Jason's Pennsylvania Devils

I ran into Jason on the West 4th Street platform back in July. He was on his way to Smith Street Tattoo, to accompany a friend who was getting tattooed by Bert Krak.

I asked him if he wouldn't mind sharing some of his work, and he gladly complied.

I snapped some photos and chatted with him all the way to Brooklyn. Check them out:

Why a devil on his leg? Jason said he was considering putting something on his leg that he was afraid to place there. When he asked himself if he should really do that, he reasoned, just by asking himself that, meant he should do it. He also gave some advice that I thought was very valuable.

Jason said that when he is looking to get tattooed, and isn't sure what he wants, he'll go to an artist and ask them what they're currently drawing. Most artists in the shop, when they're not tattooing, are either drawing, sketching, painting, or creating something. Jason reasons that if you ask for what the artist is currently doing, he or she will be that much more passionate about the work.

This logic is behind several of Jason's tattoos.

The work above was created on Jason by Ryan Westvall at Old Soul Tattoo in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania.

Thanks to Jason for sharing his tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Max's Spin on a Traditional Gypsy Tattoo

I was passing through Penn Station late yesterday when I spotted Max, who offered up this fascinating tattoo:


At first glance it looks like the traditional gypsy piece, but if you look closely at the back of the gypsy's head, you can see Max added an element that extended the design up and around his right arm:



That is a deer skull that the gypsy woman is wearing, complete with a set of antlers.

When I asked Max about this he acknowledged that the tattoo, in concept, had started as just the old-style gypsy profile but, growing up in Maryland, he said that there were deer everywhere around his home, and that this was a nod to his former home state.

Perhaps reading too much into it, I asked him if he was taking a symbol of home and tying it to the nomadic image of the gypsy to illustrate a dichotomy between the two contrasting lifestyles. He nodded and said he hadn't thought of it in those terms before, but it seemed to make a little sense if you looked at it like that.

This is one of nine tattoos Max has. The piece in question was designed by Paul Bosch at Saved Tattoo in Brooklyn. Max came to Paul with the concept and left it to the artist to design the tattoo. Work from Saved has appeared previously on Tattoosday here.

Thanks to Max for sharing this fascinating spin on the traditional gypsy tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!