The Tattooed Poet's Project, Jillian Brall's Love of Trees Manifests Itself in a Back Piece

In April, we featured 31 tattooed poets in honor of National Poetry Month. But we had some late entries who missed the cut-off and, well, we just plum ran out of days. Nonetheless, we have decided to continue the feature as an occasional treat for those lovers of tattoos and poetry who frequent Tattoosday.

First, the tattoo:


The owner of this piece elaborates:

My name is Jillian Brall. I am receiving my MFA in Poetry from The New School this May. I am also a collage artist and saxophonist. I live and work in Brooklyn (Bushwick)...On my back is a bare black and grey tone tree that I drew. I have been drawing trees like this one since I was a little girl. Drawing them makes me feel calm and focused. I love seeing the skeleton of the tree, not veiled by leaves. I love that every time I draw one it is completely unique from all the others I have or ever will draw...different numbers of branches, different sizes, different positions, different light sources guiding the shading of the trees.

Jillian had this tattooed in February 2007 at R&D Tattooing in Queens, Rich Fie is the tattoo artist. She adds, "the tree was definitely not his typical street style tattoo, but I drew the sketch and he traced it and did a really beautiful job with it!"

When I asked Jillian for a poem, she not only offered up a poem, but she presented a photo of one of the collages she created:


And, a short poem from Jillian, as well:

To Lose Myself

At night in bed, I hear my neighbor's heaving music

through the concrete wall. In this pale red light

the music is supposed to inspire me to lose myself.

It is supposed to aid me in losing myself.

But I turn my head and there is a bookshelf, with my books in it.

I turn my head and there is the off-white circular rug.

I'm not lost.

Someone threw it out in the hallway, and after scrutinizing and cleaning it,

I brought it into my room.

I turn my head and there is a pen I took from the bank.

And there is a bottle of diet coke,

not an angel, an object without angles.

I turn my head and there is my laundry bag,

not the underworld.

Thanks to Jillian for sharing her tattoo, her collage and her poem! The Tattooed Poets project can be seen its entirety if you click on the tag at the bottom of the post.

Truck Art of Pakistan

Just like the Billboard painting performed in Pakistan, there is another indigenous form of art performed in Pakistan and it is the Truck Painting. With its all colorful floral patterns, depiction of human heroes with creative aspect ratios, calligraphy of poetic verses and driver’s words of wisdom, this form of art is truly a part of Pakistani transport tradition.

This art is so Pakistani, that the freight trucks which are built by Ford, General Motors, Hino Pak etc in beautiful aerodynamic shapes are first retro-fitted with very Pakistani stlye bodies and a special ‘viewing deck’ at the top of Driver’s cab. The ‘viewing deck’ is a very multipurpose extra space. It is used by ‘cleaners’ to sleep at night and also to load extra luggage when needed.

These truck bodies are then immaculately painted by the street artists who can be found at Truck stands all across the country. e.g. Hawkes Bay/Mauripur Road Road Karachi, Pir Wadhai Rawalpindi, Badami Bagh Lahore, Sariab Road Quetta etc. These hired artists then paint the whole truck in brightly colored patterns. It is said that everty city’s artists have perfected their art in their own signature way. Trucks decorated in Quetta and Peshawar get lots of wood trimming where as those in Rawalpindi get lots of plastic decoration. Karachi excels in using reflective tapes, also called ‘chamak patty’ in local language. Camel bone decoration is used by artists of rural Sindh.

Modern Tattooing Styles

Modern Tattooing Styles

About modern tattooing styles actually I would not much talk. You can see pictures of them in the countless web sites.
Today probably there is no design, symbol, image, fantasy or realistic images, that wouldn't have been tattooed.Possible is all you can imagine.There are many derivation or a combination of traditional and modern symbols or modified designs, especially in recent times is people still opt for the ancient motives and returning to the tribal of the Celtic (or Germanic or Nordic) symbolic.Between design and modern motifs dominated fantasy, scenes from the literary or more frequently, scenes from the film world, animation, pop- and art-icons of the modern world, new technology and the urban symbolic, the characters of well-known personalities, singers, actors; in short, anything you can imagine or desire.


Modern Tattooing Styles


Modern Tattooing Styles


Modern Tattooing Styles

Aaron's Skater Days Represented in Ink

Aaron has this very unusal piece tattooed on the back of his right bicep:


When I stopped to speak to him on 7th Avenue in Manhattan, I was happy to hear this tattoo, along with many of his nine others, were inked by Peter Cavorsi at Body Art Studios in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Peter has done three tattoos on my wife and me and he comes highly recommended by us. To see all of Peter's work that has appeared on Tattoosday, click here.

This particular tattoo is based on work entitled "Shater Days" by the professional skateboarder and artist Ed Templeton. Templeton designs and sells skateboard products through his website Toy Machine.

Aaron felt that the design was perfect for a skater, with the image of a helmeted person hitting himself over the head with his board.

The inner skater never goes away, even as one gets older and spends less time on the board. The inner persona still courses under the skin and this particular art piece, can be, like all art, interpreted in different ways.

The act of hitting oneself over the head with one's skateboard is the ultimate expression of frustration, a sentiment that doesn't go away in life.

There are always people and things that frustrate individuals. I like how this specific work of art speaks not only to Aaron, but spoke to me as well.

Thanks to Aaron for sharing this unusual tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stranger

Louie Lopez

I Should Be In The Kitchen

Another tattooist who has been featured heavily here is Hannah Aitchison. This is one of my favourite Hannah tattoos, which was done on LA Ink. I love the text too!

Red Hot

This simple but very pretty pinup was done by Cara Massacre, whose increasingly impressive work we have seen before.

Bat-Fan submissions

Another roundup of submissions over the past month, or a little longer in one case! I still have more to post, but I may save them for the next roundup. Anyway, on with the bat-toos...


Amber sent in the above Mad Love tattoo.



Dcota sent in the above Joker



A tattooist submission above, from Alfonso Boyano.



Above is another tattooist submission, from Justen Jones



And a third tattooist submission, from Sonny Mitchell.




And last but certainly not least, Luan sent in these shots of his half-sleeve, done by Marc Anthony.

Hoot Wave

This awesome little owl, submitted by Cassidy, was inspired by this very blog! After seeing the tattoo on Rae in this post, Cassidy contacted Rae through me and was given permission to get this owl done. Owl Tattoos FTW! Cassidy's owl was done by Amy Cole from Tigerlilly Tattoo in Portland.

Hoot The Ground Running

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, I've been very busy! Now, on to more important stuff, like the above reader submission from Matt, which was done by Tomas Archuleta of Thick As Thieves Tattoo in Denver!

Folded Paper Art by Simon Schubert

Simon Schubert is a German artist and sculptor. He uses paper creases and folds to create incredible works of art. He also does portraits and all the reflections in the mirrors.