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.

Hoot! Hoot! Thanks for Your Support!!

Last night at 11:37 P.M., someone in Fairfield, California googled "owl tattoos".

Seventh on the list of results was the link to this tattoo:

(the post here)

This visitor registered Tattoosday's half a millionth hit, a number that seemed impossible when we first started out as a spin-off from BillyBlog 2 1/2 years ago (almost to the day). And although we're no Huffington Post (or I Can Has Cheeseburger, for that matter), which tosses off 500k in a day, or a week, or a month, or whatever, this little tattoo blog is very happy to celebrate this milestone.

Thanks to everyone who visits regularly, stops by occasionally, or just pops in from time to time. And, of course, a hearty thank you to all those tattooed folks who have volunteered their body art over the last 30 months!

A Word of Thanks.....

With the onset of Fall, I compose this note as the month of September is coming to an end.

I look around sadly at the long pants, long sleeves, and covered frames that, just a few weeks ago, were so much more interesting to behold.

I am filled with sadness.

The past month has been a record-breaker for Tattoosday. When we first spun off from BillyBlog, we garnered 120 hits in the first three weeks of our infancy.

Last year, I was amazed by my progress, in September '08 we racked up 13,351 hits.

And this September, when I anticipated a drop off from a record August, Tattoosday soared into uncharted territory, on pace to top 38, 000 hits on the last day of the month. This may not seem like a big deal, but blogging is often lonely, and the number of hits is often the only measure of recognition we receive.

So, the summer ink is running dry, but despair not, I will continue to spot tattoos, although perhaps not at the dizzying rate of the past few months.

I have a backlog of posts and a head full of ideas to keep us entertained as the leaner months loom.

I thank you all for your continued readership and participation. I am very appreciative of your support!

Bill Cohen

Two Years Ago Today......

"So, there you have it. The inaugural tattoo on Tattoosday here at
BillyBlog. It should be interesting to see what else I can come up with
from strangers, or if I have to revert to friends to help me in this
project."

That's what I wrote two years ago today on my original site BillyBlog.

Little did I know how much this once weekly feature would turn into such a significant aspect of my life. In little over a month, I had spun Tattoosday off of BillyBlog, from a recurring character to a site of its own.

And we have grown! This month we will have our biggest visitor load of our short career here, reaching just under 30,000 hits. This month also marked a quarter of a million hits since Tattoosday stood alone in September 2007.

And we have our sights set even higher.

I once again want to thank everyone who has contributed to the success of the blog, from the occasional visitors, to the rabid fans, from the enthusiastic tourists and New Yorkers who have contributed their work, to the talented tattoo artists who created that work.

And most of all, I want to thank my friends and family, who have seen my passion for tattoo writing, and have supported me whole-heartedly. And to my beautiful wife Melanie, who is my biggest cheerleader, most avid supporter, and one of the most understanding women I know. Not may wives would be keen on their husbands taking pictures of tattoos of strange women
(and men) they've met on the street. But she is my number one fan. And I love her all the more for it.

A week from tomorrow my oldest daughter Jolee, who inspired this, my first tattoo, will be celebrating her bat mitzvah. The week ahead will be filled with planning and visits from family, so I am taking a week off in posting, so I can focus my energies on this landmark event.

Rest assured, I have two dozen tattoo posts in the queue and will likely be unable to restrain myself from collecting more photos and stories in the week to come.

I will resume posting on August 9th or 10th.

I thank everyone for their continued support and words of encouragement.

Bill Cohen

An Interlude

The previous post featured our recent adventures at Dare Devil Tattoo on Friday the 13th.

I wrote specifically about my wife Melanie getting her lucky 13 tattoo on her birthday. People who know me and know Tattoosday were excited not just for her, but for me as well. They knew I'd be surrounded by tattoos, and that I would therefore be busy talking to people about Tattoosday, and collecting stories and photos that would last me through summer.

Not quite.

Certainly the cold weather helped (or hindered, depending on your perspective), but the concept behind Tattoosday has always been about the random spotting of tattoos on the streets of New York. The expression "shooting fish in a barrel" comes to mind. There is no "sport," if you will, in going to a tattoo shop, or convention, and collecting blogfodder.

