Stacy's Amigo Tugs Her Back to Milwaukee

At the end of July, I ran into Stacy waiting for the <a href="http://www.mta.info/nyct/service/fline.htm">F train</a> at West 4th Street in Manhattan.<br /><br />She had a panther peeking out from under her shirt on her back, but we couldn't get the whole tattoo in a shot, so she offered up this piece on her right arm:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDlmU75lHfm4yU_OlnfCab_ZkHKoNSq5wcAzoNnrpU6akwimATsMtObHyoBroFGHmwvRAeXzhEOqN4I7_o0C2uR771n3m9rt0t8bBMSGX4LIzE6ftcGkZn-lmusiaY52sDmlxeAVD7/s1600/Tugboat+wm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDlmU75lHfm4yU_OlnfCab_ZkHKoNSq5wcAzoNnrpU6akwimATsMtObHyoBroFGHmwvRAeXzhEOqN4I7_o0C2uR771n3m9rt0t8bBMSGX4LIzE6ftcGkZn-lmusiaY52sDmlxeAVD7/s640/Tugboat+wm.jpg" width="446" /></a></div><br />Stacy is a poet and the Artistic Director of <a href="http://poetryproject.org/">The Poetry Project</a> at <a href="http://stmarksbowery.org/">St. Mark's Church</a> in New York City. She has been here five years and originally hails from <a href="http://www.ci.mil.wi.us/">Milwaukee</a>.<br /><br />Living next to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Michigan">Lake Michigan</a> has many benefits. Having always lived in a location near a large body of water, I can relate to her admiration for the beauty of a seascape, whether it be an ocean or a great lake.<br /><br />Stacy told me she enjoyed watching the tugboats in her home town, and that these small vessels are a "connective image" that draws her back to her original home.<br /><br />This tattoo was designed and inked by <a href="http://stephanietamez.com/">Stephanie Tamez</a> at <a href="http://www.nyadorned.com/">New York Adorned</a>. Work from Stephanie on Tattoosday can be viewed <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/search/label/Stephanie%20Tamez">here</a>.<br /><br />This is also the second tugboat of the summer. The first one is <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2010/07/andy-honors-hercules.html">here</a>.<br /><br />Thanks to Stacy for sharing her tugboat with us here at Tattoosday. Perhaps we'll see her panther when the <a href="http://tattooedpoets.blogspot.com/2010/03/index-of-tattooed-poets.html">Tattooed Poets Project</a> returns next April for its third year!

Stacy's Amigo Tugs Her Back to Milwaukee

At the end of July, I ran into Stacy waiting for the F train at West 4th Street in Manhattan. She had a panther peeking out from under her ...

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Under One Small Star - Two Tattoos from Anna

