worked on one of my fav arcs of Sandman. d) His style is very similar to where my own style was headed. and e) His art looked like it would translate well to being tattooed.

Rich took my sketches and notes and did an amazing job. There was very little that I asked him to change from his earliest sketches. I took his finished art and laid out the text in a graphics program myself.

Last but not least was the search for a Tattoo artist that I thought was good enough to do the work. No hacks for me, only true artists. My first choice fell through. He’s a busy, busy man. I settled on Sarah Peacock of Artfuel.inc studios in Wilmington, NC a lovely and talented British lady. She did a marvelous job, especially in helping me add a touch of color to the piece which I really wanted.

Eventually it will be a half sleeve but I’m still working on what I want as the background. Then I will book more time with Sarah. There is loads of symbolism packed into the design including a Blue Jay perched on the cross that is in memory of my Dad whose name was Jay. When Mom passes a Bumble Bee will be added to honor her, her name is Bea.

It’s all about the yin and yang of life and death, light and dark and how they balance and define each other. The Gaelic on the base of the cross is roughly translated as “My heart is within you”. All comments are welcome and appreciated.

Thanx.

Ivory

Design: Ivory, Richard Case
Tattoo Artist: Sarah Peacock, Artfuel.inc studios, Wilmington, NC

Maggie’s Swallow Tattoo Cover-Up

I got this tattoo in summer ’06, it’s covering up a spur-of-the-moment 18th birthday tattoo, which happened to be the good old Nirvana drunken smiley face (see picture below). I decided that I’d rather have a tattoo that had a meaning behind it, so I got this swallow to cover it up. It was designed and done by Sean at Voodoo Monkey in Cleveland, OH.

To me it symbolizes freedom. A few months before getting it I “left the nest” so to speak, and moved 1400 miles from home to a place I had never been before. The reason for the flower: the swallow will never be able to put it down, just like I feel I will never be able to settle down for too long in one place.

-Maggie

Tattoo Artist: Sean at Voodoo Monkey, Cleveland, OH

Original Nirvana Smiley Tattoo

Is that the coolest buffalo-on-a-bike tattoo you’ve ever seen, or what?!?

My new tattoo based on my buffalo-on-a-bike design, which is also uploaded a few pictures back. Why a buffalo on a bike? Do you really have to ask?

I’ve had this design idea in my head for at least a year. I had a guy I know draw a slightly different version of it a while ago, but this version I made myself by combining a buffalo silhouette that I found on the interweb with the bike symbol from a bike path sign. I had to stretch the buffalo’s legs a bit to fit them onto the pedals (buffalo aren’t exactly easy to anthropomorphise), and I angled the buffalo’s tail back with the wind, and then angled the front legs to rest them on the handlebars. It was fun. And now it’s permanently tattooed on my left shoulder.

I got it done at Shamus McInky’s in South Buffalo. The tattoo below it is from 1993.

-Thomas – Bike Blog

Christine’s Native American Turtle Tattoo

I lived in Florida for two years while I earned my associates degree. I am part Native American, and I have lived in five different cities. I always go to any pow wows held in the area. I loved living in Florida so much that when I saw the tattoo artist at the pow wow, I knew I wanted a tattoo to remember it by. I have only one other tattoo, and it’s from my home town.

I chose a Native turtle design because of the colors, because turtles live a long time (I would like to live over 100 years), and because turtles carry their homes with them, so they are always at home. I’ve lived all over, but I’ve always felt at home because I bring me with me.

- Christine

Samantha’s Dragonfly Tattoo

From the time I was 3 until I was about 13 my stepfather sexually molested me almost every night. In 7th grade I finally told someone and it seemed as if my life would always revolve around him and what I went through as a child. 5 years later I decided that it was time to put it all behind me and start with a clean slate.

I live in NY, but I got this tattoo in Canada, 2 months after my 18th birthday. My dad designed it for me with the tattoo artist that day. It means so much more to me because of that.

The dragonfly symbolizes endurance and my mental and emotional growth and maturity. It is said that people who have the dragonfly as their totem have had passionate and emotional early years, but as they grow older they achieve emotional and mental clarity and control. That’s me.

The character to the dragonfly’s left is the kanji symbol for “LIFE.” The symbol is a reminder to me that I have so much to live for, that the life I lead for last ten years does not have to be the one that leads me for the next ten.

And if you look closely there is an “S” where the dragonfly’s body should be because I am that creature and that creature is me.