I could certainly do it, but the randomness and surprise element that one finds on the street are what really help propel the blog along.

So, by the end of our Dare Devil adventure, I had material for the post on Melanie's tattoo, nothing more. I did pass my card to the two young ladies behind us with whom we had a mutual friend, but I did not request their participation, although I could have. I did not identify myself to shop employees as an ink- blogger, although I could have.

Not to mention, it was Melanie's birthday, not mine. I was there for her, not me. No lucky 13 tattoo for me, although I would have loved one.

I was rewarded later in the day by two other tattoo encounters, which I did document, and which will appear in the days to come. I am hoping to receive emails from the participants to fill in the blanks that time and necessity left incomplete.

So, stay tuned.

Thanks for visiting.

2008 Wrap-Up, Looking Ahead to 2009

For those of you following Tattoosday, I am going to take a different approach to the blog in 2009.

The concept will be the same, but I am going to enhance it a little bit. All posts will be dated and time-stamped around the time that they happened. So, if I don't get around to posting the ink for a few days, it will be back-dated for chronological effect.

I also want to blog above and beyond the successes (i.e. the people who said "No") and expand to other tattoo-related topics, when they arise.

For example, if I stop in Borders and look at a tattoo book, I'd like to link it here. I am hoping to turn all the "no thank yous" into items of interest.

I also have a couple of new features in the works that I hope to unveil in the new year that will continue to make Tattoosday the interesting experience that I believe it is.

In an effort to start out with a clean slate, I am cleaning out my drafts and posting all the remaining drafts I have in house, including several pieces by Jessica, who I met back in June.

Once again I want to thank everyone who regularly reads Tattoosday, and those who visit once in a while. 2008 was a banner year, registering over 100,000 hits this year alone. I'm looking forward to seeing what 2009 will bring. Happy New Year!

Thanks from Us Here at Tattoosday!

On Thursday, December 4, at 4:31pm E.S.T., Tattoosday logged its 100,000th hit.

Someone up at Humber College in Toronto googled something that directed them to this photo:


which is from one of my favorite posts ever.

If you have become a reader since last May, I encourage you to go back and check out that post.

Regardless, thanks to everyone who has visited since Tattoosday's inception. 100k is nothing to sneeze at. I wouldn't keep doing this if it weren't for the people checking in on a regular basis.
Please, keep coming back!

Now Appearing on KnuckleTattoos.com!

Nathan over at KnuckleTattoos.com, who has featured Tattoosday content before, has now added me as a contributor, and I'm pleased as punch (and oh-so-thankful). My first contribution, although not original (it appeared in a longer form here first) is up and viewable here.

I'm excited because affiliation with his site will expand my range of inkspotting and lend me some additional street cred. I mean, what sounds cooler? "Can I ask you about your tattoo? I write a tattoo blog..." or "Hi, I'm a contributing writer at Knuckletattoos.com....".

Either way, I'm stoked to be expanding my repertoire, and am looking forward to a long and productive partnership with Nathan and his site.

An Interlude: Third Time's a Charm

Last week I had a bizarre lunchtime walk on Thursday. I met a woman outside of Macy*s who had an interesting neck tattoo. She seemed like a willing participant until the older woman standing with her kept repeating that what I was doing was "weird". The tattooed woman began to appear uncomfortable, so I bowed out gracefully, handing her a flier and moving on.

A while later I stopped another woman with a really cool pin-up on her arm. She said I'd stopped her before and thanked me, but wasn't interested. I vaguely remembered her after the fact, but couldn't pinpoint when or where I may have met her before.

Inkspotting can be streaky, and I considered quitting for the day, but I was determined to give it one more try. It was then that I met Melanie. In fairness to her, and to give her tattoo the spotlight it deserves, her ink is posted below (here).

Some Housekeeping

This is a non-photo post.

I want to thank all the folks e-mailing me and several sites that have added me into their folds.

Check out the Alltop Badge I added. We're on their tattoo page here.

