Dragon Tattoos 2011

Here’s a new one for you. A straight narrative, speckled with ink references, which eventually resembled a “traditional” Tattoosday post. It certainly takes the cake as one of the most unusual encounters. I’ve significantly edited it down for space considerations.

I've also waited a week (this is back-dated) to see how it would play out.

Today was a gloomy, sleety, cold New York City day and I decided to go out at lunch, despite the rain.

After an unsuccessful circuit through the Chelsea Whole Foods, I hit the Muhlenberg branch of the New York Public Library and pick up a few CDs (The Black Parade is Dead! by My Chemical Romance, Lost Highway by Bon Jovi, and Rock My World by Bret Michaels) and some books What Is This Thing Called Love by inked poet Kim Addonizio,

Sailor Jerry Collins: American Tattoo Master

and Tattoo Nation: Portraits of Celebrity Body Art.

I head back toward work and stop under the overhang outside of Fashion Institute of Technology to take a break from the freezing rain.

I decide to talk to two students who are talking outside, smoking. I introduce myself and explain the blog and one of them is un-inked and has agreed to participate in the Unin(k)itiated survey. I’m about to talk to ask the first question when a guy comes up to us to ask a question.

Here’s where the abridging of the conversation begins.

Initially, he is looking to get directions to the Apple Store on 5^th Avenue. He is visiting from San Francisco and needs to pick up a PC from there. He speaks very fast. He has been a web designer since the early 90’s. He rattles off several websites he has built for various companies. He refers to himself as “Apple Pirate,” and he mentions an Apple tattoo.

My interest is piqued. “You have tattoos?” “Four,” he replies. But he is covered in clothing and is visibly cold in the non-San Francisco weather. I don’t expect him to show me anything. I mention the blog, but he is dismissive. He makes a comment about not having time for websites that are small. I am not offended, though I could take issue with what could be perceived as a sleight. But Tattoosday is still a little baby blog, and I’m a small fish in a big blogospheric ocean, despite the occasional delusion of grandeur.

The conversation is all over the place, with Chris leading most of the discussion. Among the topics: where the nearest bike shop is, how he’s been crashing on the floor at The Hotel Chelsea because he doesn’t have the credit card he used to make the reservation at the W Hotel (he was mugged in Baltimore), the quality of F.I.T. as a school, and why the Baltimore School for the Arts is losing students to F.I.T. Also discussed is the weather, some SF vs. NYC banter, technology, design, and more on tattoos.

We drift back to his ink and he has decided that he will show me one of his pieces. Here is where this starts looking like a normal Tattoosday post. This is the tattoo on Chris’ left elbow:

That’s the Apple Pirate logo.

Chris kept talking and I continued standing with the two F.I.T. students, whose names I never got. My lunch was over and I needed to get back to work. However, both women have my card, and will hopefully contact me so I can finish the story.

They never did. Nor did Martin.

It was a truly bizarre little encounter, one which may still be unfolding in the days and weeks to come.

There was actually more to this post. Chris credited his tattoo to a well-known tattoo artist in another state. The original post discussed this artist, along with his shop, and the fact that I tracked down the artist to verify if this tattoo could be attributed to him. Ultimately, the tattooist has no recollection of the piece or the individual.

Another day in the life of the tattoo blogger!