Sarah Channels Emma Goldman

I recently had the intense displeasure of discovering that <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2008/07/hello-polaroid-goodbye-kodak.html">my camera</a> had broken. For someone whose spare time is spent taking pictures of other people's tattoos, this was a harrowing experience, especially since my BlackBerry's camera is flash-less and takes good pictures under only specific lighting conditions.<br /><br />So what's a poor inkspotter to do? Pass out his card and hope for the best.<br /><br />And despite dozens of cards distributed to many people with cool tattoos, the only one who has really come through for me is Sarah, who I met last Friday on the subway platform at West Fourth Street, as I waited for the D train to Brooklyn.<br /><br />Possessor of several tattoos, the one of Sarah's I spotted was on her inner left forearm. My photo was blurry and, as the D pulled into West Fourth, she handed me her card so I could follow-up with her. Thankfully, she is a woman of her word, and sent me this photo yesterday:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8OgarUMebIa4UjIn-wrIuuxu11gqJY4ZbiqH_-QREO8bzRveFijVK4dv0g7oi03VONBUsuB-_Fdq3cSZBheTgpvJreyQAd3u_DpIGcY0k-MHERak3BIAUSQ7Oru7Q8Gm-zWq8gt2T/s1600/tattoobook.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8OgarUMebIa4UjIn-wrIuuxu11gqJY4ZbiqH_-QREO8bzRveFijVK4dv0g7oi03VONBUsuB-_Fdq3cSZBheTgpvJreyQAd3u_DpIGcY0k-MHERak3BIAUSQ7Oru7Q8Gm-zWq8gt2T/s400/tattoobook.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />Since Sarah is a writer and journalist, I'll let her do the talking. You can check out her work at  her website <a href="http://ohyouprettythings.net/" target="_blank">ohyouprettythings.net</a> and/or read her blog at <a href="http://champagnecandy.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">champagnecandy.tumblr.com</a>. Sarah explains:<br /><br /><blockquote><i>It says "It's not my revolution if I can't dance to it"</i><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1w_NECLV0IAtjRSg5jrxYzXw9ASl9UZnLwa1MFYdWE3YFaBY4d4Y9l3jkfLQZp2JVnXE-dkdMvEhDjGDquIqyxjQcF6USOjkT4UYpnbIdcVLgu9NGWillobdki_okDg8ZzsXfMe-S/s1600/tattoobook+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1w_NECLV0IAtjRSg5jrxYzXw9ASl9UZnLwa1MFYdWE3YFaBY4d4Y9l3jkfLQZp2JVnXE-dkdMvEhDjGDquIqyxjQcF6USOjkT4UYpnbIdcVLgu9NGWillobdki_okDg8ZzsXfMe-S/s320/tattoobook+detail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><i>The tattoo is my most recent, and it's a paraphrase of a possibly-apocryphal <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Goldman">Emma Goldman</a></i> <i>quotation. It's a line that spoke to me the first time I heard it. I'm a political journalist and a feminist activist, and Goldman's always been someone I looked up to. Also, I became a political person through music, and dancing and music have a particular significance for me.</i><br /><i><br /></i><br /><i>It was done by <a href="http://brooklyntattoo.com/RYOKO.html">Ryoko</a> at <a href="http://www.brooklyntattoo.com/WELCOME_2.html">Brooklyn Tattoo</a> [who we most recently saw inked Julie Powell's tattoo <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2010/06/julies-crazy-tattoo.html">here</a>] and she's super-awesome...</i></blockquote>As a lover of type tattoos, I had inquired about the font used and Sarah did not disappoint: "the font is <a href="http://www.fontspace.com/david-rakowski/garton">Garton</a> and the words revolution and dance are in <a href="http://www.dafont.com/miama.font">Miama</a>".<br /><br />Thanks to Sarah for sharing her tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Sarah Channels Emma Goldman

I recently had the intense displeasure of discovering that my camera had broken. For someone whose spare time is spent taking pictures of o...

