Jackie's Transcendent Tattoo

I met Jackie briefly on the 34th Street subway platform earlier this month, waiting for an A train.

She was sporting this rather nifty tattoo on her left foot:


That is, of course, the symbol for Om, which carries significant meaning.

Jackie does a lot of yoga and said that, to her, the symbol "represents transcendence".

It was inked by Matt Kimball at Timeless Tat2 in Bordentown, New Jersey.

Thanks to Jackie for sharing her tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Chenelle Milford

Our tattooed poet today is Chenelle Milford.

In a first here at the Tattooed Poets Project (and I believe Tattoosday, as well), our photo was taken on the tattooed individual's wedding day:


There's two tattoos visible in this photo: the nautical star and, if you look closely, some letters running vertically on the left side of Chenelle's back.

The nautical star is a popular "classic" tattoo design as it originates in the culture of sailors, who brought the art of tattooing to the attention of European and North American society. Chenelle notes more specifically that the star on her neck represents her home, Northern California and that"it means that I can always find my way home, like a sailor on the open sea".

Chenelle notes that

"My most meaningful tattoo (although not necessarily the most photogenic) is [on] the shoulder... that reads OLAE 08.


My best friend had, on her right shoulder, SUMTS 09. When we would stand together, you could read back and forth across the shoulders, and the letters would spell SOULMATES. She died on May 22nd, 2009, in a car wreck at 25 years old, so I am grateful to have that memory of her."

Both tattoos were done at Ink Wizard Tattoos, in Griffin, Georgia. She credits an artist named Mike Stout with the nautical star and Gary Hall with the OLAE tattoo.

Please be sure to head over to BillyBlog to check out Chenelle's poem "little Red Riding Hood" here.

Chenelle C. Milford, a native Californian and poet, is the manager, web-designer, consultant, all-around aficionado, and archivist of the Joe Milford Poetry Show. She is the founder and editor of the new literary journal, Scythe. Additionally, she is a film-maker, writer, humanist, and a wonderful wife and mother. Together, Joe and Chenelle Milford are compiling an extensive online sonic archive, a library of archived materials that can be accessed, which share writing and impressive interviews of many of today's established and up-and-coming poets. Some of her work is displayed on New Aesthetic. She now resides in rural Georgia with her husband and two daughters. She is working on college and writing poetry as time permits.

Thanks to Chenelle for her participation in the Tattooed Poets Project!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Cathryn Cofell

Today's tattooed poet is Cathryn Cofell.

Cathryn prefaced her tattoo by telling me:

"My tiny tattoo pales in comparison to some...Most of my adult life, I've wanted one, but always held back because I either 1) didn't know what I wanted or 2) feared I'd change my mind as soon as it was done (I change my mind as often as a hummingbird's heart beats) or 3) was working for a relatively conservative company."

This last concern is one that everyone should consider when getting a tattoo. Not that Tattoosday is an Ink Advice blog, but companies can legally discriminate (and often do) against tattooed individuals, which is something many people do not think about when getting inked. At the time that Cathryn got her tattoo, she "was working for a credit union with a strict 'no visible tattoos policy' and ... was part of the management team that actually wrote that policy". She does point out that she was out-voted by the anti-tattoo contingency.

So, Cathryn says,

"This was the compromise -- small, discreet, but powerful -- and not so discreet that I had to become a pretzel or strip completely naked to see it for myself or show it to others....


The symbol I finally chose is one that I wore around my neck as a talisman for many years: the Nile River Goddess, Nathor, who represents strength, triumph, success. I was at one of those turning points in my life -- feeling low and falling lower, needing her and those ideals to be more firmly etched in and on me.


She turned my life around that day. I've thought about another since and probably will some day, but see 1, 2 and 3 above and you'll know why I'm still waiting!

The poem that Cathryn sent us, seen here on BillyBlog, "came out on the drive home, scribbled on an old napkin".

Thanks to Cathryn for participating in the Tattooed Poets Project!

