The Tattooed

It's National Poetry Month!

It's another April here on Tattoosday, which means its another installment of the Tattooed Poets Project. For thirty days in April, we will be featuring the tattoos of poets, along with a sample of their work. Unlike previous years, we will be including the contributor's poem in the post here, rather than in a separate parallel post on BillyBlog.

Regular "on the street" tattoos will take a break and resume here in May. For the last few months, I have been reaching out to poets nationwide, and collecting their tattoos to showcase here. You can check out the 2009 and 2010 poets in the index here.

Thanks to all who are involved, along with, but not exclusively, Stacey at the Best American Poetry blog, Dorianne Laux, and Patricia Carragon, who curates the Brownstone Poets, many of who are joining us this year.

Enjoy!

The Tattooed Poets Project: Michael Henry Lee

Today's tattoo was submitted by Michael Henry Lee:

Photo courtesy of Michael Henry Lee

There's a lot going on here, so let's let Michael explain:

"The work pictured began about 36 years ago in Kansas City, Mo. I only remember the artist's name as John. The piece started with the stylized exotic bird's head that John took credit for as his own. A few years later I found the same piece on the back of a Mountain album cover. Imagine. Fast forward a couple of decades to a fantastic shop [Soul Expressions Tattoo Studio] in Temecula Ca. and an artist named Dan Adair. The sun and Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah were added there. The sun was David's design and the Lion comes from the Ethiopian flag borrowed from a Bob Marley album. The conceptual idea was mine and is meant to be symbolic of the Christian trinity: Father (as the sun), the Son (as the Conquering Lion) and our old buddy the bird (as the holy spirit). The seven is symbolic of the biblical number of completion and is repeated three times. The piece was just retouched and colored last year in Saint Augustine, Florida, by Tattoo Mike from Tattoo Garden."

Michael also offered up several short poems, including some haiku:

"tattoo impressions"

    van goes home

stepping out in a starry night    

(first appeared in graffiti kolkata Aug 2010)

~

tattoo garden

 the blush returns

 to mother's rose

~

What Love’s Got to do with It

It was rumored of late

that Love;

is suffering from a stolen identity

Eros has hacked into Agape

like the evil twin exchanged at birth;

     Ying for Yang

           The Pauper for the Prince

                    Cain for Abel

The imposter has taken control

using seduction and guile

to manipulate the hearts and minds

of whoever might be deceived

Love’s calling all investors

Setting the record straight

Distancing itself from a nefarious sibling

Love does not

          sell cars, clothes, food, or personal hygiene products

Love knows

          the grass isn’t greener in the next field,

          and besides brown is highly underrated anyway

Love always makes deposits

          but not withdrawals

Love is patient as water

          smoothing stone          

Love knows the worst

          but hopes for the best

Love bites its tongue and swallows its pride

Love looks at the heart

          not: boobs, biceps, or bank accounts

Love is the first one into a burning building

          an the last one off a sinking ship

Love builds

         Marriages

             Families

                  and  Nations 

                                                            

Love is an invisible necessity

         like  time, gravity, and oxygen

Love is beyond time and space

Eternal

Unconditional

                          a

                         gift

                    a promise

            one poured out for all 

                     that they

                       might

                        know

                         that

                         God

                           is

                           L

                           O

                           V

                           E

"What Love's Got to do with It" first appeared in Heart Pour The Love Book from Poet Plant Press, 2011

~

Michael Henry Lee is a husband, father and grandfather. He and his wife of 30 years reside in St. Augustine, Florida; the nation’s oldest city, along with two cats, and numerous bonsai trees.

Michael is a member of Ancient City Poets and the Haiku Society of America. The last Sunday of every month generally finds him at the Heart Pour Matinee; an open mic poetry reading that features seasoned artists as well as new talents. 

Mr. Lee serves as contributing co-editor for Poet Plant Press, and is a frequent contributor to Haiku News, and Haiku Ramblings. His work has appeared in Berry Blue Haiku, and Graffiti Kolkata He was voted among the favorites in the 2009 Alibi Weekly annual haiku contest, and was awarded third place prize in the Yukei Teikei Annual Tokutomi Haiku Contest for 2010.

Mr. Lee is quoted as saying “my objective is to express the good news and mystery of life in every breath, through the simplicity of haiku”.

Thanks to Michael Henry Lee for sharing his tattoo and his work with us here on Tattoosday!

This entry is ©2011 Tattoosday. The poems are reprinted here with the permission of the author.

If you are reading this on another web site other than Tattoosday, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://tattoosday.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

10 years of Lucky 7 Tattoo

So at 3 am last night I was laying wide awake, pugs snoring and all right in my little bedroom world. As I do from time to time my fingers did some walking through the worlds of GOOGLE and I found this blog Dan and Lisa started years ago....and I thought "why not bring it back." And with Dans permission to take it over - I am going to do just that...
As of March 31st Lucky 7 turned 10 years old...and what a cool, crazy journey it has been. I have divorced and remarried a few times... my business partner Corey being one of those ....proved to the negative lames around here that yes, a tattoo shop could and would do well in Kings Beach. When I was cleaning up the front of the our building back in March of 2001, all tired and excited about opening our shop, I remember well an older local man walking up to me and saying "The last thing this town needs is a tattoo shop, it needs more liquor stores" or another choice morsal was a local Plumas County Detective walsing in out first day, with big blonde hair and lots of "cop like" attitude belting out "You got any warrents or arrests for drugs? You got a proper business license? Why did you open here? and my personal favorite "You gang members?" Ugh yeah, that is what Corey and I dealt with as we opened up our dream...lots of preconceived notions of what tattoo shops have NEVER really been.
But alas, through all the usual and Unusual happening of the last 10 years we are still in operation, growing and learning, happy and all that jazz. Glad to have our own modern family owned shop. Happy to have retained a lot of our customers, and hoping for another glorious 10 years and then some...

Let me close with a yummy tattoo done by my hubby Russell Kahey-Fortier a little while back. He loves black and grey....and is quite fond of skulls and the dark side. Maybe because he spent so many years in California State Prison? Who knows for sure...but the tattoo sure looks cool!

I will be posting weekely kids. So all 7 of you stay tuned!


Kathleen Langley