Even more exciting is this awesome review Tattoosday received here on InkedTalk.com. InkedTalk.com is a "daily tattoo blog featuring all original content on tattoo artists, ink trends, tattoo commentary, and more". Thanks to Jennifer Collins for the shout-out.

And if you're looking for ideas for tattoos, you can check out this resource: Free Tattoos Designs and Pictures.

And don't forget about my pal Mel over at Tattoosday UK.

Tattoosday Celebrates Its First Bloggiversary!

I know, I know. You may recall a post from July 31 of this very nature. A year of tattoo blogging in New York City. But this is slightly different.

A year ago today, as I was celebrating BillyBlog’s 2^nd year in the ether, I launched Tattoosday as a separate blog, apart from the weekly Tuesday post on its parent site. The rest, as they say, is history.

Since then, Tattoosday has grown in leaps and bounds, although it is still in its infancy, by blogosphere standards.

What’s remarkable is this: after three years, BillyBlog has 69,100 hits. After one year, Tattoosday is just over 65,000. The numbers have astonished me, from 120 hits in all of last September, to 3000 hits in January, 6500 in May, and cracking the 10,000 barrier in June, July and August.

But enough of that, when I first started Tattoosday, I wondered if people would even give me the time of day. I started with friends and co-workers, but quickly moved to the streets. And although I’ve had a few people ignore me completely, most folks are receptive to the idea, and there are a lot who bought in and shared their ink with me.

Some more numbers. I’ll discount the pre-September 8 posts, which were imported from the BillyBlog archives.

Since last September 8, I have written 201 posts for Tattoosday. Of those 201 posts, 15 were on the subject of the blog or tattoos in the news, but 186 were posts of people’s ink. 18 were in the “Tattoos I Know” category and 10 were pictures that were e-mailed to me from people in the blogosphere, friends of friends, or strangers who I met and subsequently sent me photos.

So, 158 posts were comprised of encounters in the street with strangers, people I didn’t know, who were kind enough to share their tattoos and the stories behind them with me and the Tattoosday audience.

You may be wondering where I crunched all these numbers from. A spreadsheet, of course. The same spreadsheet tells me that the blog, in a year’s time, featured photos of 287 tattoos. That’s a ton of ink. The shop that has had work appeared here most often is Brooklyn Ink, which happens to be the shop nearest my home. Just look at the blogrolls and see the sheer volume of different shops listed. It’s staggering. The number is certainly a testament to the popularity of tattooing in the United States and beyond.

63 tattoo posts came from Brooklyn, 110 from Manhattan. Penn Plaza, my favorite spot for meeting the inked, was the site of 33 of those 110 posts.

But all of that aside, I want to thank everyone who has participated, and to all of you who visit regularly. Those of you who let me photograph your tattoos make this venture possible, and without a readership, this would be a lot less fun. Knowing I have an audience makes this project that much more fulfilling.

Thanks to everyone who has helped contribute to the Tattoosday microcosm. Whether you are an occasional reader, a one-time contributor, or an avid fan, I appreciate each individual who helps make Tattoosday what it is.

Here’s to a great second year!

A Year Ago Today, Tattoosday Was Born

When, on July 31, 2007, I posted my first installment of the weekly Tattoosday feature on BillyBlog, I didn't know what I had started.

Had you told me then that, a year later, Tattoosday would have spun off from BillyBlog, that it would have set a personal best in July '08 with over 13,000 hits, and that I would be posting daily, I would have been skeptical.

Nonetheless, that's what has happened. And, although I expect a drop-off in visits as summer ends and shorts and tank tops give way to jeans and long-sleeve shirts, I am pleased with how Tattoosday has progressed.

I want to thank everyone who has visited and contributed to the success of Tattoosday. It's still a little baby blog by blogosphere standards, and its stand-alone self (apart from BillyBlog) doesn't celebrate a full year until September 8, 2008, which is BillyBlog's 3rd anniversary.

The lingering question is this: will Tattoosday surpass BillyBlog in traffic by then? As of July 31, Tattoosday had just over 48,000 hits in a little less than 11 months, whereas BillyBlog is at 63,500 hits just a month and change shy of 3 years. Check back on September 8 to see what happens.