Cathryn Cofell is the author of five books, most recently Kamikaze Commotion (Parallel Press). She's received 40+ awards for her poetry and essays which also appear in scads of journals and anthologies. She is a zealous advocate for the arts, having served as founding Chair of the Wisconsin Poet Laureate Commission, on the board of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, and currently as Chair of the Verse Wisconsin Advisory Board and a pro-arts voice wherever she'll be heard.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Seth Berg

Today's tattooed poet, Seth Berg, is very tattooed. Not only does he say he is "extensively tattooed," he qualifies such a statement: "over 60 sessions under the needle".

He sent several photos, but the most impressive and, from what I can tell, his most special one is this "mammoth beast" of a tattoo (his words, not mine) on his ribcage:


In case you were wondering, this amazing leaf "goes from [his] pelvic bone to [his] armpit and blankets [his] entire ribcage".

The tattoo is an oak leaf, inked in celebration of his son, Oak, who turns 1 on May 8th.


The tattoo was completed in one six-hour session (with only one break for water and a stretch). The artist was Kat Richards from Live Fast Die Young Tattoos in Northeast Minneapolis.

Seth Michael Berg earned his MFA in poetry from Bowling Green State University in 2003 and has since been bouncing around the country teaching, tending bar, sculpting, writing, and occasionally snowshoeing. His poems and fiction can be found in Connecticut Review, Lake Effect, Word Riot, JMWW, 13th Warrior Review, Chiron Review, BlazeVOX, Pike Magazine, Disappearing City Literary Review, and Dark Sky Magazine, among others. Berg lives in Minneapolis with his photographer wife, Ashley, their supernatural son, Oak, and their twelve-year-old English Bulldog, Bob. When not working, Berg can most likely be found indulging his addiction to hot sauce or slowing down somewhere in a forest.

Check out his poem "Aphasia" over on BillyBlog.

The Tattooed Poets Project: Tameka Mullins

Today's tattooed poet is Tameka Mullins, a poet who blogs at her site Lyric Fire.


Tameka chose this tattoo design because she was a high school drama major and she dreamed of becoming an actress. The tragedy and comedy masks are a popular tattoo design, especially among creative individuals. They have even appeared on Tattoosday before, as seen here and here.

Tameka elaborates:

I actually collected objects (paintings, art masks, etc...) with the thespian symbol over the years because I felt such a connection to the image. As I grew older I realized I loved the symbol so much because to me it summed up life. Happiness, sadness, joy, pain, elation and deflation. These are the emotions that drive us, crush us and propel us and are at the center of almost everything we do. As a writer I look to capture, explore and expand on these emotions in my projects.

After a night out parting with her best friend, Tameka got an ear piercing and this tattoo at Sacred Tattoo in Manhattan.

Tameka is a native Detroiter who loves writing, networking and cultivating great relationships. Her professional background includes work as a public relations professional, radio segment producer, project manager and consultant for publishing and non-profit organizations. She wrote her first poem when she was 5-years-old and it consisted of just two words: "I dream." She believes that with persistence and passion dreams can be transformed into goals which become reality. Her novel Letters to Chyna, which delves into the emotionally charged issues of adoption is currently being reviewed and considered for publication.

Check out one of her poems over on BillyBlog here.

The Tattooed Poets Project - Caroline Goodwin

Today's Tattooed Poet is Caroline Goodwin.

She sent along this photo of a clematis flower that was tattooed on her belly in the early '90s in Juneau, Alaska:


She says she chose the clematis image from "a book of botanical sketches at the Juneau Public Library". Why this one? "Because I love purple flowers -and vines".

The artist, Caroline recalls, was Dave Lang at High Tide Tattoo.


Caroline Goodwin moved to the San Francisco Bay Area from Sitka, Alaska in 1999 to attend Stanford as a Wallace Stegner Fellow. She teaches poetry and nonfiction writing workshops at California College of the Arts and, with Hugh and Mary Behm-Steinberg of Berkeley, is the publisher of MaCaHu poetry chapbook press.

Check out one of Caroline's poems here, over on BillyBlog.

Anne's Flourish

This is another regular post amid the host of Tattooed Poets for April.

I ran into Anne at a drug store in my neighborhood and she agreed to share this simple, yet elegant, tattoo, which she called her "flourish":


Inked on her inner right forearm, Anne designed this herself, and had it tattooed by Chad Hunt at Name Brand Tattoo in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Thanks to Anne for sharing her lovely decorative tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!