Katherine's Symbol of Change

When I went to my wife Melanie's twentieth high school reunion last weekend, I wasn't expecting to come away with a story and a photo for Tattoosday.

But I did.

In fact, as I had to arrive a little late, Melanie had the camera with her, so I was only travelling with a few fliers, just in case I ran into a tattoo or two en route to the Upper West Side. It's usually when I have no fliers that I wish I'd had the foresight to bring them.

I arrived an hour late, and so was a bit behind the curve on introductions. I recognized names on name tags, but there were also many people untagged. And when the call came out for the reunion class to assemble for a photo, I was left behind with a trio of women. "Spouses?" I asked. Close. One spouse, one fiancée, one girlfriend.

I chatted with them for a bit while we waited for the alumni to return. The fiancée was talking to one of the other women about the tattoo on her wrist. The class returned and Melanie came over and commented, "Oh, you should get her picture," or something like that. There was a quizzical look. I introduced Tattoosday. And here we have the unusual tattoo:

Yes, Katherine Pushkar has a tattoo of a lobster on the inside of her forearm, just below the wrist. It was inked circa 2000 in one of the many lower East Side tattoo shops, the name of which, along with the tattooist, is lost to memory.

Katherine, who is currently an editor at the New York Post, used to be an editor at The Village Voice.

As she tells it, the editorial job oversaw, among other things, the food critic. She occasionally would go out to dinner with the reviewer and the menu would inevitably feature seafood. The problem was, Katherine didn't like and didn't eat seafood.

Now I am totally with her on this. Aside from tuna salad, I abhored seafood growing up. And I grew up in Hawai'i. Even now I admit that I missed out due to my pickiness. I have gradually evolved into the occasional sushi eater, a taster of Melanie's dishes, but I still largely remain a non-seafood kind of guy.

Katherine, on the other hand, understood that her distaste for creatures of the sea was an issue she had to deal with and so she took the plunge.

She realized she needed to learn to like seafood and she chose to take the first step in Nantucket and ate her first lobster. The rest is history. From that point on, she no longer suffered from the menu laden with fish dishes.

Fast forward to a tattoo shop in the East Village. She and her friend were getting their first tattoos. Her friend was the driving force, looking to get a lower back tattoo. Her friend was set but Katherine was still trying to decide what was best.

Still proud of her expansion of her palate's horizons, she explained the concept to the tattooist who found the lobster in a book of flash art. The rest is history.


And, Katherine concluded, while her friend's affection for her back tattoo has waned over the years, she still wears her lobster ink proudly on her wrist. It serves as a constant reminder, Katherine beamed, that "I can change if I want to."

Thanks to Katherine for her sharing this story, along with her tattoo!

Faces Staring Out at Me

Confounded by poor timing and fluctuating temperatures, I have slumped lately getting new material up here. However, I sense a shift in the tide, and have this latest encounter to relate, with photos to boot.

It was turning a little chilly on a Friday afternoon when I walked by a guy eating his lunch on the plaza outside of the Borders above Penn Station. This has been a bread and butter spot for me: plenty of sun and people not in a hurry to go anywhere fast.

I noticed he had ink on his neck but I couldn’t tell what it was and it looked interesting. Turns out, this was Brian Murphy, a tattooist from Pennsylvania who is doing a guest artist gig from April 10-13, 2008 at Paul Booth’s Last Rites “Tattoo Theatre” nearby. Brian works out of Third Dimension Tattoo in Marshalls Creek (in the Poconos, north of Philadelphia in the Eastern end of the state).

First a production note: people are always giving me advice on where to find tattoos. “Go to shops,” they say, “hang out in front and get people as they are coming and going.” Great idea, really, but not in the spirit of Tattoosday. A lot of the fun is meeting people by chance and interesting them in the blog enough for them to want to contribute. Going to a shop and asking people about their tattoos seems a little easy. Not to knock the idea, but it takes some of the fun out of it. Similarly, I wouldn’t want to bother an artist in shop with my little venture. But to find one randomly on the street. That’s good fortune shining down on Tattoosday, especially when the individual is as friendly as Brian Murphy is.

Brian offered me two pieces, the more recent ones on his corporeal tapestry. First up is this amazing piece by Kyle Cotterman on Brian’s inner left biceps:


Brian said that Kyle, who is a friend of his, gave him this tattoo in exchange for one from Brian. The image is that of a homeless man. It represents a life that Brian once had, when he was homeless for a brief time. He is no longer in that situation, so the dichotomy of the piece lies in the half that represents the past, as it is disintegrating, and falling away from the foreground, where the new self is represented. The present and future are represented by the expression in the face, showing happiness of getting one’s life back. I’ve asked Brian to ask Kyle for a photo of the piece that he received in exchange for inking this one on Brian. They would certainly be interesting to see together.

Brian also wanted to show me a piece on his left leg designed and tattooed by the world-renowned artist Robert Hernandez, who works out of Vittamin Tattoo Studio in Madrid.

There’s no significance to it, he told me, “that’s just what he does”. Indeed, an amazing piece.

Brian also told me about a cool tattoo site called TattooNow.com, which I have added to the blogroll.

Thanks to Brian for sharing these two amazing pieces with Tattoosday!