Inkily yours,

Bill

Hello Polaroid, Goodbye Kodak!

Just a service note. The official camera of Tattoosday has been upgraded from a circa-'05 Kodak Easyshare (took a lickin' but kept on clickin') that snapped decent 4.0 megapixel shots, to a fancy-schmancy Polaroid 7.0 megapixel t730.This upgrade comes courtesy of two friends, who generously pooled their resources, and bought this for me on my birthday. They are awesome, not only for giving me such a cool and much-needed gift, but because they have been tremendous supporters of Tattoosday from the beginning. Tom and Sephora are their names, and I want to thank them all over the place. Sephora, actually, was the subject of Tattoosday's first post, back when it was an aspiring spin-off on BillyBlog.

Tom's ink appeared early on, here, back in September 2007 in this blog's infancy.

Thanks to both of these dear friends, who are affianced, by the way. Their generosity and support of the blog are above and beyond the norm. They are exceptional friends, and I formally extend my gratitude.

Tat-tool

That's what she called it, her "tattool".

Yesterday I ran into Robin, a young woman walking up 8th Avenue, lugging a couple of garment bags, near Penn Station. She had a tattoo on her forearm that was extremely interesting:


Robin is in New York City working an internship as a Costume Designer on Broadway. She had attended the Art Institute of Chicago and obtained this tattoo there in the Windy City.

"I was tired of constantly looking for rulers," she mused, so she had one inked on. "It's to scale," she beamed, "My tat-tool". Definitely one of the most practical tattoos I have ever seen.

I particularly like the detailed flourishes at the ends of the ruler:


This piece was created by Allie at Tatu Tattoo in Chicago.

I initially noticed Robin's first tattoo, on the back of her neck, as she walked briskly by me. She has short hair, with a bare neck, so this small piece really pops off the skin. When I asked her about this:

she indicated that she has a twin sister with the exact same symbol on her neck. She was tentative about where, exactly this was done. Originally hailing from Eugene, Oregon, she thought it might have been done at High Priestess in her home town. She threw in a disclaimer that High Priestess might be only a piercing shop (it apparently is), so we're not sure exactly of the name of the shop where this interesting piece was tattooed.

Nonetheless, Robin was an interesting person to meet, very friendly, and the possessor of a very cool tattoo that serves as a measuring implement as well.

Thanks to Robin for her willingness to participate in Tattoosday!

Tattoosday #6: Going Mobile

Sorry for the delay in posting, I was worried I would have to improvise, but found two participants today. Last Friday I had my first rejection: a guy at 53rd and 6th Avenue sitting on a bench was the first person to decline. He had many colorful tats on both arms and seemed open at first, but was adverse to my taking any photographs.

On Tattoosday Eve, Labor Day, I still had nothing for the post. I stopped someone in front of my building yesterday with a really cool Hellboy tattoo. He seemed receptive but wanted to check out the blog first.

I found myself with many opportunities but passed, not necessarily out of lack of nerve, but because the tattoos were not so nice, old, faded, or blurred by too much sun. I
have seen a handful of dolphin tattoos like the one the Ancient One sent me.

Today was the kids' first day of school, so I took off from work. Around 11 AM, I decided to ride my bike, eventually making it to Coney Island, where I guessed I could find some good ink. Yet it was still sparse, I had ridden down the Boardwalk and had circled back when I found my first subject.

I approached two young ladies who were taking pictures. One of them had a tattoo on the back of her neck:


The Japanese characters spell out the woman's name, Fernanda. Unlike on the recently-aired episode of VH1's "Rock of Love," in which one of the contestant's gets Bret Michaels' name tattooed on the back of her neck, as a show of devotion, Fernanda has inked her own name. I see a lot of people that do their own names on their arms or legs (I work with many who have done so), and have never really understood the phenomenon.

But in Fernanda's case, I get the artistic expression a little more. These are Japanese letters that have a greater aesthetic impact than Roman letters. When I asked Fernanda why she tattooed her name, she merely expressed that she loved Japanese letters and Japanese culture. She was born and raised in Brazil and has only been living in New York for a year. She did not remember the name of the shop where she had the tattoo done, but narrowed it down to the Astoria section of Queens for me.