I GOT THIS TATTOO SO THAT WHENEVER I LOOK OVER MY SHOULDER AND TO THE PAST I CAN REMEMBER THAT I HAVE ENDURED, THAT I HAVE GROWN, AND THAT THAT PART OF MY LIFE IS BEHIND ME…

- Samantha

Tattoo Artist: Sergei
Lower East Side Tattoo and Body Peircing – Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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Traci’s Yin Yang Tiger Dragon Tattoo

My tattoo started out as just a ying-yang that I had done for my 18th birthday. The ying-yang represents balance in my life, which is more of an abstract concept than something I’ve been able to practice. Its a goal I aspire towards. It was always the intent that I would finish my tattoo with a dragon and a tiger around it, but I did not have enough money when I was 18.

Through the years I’ve been keeping an eye on designs, but never following through on finishing the tattoo. Then a tragedy happened this past winter. One of my best friends from high school was brutually murdered in a random act of violence. I was angry, and that anger found me in the chair at the tattoo studio.

The artist who did my work competes nationally, and I was amazed all of the awards he had gotten. His nickname was Freehand. I told him what I wanted, and he sparked an interest in working on me. He had drawn a design of a tiger and dragon with the intent of putting it around a ying-yang on one of his friends. But this never happened because his friend had been murdered only a couple of months prior. He modified the design a bit for my tastes, but said that he would love to put the design on me, and even signed the original handdrawing for me to keep.

I guess I’m a bit of a whimp when it comes to needles, or at least thats what I’m told, but my anger got me through the first 40 minutes of the job. It was the last 5 or so that my anger faultered and I was in tears, from both the pain on my shoulder/back and in my heart. The experience for me was very healing, and I found it much easier to start to deal with the pain in my heart as the other pain subsided. I still miss my friend very much, and I ache to know that I never got to say good-bye, but I know she is still with us, at least in heart and spirit.

So, thats my story, and I’m sticking to it….

-Traci

Yin Yang Tiger Dragon Tattoo

Airy’s Relaxing Fun Tattoo

What inspired me to get my tattoo?

I have a grand sense of adventure and love of the childhood feelings of curiosity. I believe in trying to live life for that little sparkle of amazement and the smile and sense of magic that comes from it. Too many people try to take life and many things in it much more seriously than they deserve to be taken. I went to art school for some time and I came out with the artistic philosophy that “relaxed and fun” are the only things that mattered to me. People need to all mellow out. Relax! Smile! Drop all the silly ways we’ve learned to skew the world over the years and remember how simple and wonderful it was when you were a kid.
Dinosaurs! Rhar!

What about the specific elements in the tattoo? Why did I choose what I did?

Dinosaurs embody the sense of youthful adventure and I’ve always had them peeking around in things I do. A dinosaur lounging around listening to wonderful music on a wonderful sunny day out in nature? It makes me smile. Having a thing on you forever that will make you smile when you see it? Priceless.

Kitty cat in the tree? My mom was the cat lady in town and so I’ve always had a bond with them. Quick. Think about a kitten and not smile a little! See.

Flying turtle? Character I’ve used for many years now and have been developing children’s book ideas for.
Butterfly? C’mon. I’m a guy. A straight guy. I wanted a little purple sparkly butterfly on my arm. You figure it out.

I got this tattoo (my first) from Jon at Uptown Tattoo in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Voted one of the best in the Twin Cities and I have to say it deserves it. Cool, relaxed, and talented folks there that will help you with whatever you need. Rock on.

- Airy

Design by: Airy

Inked by Jon at Uptown tattoo – Minneapolis, Minnesota

Gaetan’s Phoenix Tattoo

Here is my take on this mythical bird linked with fire, the sun and rebirth. I found this paragraph quite inspirational: “A mythical bird that never dies, the phoenix flies far ahead to the front, always scanning the landscape and distant space. It represents our capacity for vision, for collecting sensory information about our environment and the events unfolding within it. The phoenix, with its great beauty, creates intense excitement and deathless inspiration.” – (The Feng Shui Handbook, feng shui Master Lam Kam Chuen)

After a couple of designs, Gaitan from “Paul and Friendz Tattoo” shop in Belgium crafted this drawing which encompasses nicely the strength, lightness and beauty of the Phoenix. It is my second tattoo. The first one being a snake in the shape of an Ouroboros around my left wrist. After a “snake that bites his own tale”, I chose a bird on fire that flies away without being blinded by the sun…

- Gaetan

Inked by Gaitan – Paul and Friendz Tattoo Shop – Belgium

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