Adrian's Ink Celebrates His Heritage

I met Adrian last month on a fluke - I was on the D train headed to Brooklyn going to a dentist's appointment, having left work early.<br /><br />I approached him about his ink and we had a really great discussion about tattoos and art.<br /><br />Adrian is a wonderful artist and his work can be seen <a href="http://viajeroart.com/">here</a> at Viajero Art (dot) com. Take a look at <a href="http://viajeroart.com/#1228345/Caja-De-La-Memoria-Viva-II">this exhibit</a>, a mixed media piece that just looks amazing.<br /><br />He shared two of his tattoos with me. First, this piece:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcX8jEhU1CBhpt5c8kkgt8GBa0b08IiYpNGcScWHAQ8EayEwQyjnt7Ox-n0i-sZVrwW1XCCpVJGKq_ZOdWK_x-74X_5evG50oXwf5QzcCV2SmnjYqJu4YQLXYLo-qld9j3bgTBQ3Wv3_I/s1600/st+james+mask.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcX8jEhU1CBhpt5c8kkgt8GBa0b08IiYpNGcScWHAQ8EayEwQyjnt7Ox-n0i-sZVrwW1XCCpVJGKq_ZOdWK_x-74X_5evG50oXwf5QzcCV2SmnjYqJu4YQLXYLo-qld9j3bgTBQ3Wv3_I/s640/st+james+mask.jpg" width="268" /></a></div><br />This tattoo, on the inside of Adrian's right arm, is a Puerto Rican mask. Adrian's family hails from the small town of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lo%C3%ADza,_Puerto_Rico">Loíza</a>, in northeastern Puerto Rico. In <a href="http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/legacies/PR/200003485.html">the festival of St. James, the Apostle</a>, people wear traditional masks like these as part of the celebration. Adrian explained that St. James was known, among many things, for helping the Spanish fight back invading Moors. One of the functions of the masks, he explained, was to  scare people into going back to church, where the masks represented the terrifying Moors.<br /><br />Adrian also shared this piece from his right forearm:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieEb4M4sC9ZQ4XcO2O6-i1zyarhV5rXzLKTDbvpLALUD7N65sRDaNCOcIJaTf0W1fnytL4aeLlWeamGuRGaw2-PbsESJCTq8jhoiPv3n8kAQeZN9LS3hhn-QAWrlXiCrEqps0FcRPSj-k/s1600/gypsy+life.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieEb4M4sC9ZQ4XcO2O6-i1zyarhV5rXzLKTDbvpLALUD7N65sRDaNCOcIJaTf0W1fnytL4aeLlWeamGuRGaw2-PbsESJCTq8jhoiPv3n8kAQeZN9LS3hhn-QAWrlXiCrEqps0FcRPSj-k/s640/gypsy+life.jpg" width="158" /></a></div><br />This tattoo, he told me, represents the women in his life. The fact that she is depicted as a gypsy is for good luck. The detail in this tattoo is astonishing:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2zRL-SUCUuYa3ivStWYQJzYxZgFvTfoBmdrKTQoYe2Sdo4FPz83wE3ErDLxkcwndzGrGDe61yeKy2EW1AMRZR4-RLmGVuzX3W1RzgVtEU-WUkV4JgctYtsUNe_HEm6F4-eqDGvOlgAmg/s1600/gypsy+life+detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2zRL-SUCUuYa3ivStWYQJzYxZgFvTfoBmdrKTQoYe2Sdo4FPz83wE3ErDLxkcwndzGrGDe61yeKy2EW1AMRZR4-RLmGVuzX3W1RzgVtEU-WUkV4JgctYtsUNe_HEm6F4-eqDGvOlgAmg/s640/gypsy+life+detail.jpg" width="354" /></a></div><br />He told me that the artist, the talented <a href="http://www.marcuskuhn.com/">Marcus Kuhn</a>, used the image from a popular brand of jalapeno peppers, La Morena, as a model for the woman in the tattoo. You can see the resemblance:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigcdH7WwREtTR0zsDomV6nyxg18mf0X_PpME4oKVcXiXUYFOyOR7UQjn01GSYo_mnJqunwa7Gh-G4WrZVzJXyNAU_L2Ya76OLaiVNuYAsCCeAJKfTJRKvYxS20FTXLxSChEFb0T_WjOeY/s1600/la+morena.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigcdH7WwREtTR0zsDomV6nyxg18mf0X_PpME4oKVcXiXUYFOyOR7UQjn01GSYo_mnJqunwa7Gh-G4WrZVzJXyNAU_L2Ya76OLaiVNuYAsCCeAJKfTJRKvYxS20FTXLxSChEFb0T_WjOeY/s320/la+morena.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Marcus Kuhn tattoos out of <a href="http://www.redstarirons.com/">Red Star Irons</a> when visiting New York.<br /><br />Thanks to Adrian for sharing his amazing tattoos with us here on Tattoosday! I look forward to seeing more of his art in the future!<br /><br /><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: x-small;">This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. </span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><br /><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: x-small;">If you are reading this on another web site 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 <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://tattoosday.blogspot.com</a> 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.</span></div>

