Two for Tattoosday: Hawai'i Calling and a Pin-Up Boy

I met Joakim and Marina last month on the sidewalk, just outside of the 34th Street Penn Station entrance.

The couple were visiting from Sweden and it was Joakim's sleeves that jumped out at me.

He shared this one segment on his lower right arm:


He asked me if it looked familiar. It did, but I couldn't quite place it. He smiled, and told me it's a variation on the cover of The Clash's quintessential album, London Calling,


Joakim loves the Clash and loves Hawaiian culture, so he designed had the tattoo artist design the piece to merge both elements for a great tattoo.

The piece was inked by Big Fat Joe at a shop called Art by Fafnir in Stockholm.


I turned to Marina and asked if she had any tattoos. She smiled and said she did, removing her jacket to reveal this piece, also by Joe:


"It's my pin-up boy," she laughed. Her variation on the traditional pin-up girl is going to tie in with a sleeve she is working on, as well.

She remarked that the artist was "thrilled" to do this tattoo, because it was not the typical pin-up tattoo.

Thanks to Joakim and Marina for sharing their great tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!

Dani Helps Tattoosday Celebrate 50 Years of Statehood

Today is the 50th anniversary of Hawaiian statehood.

As a former resident of the Aloha State, I thought we could honor the occasion with a Hawaii-themed tattoo:


This cool tiki is on the right forearm of Dani, who estimates she is 60% covered in ink.

Dani and I met near Penn Plaza and had a lovely chat about tattoos. This tiki is one of her favorites.

Don Lussier at Artfreek Tattoo basically free-handed the design on her. Don is the ex-husband of Doris, who is a friend of Dani's. A piece from Artfreek appeared last month on Tattoosday here.

She has the tiki as an acknowledgment of her heritage, being part Hawaiian, with ancestors two or three generations back.

She loves the detail Don put into the piece, especially the heart inked on the tiki's left arm.


Mahalo nui loa to Dani for sharing this great tattoo with us here, and helping Tattoosday celebrate Hawaii's Golden Anniversary!

Link O' The Day

Remember the Hawaiian Tattoo in Brooklyn (read post here)?

Here's a related article about Hawaiian arm tattoos.

Hawaiian in Brooklyn

It's not every day that one sees the Hawaiian language tattooed on a Brookylnite, so I was stunned to see the following tattoo wrapped around the arm of a woman in Foodtown earlier this week:


The tattoo reads, in Hawaiian, "e ola aui ke Akua". I'm not fluent, but I know the Hawaiian language when I see it. I had to speak to this person and find out what possessed this person to inscribe these words on their flesh.

The woman is Danielle Tay, and the tattoo is a tribute to her Hawaiian heritage. Her paternal grandfather is Hawaiian, her father was half-Hawaiian, or one hapa-Haole, as we would say it in the islands. Danielle is therefore a quarter Hawaiian, by birth, and despite being a Brooklynite, feels connected just the same.

"Uh," I asked, "Can you tell me what that means?"

Danielle believes it to loosely mean "May God grant me Life".

This was inked at Funcity Tattoo in the East Village.

Danielle, thanks for letting me take your tattoo's picture. I lost your e-mail address, however. Please shoot me an e-mail if you're reading this....I have some additional questions for you.

UPDATE: My friend Cat in Hawai'i says:

"E ola au i ke Akua" means "I live in the Lord" or "I live because of the Lord". There's some flexibility in translation, but that's the gist, I think. It's OK, although the "aui" should be split into "au i".