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Julie's Crazy Tattoo

Inkspotting can be impulsive, but I also like to approach each volunteer after some consideration.<br /><br />Rather than rush up on someone and barrage them with questions, I like to make sure the tattoo(s) in question are not only interesting to me, but will be interesting to others.<br /><br />When I spotted Julie's back in Penn Station, for example, I hesitated:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirkzsxdH2teZZMP_PbMAbUkOxDvBzz3z0vzGe9noNeEx9yuXKTsD_fhh1SiZ6IXWnE-2w36LZSRLaW4gWqadGz-hd9AgxQbYqOwL9FYEs8jF9jkoDx4dyKMqUADaKQf1Xf-MnbIOBt/s1600/Loufoque.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirkzsxdH2teZZMP_PbMAbUkOxDvBzz3z0vzGe9noNeEx9yuXKTsD_fhh1SiZ6IXWnE-2w36LZSRLaW4gWqadGz-hd9AgxQbYqOwL9FYEs8jF9jkoDx4dyKMqUADaKQf1Xf-MnbIOBt/s400/Loufoque.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />It wasn't initially clear what her tattoo said and I was struck by its uniqueness. A huge fan of word and type tattoos, I couldn't recall ever seeing anything quite like it.<br /><br />So my curiosity got the best of me and I introduced myself to Julie.<br /><br />The tattoo "<a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/loufoque">Loufoque</a>," which is a slang term in butcher jargon for "crazy person". Julie explained that she apprenticed with a butcher shop for six months and it was a word she often heard tossed about by the staff, occasionally used when referring to a customer who might be difficult or, let's say, insane.<br /><br />The term Loufuque derived from 19th Century butcher slang and it became part of the vernacular. Julie thought that this tattoo would be a great way to commemorate her experience.<br /><br />The tattoo was done by <a href="http://www.brooklyntattoo.com/RYOKO.html">Ryoko</a> at <a href="http://www.brooklyntattoo.com/WELCOME_2.html">Brooklyn Tattoo</a>. I asked the artist where she came up with the letter design and she kindly gave me a little more perspective: <br /><br /><blockquote>"I recall Julie requesting the letters themselves to express lunacy. The final design in the photo is my own interpretation of what she had asked for and I think my intention here was to make the phrase look chaotic and disorderly, yet somewhat maintaining it's legibility. It's what I was able to put together by trying to depict what she might have been imagining in her head at the time."</blockquote>So, this post was written and prepped and I was online doing some final research when I stumbled upon this tidbit of information from "<a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-12-03/of-meat-and-men/2/">Of Meat and Men</a>" by <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/author/bussel/">Rachel Kramer Bussel</a> over on <i><a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/">The Daily Beast</a></i>:<br /><br /><blockquote>Her goodbye present from the <a href="http://www.fleishers.com/">Fleisher’s</a> staff is a set of knives inscribed with her name and “Loufoque,” French-butcher Pig Latin for “Crazy Lady,” a term she now has permanently tattooed across her back. Yet Powell now sounds much surer of herself than the lost woman whom we find in the early pages of <i>Cleaving</i>. Next up is a stab at a novel: “I’ve written quite enough memoirs for a 36-year-old.” </blockquote><br />Was this coincidence? Or were we talking about the same person?<br /><br />Scrolling back in the article, I discovered that the Powell here and the Julie that I met in Penn Station were one and the same person.<br /><br />The same person who crafted <a href="http://blogs.salon.com/0001399/2002/08/25.html">The Julie/Julia Project</a>, in which the author blogged her way through Julia Child's <a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/child/making.html">Mastering the Art of French Cooking</a>, which became a book, which in turn became the film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1135503/">Julie and Julia</a>. All of this Julie never once mentioned. Then again, I never asked. And it is all about the tattoo, after all.<br /><br />That being said, thanks to Ryoko for sharing her thoughts about creating this tattoo, and a hearty thanks to <a href="http://juliepowellbooks.com/">Julie Powell</a> for sharing this interesting tattoo. I'm glad my curiosity got the better of me!<br /><br /><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=bill03-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=0316003360&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><iframe align="left" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no" src="http://rcm.amazon.com/e/cm?t=bill03-20&o=1&p=8&l=bpl&asins=031604251X&fc1=000000&IS2=1&lt1=_blank&m=amazon&lc1=0000FF&bc1=000000&bg1=FFFFFF&f=ifr" style="height: 245px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; width: 131px;"></iframe></div>

Julie's Crazy Tattoo

Inkspotting can be impulsive, but I also like to approach each volunteer after some consideration. Rather than rush up on someone and barrag...

Read more »