Mardi Gras - In Memory of Her Mother

You can barely make out the tattoo on the wrist of the bartender at Coyote Ugly. She promised to send me a good picture and the story.

The tattoo is of the symbol for the Chinese Year of the Monkey. She said that both she and her mother were born in the Year of the Monkey. When her mother recently died, she decided to get this tattoo in memory of her mother.

Mardi Gras - Heart

I don't have a story on this one. I was reviewing my photos and noticed this tattoo in a crowd shot. So, I though I'd add it in.

Mardi Gras - Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places

I noticed this tattoo on the lower back of a young lady standing outside a gay bar. I asked her if it had any special significance. She said it stood for love and her quest to find that someone special. Since we were outside a gay bar, I asked her if she was looking for a guy or a girl. She replied, "Probably a guy, but she was open to other possibilities."

I decided to point out the obvious. If you're looking for a relationship with a guy, a gay bar might not be the best hunting grounds! She agreed that I was right. However, she said gay guys are so cute, funny, and nice. She wondered if she could convert one. I suggested that I didn't think that was very likely. She agreed that I was probably right. I wished her well on her quest.

Mardi Gras - La Dolce Vita

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I met this young lady while waiting for a parade to start. She and her friend have several tattoos and told me they have photos on the internet. I gave her my card and asked her to send info. Here's her e-mail.

Hi there,

I ran upon your card when cleaning out my purse the other day! I think the two pictures you have of me are better than any I have.

My Foot-
My first tattoo is of the Kanji symbol for immortality. After looking over several, maybe even 100's of designs, symbols, etc. this one "came to me"....I knew it was the one. For me it represents the soul being immortal. My mother died when I was young and she was the nicest woman I've ever met...she was the embodiment of love. This tattoo is a constant reminder of her and that no matter what happens in life...the soul is immortal. Probably a year later I had the cherry blossom branch and buds added to sort of make it more feminine.

My Neck-
My very good friend, Mandy, gave me the gift of a friendship tattoo for my 30th Birthday. We spent quite a while at Cheap Trx trying to decide what to get...eventually we found designs and then with help of Stan and Jim we decided on "La Dolce Vita" (The Sweet Life). Basically, we've had a lot of trials and tribulations throughout our lives and wanted to bring a little positivity in...her tat has a little different design than mine, but the La Dolce Vita is the same. A few months later I had the cross added...my mother was a very Christian Woman...so this, too...has a significance. And, I thought it looked cool.

Thanks so much,

Allison

Mardi Gras - Intricate and Colorful

I noticed this guy's tattoo while walking down Bourbon Street. I gave him one of my cards (see photo 1). However, I also wanted to snap these pictures because the tattoos are so colorful and intricate. I hope he follows up and send me the stories!

Mardi Gras - Male Dancer

My sister took these photos of a male dancer at one of the bars on Bourbon Street.

Mardi Gras - Discovered at a Parade

I discovered this lady and awesome tattoo while watching a parade.

Mardi Gras - Hopeful Tattoo Artist

I also met this lovely young lady at Coyote Ugly Saloon. She had just donated her bra to their wall collection. The dragon tattoo was her design and she is interested in becoming a tattoo artist in New Orleans. She will hopefully send me a better photo.

Mardi Gras - Pet Wolf

I met this guy at Coyote Ugly Saloon. He had several tattoos so I asked him which was his favorite. This Tattoo of a wolf was his choice. He said its a likeness of a pet wolf that he had for 14 years before it died.

Mardi Gras 2007

I went to Mardi Gras this week and took several photos and handed out cards asking folks to e-mail me photos of their tattoos and their stories. hopefully, They'll start coming in soon. Until then, I'll post some of the photos.

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Bald Britney appears at LA tattoo parlor

Bald Britney appears at LA tattoo parlor

LOS ANGELES -
Britney Spears' appeared in a tattoo parlor in the San Fernando Valley with her head shaved completely bald.

Video on KABC-TV showed the newly shorn Spears with tiny tattoos on the back of her neck as she sits Friday night for a new tattoo — a pair of red and pink lips.

"She just wanted something real small on her wrist, something dainty," Max Gott, the tattoo artist at Body and Soul in Sherman Oaks, told the TV station. "She got some cute little lips on her wrist."

Derrik Snell, who works at the tattoo parlor, said Spears showed up without notice and stayed for about 90 minutes as about 60 fans, photographers and gawkers gathered outside.
"She seemed fine," Snell said. "I didn't really notice (the hairdo) at first, she had a hood on when she showed up."

Angelique Uram, a Spears fan who stood on the tattoo parlor's sidewalk for Friday night's spectacle, was aghast at the singer's new look.

"We could see her in the mirror, and her head is completely shaved," she told KABC. "It looks terrible."

Police arrived to control the crowd and helped Spears' bodyguards guide her into a waiting SUV, her head covered by a hooded sweatshirt.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070217/ap_en_ot/people_britney_spears_8

Dangers of Political Extremism

Story to come. Cynthia

Chakotay: Star Trek - Voyager

I found this image at http://www.vigyan.com/~blbates/star_trek/voyager/index.html . As far as I'm concerned, this is one of the most famous tattoos around - the facial tattoo of Chakotay, first officer of the Voyager. There was a great episode that explained the tattoo - it was season 2, episode 5 aptly named "Tattoo."

In that episode, "Chakotay explains that he wears the tattoo to honour his father, who wore it to honour his ancestors. (His father died defending his home which was along the Federation/Cardassian border.) The alien leader explains that they knew those ancestors whom the aliens called "the Inheritors" when they visited Earth some 45,000 years earlier and gave them a gift of knowledge after being impressed by their respect for the land. It is this deep race memory which had earlier prompted Chakotay to have a brief mental image of one of his ancestors. " for the full episode synopsis go to http://star-trek-voyager.net/a1episodes/seasn2/ep25synopsis.htm

"With Robert Beltran as Chakotay they wanted to put a tattoo on him, so they said go to work and do some designs. And the designs went from a full Maori face to what we finally wound up with which was just this section up here on his head, but we did a full face, we did a half a face, and then when they finally decided we were going to keep it down to a localised area, then I started to get books out. I had books on Filipino designs and New Zealand designs and Japanese designs. And I made combinations of all these different whirls and twirls and twists and things that we could do on Robert. Then finally, after looking at a lot of them, we did a little testing. The one that he wore was a combination of Maori and Filipino."

http://star-trek-voyager.net/crew_chak_tattoo.htm

Til The End of Time or Not

I was in a CVS Pharmacy and there was an older lady (about 75) behind the counter. She spoke with an accent. As I was paying for my stuff, I noticed she had an old tattoo on her left forearm. It was hard to make out because it had faded and her skin was wrinkled. I didn't comment on it, but I wondered if it was a concentration camp tattoo - right age, accent, unusual for women in the 1940's to get tattoos.

The next time I went in, I asked her about the tattoo.

I said, "What does your tattoo say?"

She replied, "It's TTE of T." "A lot of people want to know if it's a concentration camp tattoo."

I still couldn't make it out. So, I asked her, "Is it in another language?"

"No, it's in English, just old."

"What does it mean?"

"It stands for ' Til the End of Time'". When I was a young girl I met a man and fell in love. We each had TTE of T tattooed on us to signify our undying love."

Of course, I asked if she had married him.

"No, it didn't last. I don't even know what happened to him."