Nathan's Luck

I first became friendly with Nathan over at KnuckleTattoos.com as a peer in the inkblogging community.

Based in Texas, Nathan's site specializes in what you would expect from the name, Knuckle Tattoos.

As a contributing writer, I have posted a handful of knuckles (ha) from people I have met in my Tattoosday wanderings in the Big Apple.

And although the last post on his site (as of this writing) was back in May, Nathan has been busy indeed, traveling over the late summer, courtesy of a 30-day Jet Blue pass and blogging about it. The trip was documented here, on 30 Days in the Air. Not only that, he has ink to memorialize the journey. See what I mean in this post.

Nathan was in New York as part of his adventure back in October and I met him for a slice of pizza on Broadway near Herald Square.

We talked shop, mostly, about blogging, tattoos, and his trip. And, of course, he shared one of his tattoos for the folks here at Tattoosday:

Nathan explained that this is a "kitchen table tattoo inked by a Japanese fellow calling himself 'Cadillac'. He was in town [Austin] for a week from Japan tattooing in order to pay for his rent when he got back".

The tattoo features all of Nathan's "luck pieces," such as dice, cards, his lucky number (23), a horseshoe, a black cat, and a banner that reads "Fortune Favors the Valiant".

It was great meeting Nathan and I thank him for sharing this tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Tattoos I Know: Tracy Returns with an Important Reminder

We originally introduced Tracy on Tattoosday back in January 2008 here.

Last Saturday night she was down visiting from upstate New York and she showed off her latest tattoo:


Inked on the inside of her left wrist, this simple message "Breathe" is a reminder to herself to "slow down and take it all in". In other words, when stressful things happen in life, pause, take a deep breath, and focus on the here and now.

This serves as an anchor to keep her grounded. Words on the wrist are great ways to help keep the focus (here's another example from earlier this year).

As a mother of two boys (one a teenager) and the wife of a soldier serving our country proudly in Afghanistan, one can only imagine the stress Tracy encounters on a daily basis. Yet every time I see her, she has a positive outlook and a smile. She's one of many people I know who use tattoos as symbols from which to gain emotional strength through challenging times.

The tattoo was done at Tattoos Forever in Evans Mills, NY.

Thanks again to Tracy for sharing her ink with us here on Tattoosday!