Melanie's Jacaranda-monium

Anyone familiar with the jacaranda tree knows how beautiful they can be. It is this time of year in Southern California, in the months of May and June, when they explode into bursts of purple blossoms that are simply breathtaking.

It only seemed fitting that my wife Melanie, who loves jacarandas, feature them in her next tattoo, and this was the end result:

Here's a closer look:

Melanie elaborated a little more on what inspired her to fill her arm with jacarandas:

"First of all, I love purple. And when I got the purple flower tattooed on my ankle, I realized purple looks really good on my skin.

Also, they remind me of our time in California where we met, the college campus where I met my husband, and so many of my friends, and Pasadena, the only place I really liked living in California.

It was on my list, there were two or three other ideas I really wanted. I knew I wanted this one.

Since I've gotten this, talking to people who were familiar with jacarandas from South Africa, which we only discovered was a place they grew while researching them. This makes me want to go there and visit."

One of the sources for inspiration was this street in Pasadena, Del Mar Boulevard:

This lovely tattoo was done by the incomparable Alex McWatt (@alexthreekings) at Three Kings Tattoo (@threekingstattoo) in Manhattan.

He met with Melanie to discuss the concept and just ran with it, turning this:

into the explosion of purple on Melanie's arm, with the finest attention to details:

Thanks to Alex at Three Kings for another great tattoo, and to Melanie for sharing her jacarandas with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is �2017 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Where Gabe Johnson Comes From (The Tattooed Poets Project)

Our next tattooed poet is Gabe Johnson, who sent us this photo of a very interesting tattoo:

Gabe explains:

"This tattoo represents how where I come from influences my being and writing, as well as my relationship with writing. The ink flowing into my veins is a metaphor I�ve often thought about as a young writer � feeling like my poems were something coming out of me that had laid dormant inside. Within the ink are two symbols of where I come from. The Viking ship represents my Icelandic heritage, which seems to me like my poetic lineage. The Icelandic people value poetry incredibly highly, and most of my direct relatives along that part of my family are or were involved in poetry in some fashion, whether as writers, publishers or teachers. The oak tree represents Northern California in general, where I grew up and where I have spent all of my life. The landscape, flora, and fauna of oak grasslands especially feel like home to me, and influence my writing greatly. I chose the specific design because I wanted a very simple look of a pen and ink drawing, which a friend of mine drew, and the tattoo artist (Sam McWilliams @sammcwilliams of Mermaids Tattoo @mermaidstattoo in SF) reproduced beautifully."

Gabe also sent us this short poem:

Rehabilitation

Begin again with all your breath. Trace the coast�s soft shoulders, the fogless cove and columbine. Your knee will follow, kiss the sand�shards like nettles on new skin. The highway lined by tiger-lily, oak like moss on slumping hills becomes sequoia, thimbleberry trails. You know each river rock was named, saw scaled bodies leap against the flow. You�ll set your newest scar against lost particles.

~ ~ ~

Gabe Johnson lives in Oakland, teaching English and US History to 8th graders. He is a graduate of the MFA program at Saint Mary�s College of California and his work can be found in Switchback, Philadelphia Stories, White Stag, and Poecology.

Thanks to Gabe for sharing his tattoo and poem with us here on Tattoosday's Tattooed Poets Project!

This entry is �2017 Tattoosday. The poem and tattoo are reprinted with the poet's permission.

If you are reading this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Kevin's Tree of Gondor

Over the summer, I met Kevin on Wall Street, and he shared this tattoo:

Kevin explained:

"This is the tree of Gondor from The Lord of the Rings ... A lot of people are like, 'Is that a tree of life' and I'm like, 'no no no.' It's blossoming so that means the king has returned. [The stars represent] the seven kingdoms of man ... and [the crown at the top of the tree] is the king and the tree is like, in Tolkien literature ... a mythical tree ... I got it because I was failing high school, I was doing bullshit teenage stuff and my teacher bet me if I could write a 20-page paper with the primary source of The Lord of the Rings (because at that time [the movie] was coming out), she would pass me for the whole year in English class. And I found a primary source, and I got the paper, twenty pages, very concise, very collegiate for a high school kid and she reluctantly had to give me an A, she was like, 'this is actually one of the best things I've seen in like five years."

He had this done at Chicago Tattoo in Chicago, Illinois.

Thanks to Kevin for sharing his cool tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is �2016 Tattoosday.

If you are seeing this on another website other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.