I have to agree, it's a pretty cool tattoo.

I made another pass and headed back home. Once I made my way to the Shore Road promenade, where I do the majority of my cycling. I have several spots along the several-mile route from which I can head home. I decided to go down to the 92nd Street footbridge. Standing on the bridge was a gentleman who seemed to be cooling off from running. He had earbuds in and a large biceps piece. He also had an ankle piece and another tattoo on his triceps.

I passed him while walking my bike and then headed back and said loudly, "Excuse me!" He removed his earbuds and I explained my mission. He was game. His name was Mike and he had 6 tattoos in all and didn't mind which one I photographed. I asked him which one was the most special and he held up his arm and pointed to the piece on his triceps. This one:


He explained it a tribal Native American designed mixed with the American flag which he got as a tribute after 9/11. The piece was done by Craig Cooley at Abstract Tribal Tattooing in Brooklyn. I asked him if he was a fireman, and he said, "No, a police officer." I thought, with the 6th anniversary of September 11 just a week away, it was a perfect punctuation mark to end a week of tattoo-spotting, and begin a week of reflection on this somber anniversary.

Thanks to Fernanda and Mike for their participation in this edition of Tattoosday!

Tattoosday #4: Ozzfest Edition

Well I had this all worked out. This week's Tattoosday was going to kick butt. I went to Ozzfest last Thursday and figured it would be a piece of cake to get a cavalcade of awesome tattoo shots. Hmmm.

One problem: I'm a dork. Going up to people twenty years younger than me and asking them if I can take pictures of their tattoos for my blog, Sephora and I agreed, would be the pinnacle of dorkiness. Not quite, we later acknowledged, when we saw a young metalhead going to his seat with his mother, who looked like she was there to chaperone, rather than enjoy the show.

The scale of body art was unfathomable. I imagined I would see an incredible range of tattoos, and I was not disappointed. We arrived around 3:30, and I decided around 5:00 that most of my tattoo shots would be candids, without the hosts knowing they were being photographed.

Here are some of the folks I shot whose tattoos didn't come out so well:







Snap enough random pictures of passers-by, and you'll get a few good candid shots:



A closer view reveals a pretty nice "Don't Tread on Me" tattoo:


But ultimately, I did get some fairly nice pictures, especially of one back piece after the concert when everyone was reeling homeward.

First, there was this cool tattoo from someone sitting a few rows ahead of me:


Then, there was this one on the shoulder of someone sitting a few seats over from me:

The detail and coloring of this Aztec piece is quite impressive:


There were so many amazing back pieces and sleeves that it would have been impossible to catch them all. As mentioned before, this guy was ahead of me as we exited after the show. The eyes are amazing. Not anything I would do myself, but still a bit awe-inspiring. Note his friends Misfits tattoo on the right:


I can only assume he meant to spell Alligator with an "e" instead of an "o".

Ultimately, though, I really missed the Tattoosday theme, which is to get back story on the pieces I photograph. Wouldn't you like to know who this guy is? And why did he do his back like this? How long did it take? Whose eyes are those? And did he mean to spell Alligater the way he did?

For those shortcomings, I offer my heartfelt apologies. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy this week's edition of Tattoosday.

Tattoosday #3: BillyBlog Pulls a "Tat Trick"

Welcome to the third installment of "Tattoosday". They get better with age. First a quick recap of the week:

8/7: Interesting tidbit came in the form of a friend (Jill) sending me over to this blog, more specifically this post about the good and bad in a tattoo experience. Interesting read. I posted a comment inviting her to contribute to Tattoosday, if she wanted.

8/10: Rain in the forecast all day. Not the best for tattoo-spotting. In fact, by the end of the day, I realize that this little venture, difficult now, will be next to impossible once the mercury drops below me 60 degrees, 24-7.