I met Anna earlier this month in Penn Station. I felt compelled to stop her when she walked by and I caught a glimpse of this amazing tattoo:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif_RaxPnAJCqkhVjJQexAg0SAw8NSeoo3oMtTINbQFUsMVZD6uHlUx-4NEi8104vOJPnypvImLVXiA-WUHBgQjeeXZGr5Tw73-mNOF-22arUtdQexUjfKalqheQ4wAVW7TFoDZhyXj/s1600/Khmer+line+1+wm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif_RaxPnAJCqkhVjJQexAg0SAw8NSeoo3oMtTINbQFUsMVZD6uHlUx-4NEi8104vOJPnypvImLVXiA-WUHBgQjeeXZGr5Tw73-mNOF-22arUtdQexUjfKalqheQ4wAVW7TFoDZhyXj/s640/Khmer+line+1+wm.jpg" width="428" /></a></div><br />I love seeing ink that is new and original, and I had never seen a line of anything run up the length of a leg like this.<br /><br />Anna explained that this was a line of poetry that reads "My apologies to time for all the world I overlook each second" that she heard on a trip to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_in_Literature">Cambodia</a>. Her group leader, Jan, had shared the poem, "Under One Small Star" by Polish <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize_in_Literature">Nobel Laureate</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wis%C5%82awa_Szymborska">Wislawa Szymborska</a>, and the verse meant a lot to her during her trip there. This one specific line really resounded with her, so she first "paid a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_language">Khmer</a> translation site and then had a friend [she] made in Cambodia, Ponheary, check the translation just to make sure it was correct". <br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm8GZCyMP1pP6e24_mqqyPb58iADoeR_gcVuW0QZ3fEbUIrFsin4OmqIHezveX_9A9Fx1j2xCNmiUvVWeEojWfgQLZbHrMhJslyN-jl_8_HUPmefUKzNdEe0e7zI1AKqPpnxwWlR50/s1600/Khmer+line+1+detail+wm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm8GZCyMP1pP6e24_mqqyPb58iADoeR_gcVuW0QZ3fEbUIrFsin4OmqIHezveX_9A9Fx1j2xCNmiUvVWeEojWfgQLZbHrMhJslyN-jl_8_HUPmefUKzNdEe0e7zI1AKqPpnxwWlR50/s320/Khmer+line+1+detail+wm.jpg" /></a></div><br />I love the international flavor of this tattoo - a poem originally in Polish, translated to English, then re-translated to Khmer, transcribed in flesh in America!<br /><br />The line runs from top to bottom and was inked by Jason at <a href="http://powerhousetattoo.com/home.html">Powerhouse Tattoo Company</a> in Montclair, New Jersey.<br /><br />The poem is reprinted in its entirety at the end of this post.<br /><br />Since it is Tat-Tuesday, let's look at a second tattoo from Anna, this one on the back side of her right arm:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKcItBCH9uZCexvpDPRRq2Txo8SN1XILlzJENXBmUqXE1sKGKBNRHESTYXX4N0fy8P-MHjdJAGSyuvN7I4cAW9QPaMOvVtv5jYNHgX1kPWl57J2zBR8YYXdHcphIlNb-iE8R39ScAc/s1600/Joan+of+Arc+wm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKcItBCH9uZCexvpDPRRq2Txo8SN1XILlzJENXBmUqXE1sKGKBNRHESTYXX4N0fy8P-MHjdJAGSyuvN7I4cAW9QPaMOvVtv5jYNHgX1kPWl57J2zBR8YYXdHcphIlNb-iE8R39ScAc/s640/Joan+of+Arc+wm.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br />This is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_of_Arc">Joan of Arc</a>, "a hero of mine," says Anna, who admires her from the feminist perspective and finds her an "unbelievably inspirational" historical figure.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW0YCY0YX3YDwaBdi-_8CzKeDxtodglEfkObe-QhOikMy7VOcnwoaYmib4kw57lvcCuiqnSxqli8rL4JgPOIImjdLUbL27KSsRaG3BhGJjB3t3wXMN2zpdeEbLefk0IoEttC87pQg1/s1600/Joan+of+Arc+detail+wm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgW0YCY0YX3YDwaBdi-_8CzKeDxtodglEfkObe-QhOikMy7VOcnwoaYmib4kw57lvcCuiqnSxqli8rL4JgPOIImjdLUbL27KSsRaG3BhGJjB3t3wXMN2zpdeEbLefk0IoEttC87pQg1/s400/Joan+of+Arc+detail+wm.jpg" width="306" /></a></div><br />This piece was tattooed by the wonderful <a href="http://stephanietamez.com/">Stephanie Tamez</a> at <a href="http://www.nyadorned.com/">New York Adorned</a>. Stephanie's work has appeared previously on Tattoosday <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/search/label/Stephanie%20Tamez">here</a>.<br /><br />Thanks again to Anna for sharing these two of her seven tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!<br /><br /><blockquote><span style="font-size: large;"><i><b>Under One Small Star</b></i></span><br /><br />My apologies to chance for calling it necessity.<br />My apologies to necessity if I'm mistaken, after all.<br />Please, don't be angry, happiness, that I take you as my due.<br />May my dead be patient with the way my memories fade.<br />My apologies to time for all the world I overlook each second.<br />My apologies to past loves for thinking that the latest is the first.<br />Forgive me, distant wars, for bringing flowers home.<br />Forgive me, open wounds, for pricking my finger.<br />I apologize for my record of minuets to those who cry from the depths.<br />I apologize to those who wait in railway stations for being asleep<br />today at five a.m.<br />Pardon me, hounded hope, for laughing from time to time.<br />Pardon me, deserts, that I don't rush to you bearing a spoonful of water.<br />And you, falcon, unchanging year after year, always in the same cage,<br />your gaze always fixed on the same point in space,<br />forgive me, even if it turns out you were stuffed.<br />My apologies to the felled tree for the table's four legs.<br />My apologies to great questions for small answers.<br />Truth, please don't pay me much attention.<br />Dignity, please be magnanimous.<br />Bear with me, O mystery of existence, as I pluck the occasional thread<br />from your train.<br />Soul, don't take offense that I've only got you now and then.<br />My apologies to everything that I can't be everywhere at once.<br />My apologies to everyone that I can't be each woman and each man.<br />I know I won't be justified as long as I live,<br />since I myself stand in my own way.<br />Don't bear me ill will, speech, that I borrow weighty words,<br />then labor heavily so that they may seem light.<br /><br /><i>--Wislawa Szymborska</i></blockquote>

Under One Small Star - Two Tattoos from Anna

I met Anna earlier this month in Penn Station. I felt compelled to stop her when she walked by and I caught a glimpse of this amazing tattoo...

Read more »