Adrian's Ink Celebrates His Heritage

I met Adrian last month on a fluke - I was on the D train headed to Brooklyn going to a dentist's appointment, having left work early. I...

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Tattoos I Know: Paul's Taíno Ink

Last summer, my friend Paul had some new work done by <a href="http://grinstylez.com/grin_stylez/fort_apache_pierre_tattoo.html">Pierre</a> at <a href="http://grinstylez.com/grin_stylez/fort_apache_studio_welcome.html">The Fort Apache Tattoo Studio</a> near Penn Station. You can see some of his old work <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2008/02/tattoos-i-know-pauls-first-tattoo.html">here</a> and <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2008/03/tattoos-i-know-paul-part-2-or.html">here</a> and <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2010/02/tattoos-i-know-pauls-love-over-his.html">here</a> and <a href="http://tattoosday.blogspot.com/2010/02/tattoos-i-know-paul-part-5-or-great.html">here</a> (yes, he's a regular!).<br /><br />Fort Apache is up several flights of stairs, but it is conveniently close to my day job, which makes up for the aerobic ascension to the shop on 31st Street.<br /><br />This is what Paul had tattooed on his right forearm:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-SG6vdZ0nAc1DxNpdaJSudlIYBGo4lrGACeiO6WfX-gCr6wdZM6JPsl02YNF42dKAEldLz66ykNGGq1rSoNTUiSzyirjxCn72eFvrD3A8V7S7hnRh-JUHOfXal7uUkz6Pu-kfFxNMyVU/s1600/Paul+symbols.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-SG6vdZ0nAc1DxNpdaJSudlIYBGo4lrGACeiO6WfX-gCr6wdZM6JPsl02YNF42dKAEldLz66ykNGGq1rSoNTUiSzyirjxCn72eFvrD3A8V7S7hnRh-JUHOfXal7uUkz6Pu-kfFxNMyVU/s640/Paul+symbols.jpg" width="220" /></a></div><br />These four symbols are petroglyphs from the Taíno culture in Puerto Rico. They are one way Paul has chosen to acknowledging his and his ancestors' culture, in ink.<br /><br />From top to bottom, the symbols each have literal meanings, and then personal meanings for Paul. The triangular piece is a <i>zemis</i>, pointing in three directions - to the sky and the Creator, to the underworld and the realm of the dead, and to the world of the living.<br /><br />The second petroglyph is Sol, or the sun and the fourth design is the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coqu%C3%AD"><i>coqui</i></a>, or frog.<br /><br />Thanks once again to Paul for sharing his latest installment of ink here with us on Tattoosday!

Tattoos I Know: Paul's Taíno Ink

Last summer, my friend Paul had some new work done by Pierre at The Fort Apache Tattoo Studio near Penn Station. You can see some of his ...

Read more »