8/12: Last Sunday was good to me so I had hope today. At the laundromat, a woman who works at the local bank and who I see occasionally at the laundromat, was sporting a nifty ankle tattoo. Jolee even spotted it and suggested I ask her. Despite many opportunities, I failed to ask. Later in the afternoon, I ran into her again down the block and this time asked her, finally, if she'd be interested in the project. She seemed receptive to the idea and said she'd let me know next time she saw me. She indicated she had designed the piece around her ankle herself.

8/13: (7:00 A.M.) I have decided that today will be the day. I will leave at lunch and find a cool tattoo. I will rely on the students of the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) to supply me with the body art. Let's see if I can do it.

[Later that day....]

Ok, BillyBlog-ience, enough of my bellyaching. I just went out, under the deadline, and snagged a tat-trick (I love coining new words). I got not one, not two, but three subjects in less than sixty minutes (and managed to run some errands in the process.

I was walking back from the bank on West 27th Street when I passed a guy standing in the doorway with tons of tattoos. He had a King Tut on his right forearm. I walked past him and then said to myself that he looked pretty cool. I ambled up and said, "Hey, mind if I ask you about your tattoos?" He hesitated for maybe a split second and then said sure. I explained the concept of tattoosday to him and asked if I could take a picture of one of his tattoos. He said sure, and selected the one on his left leg.



He selected that one because it represented New York City and is one of his more recent pieces. It reads "Too Tough To Die," features a skull, and the New York skyline peeking up out of his sock.



I asked him how many tattoos he had and he didn't know. He has two full sleeves, tats on both legs, and he said on his chest and back as well. The tattoo I photographed, he said was an homage to the Ramones, from their 1984 album of the same name.


He gave his name as "Tops," and although he didn't disclose more about where he had the art done, he did look at one of the previous tattoosday posts and said he knew the owner of New York Hardcore Tattoos.

Well I was pretty proud of myself for finally jumping in the pool. Even though I didn't know James from last week, we had seen each other around and were familiar with one another. Tops was the first complete and utter stranger I approached. I was proud of myself for finally getting someone for Tattoosday.

Perhaps because the pressure was off, I walked with a lighter load. I headed back to 7th Avenue and decided to walk through F.I.T. over to 8th Avenue. Perhaps I would encounter some artistic student who would be approachable.

Sure enough, halfway down the block I saw a young lady approaching with two tattooed arms. I used the same approach, and mentioned BillyBlog. She gently kidded (I think gently, and I think she was kidding) about me asking her to be on my "nerdy blog". I have to remind myself that I am forty and your average F.I.T. student is in their early 20s, at the oldest.

Anyway, Jackie Alvo didn't mind giving me her real name, nor did she mind letting me snap shots of both arms. I found some of her design work here.

I noticed the cherry blossoms on her left arm first and she indicated that all her work was done on Long island because that's where "all the best artists are".



Her right arm, she joked, had to have a fashion theme, because she was at F.I.T. As cool as her left arm was, the dressmaker's form and other aspects were highly original and quite impressive. She let me know that her work was done at Timmy Tattoo in Huntington, NY (on MySpace here).



I thank her for her contribution and later saw her zip away on a bright metallic blue Vespa scooter.

The third tattoo was a bit of a surprise. I was in the plaza in front of the Borders at Madison Square Garden when I saw a woman with the following gecko tattoo above her left ankle.


She preferred to remain anonymous, but she is the first tourist tattoo on BillyBlog. The gecko design, which she searched for for years, has no specific significance. She just wanted a gecko tattoo. The piece was inked at Atomic Buddha Tattoos in Greeley, Colorado, from which our tourist hailed. Well, Colorado for sure, not necessarily Greeley.

We talked about geckoes a bit, especially the fact that, growing up in Hawai'i, I had them in and out of the homes I lived in. Shayna, coincidentally, just got a rubber gecko from a science museum last week. It went through the laundry on Sunday and she flung it at the ceiling last night and it stayed there until I pulled it down.

Thanks to the folks who let me take the pictures. Tops, I don't think, will be checking out the blog, but Jackie said she'd google BillyBlog and I gave a printout to our friend from Colorado. Please, feel free to add comments, questions, anecdotes, whatever. Or e-mail me if I need to clarify or edit any of the facts from my brief encounters with you.