Sexy Guns tattoo

Last May, on the first day of the New York City Tattoo Convention, I was almost thirty blocks away from the Roseland Ballroom, where the three-day event takes place, when I bright flash of yellow hair caught my eye on Broadway. I was about to meet Melissa "Alabama" Graves. Her bright yellow hair was not the only thing I noticed - she was also heavily-tattooed.
I stopped to talk to her, but she was on her way to an appointment, but she seemed open to being featured on Tattoosday and she assured me she'd make time for me to interview her the next day, Saturday, at the convention. Melissa is a model and she is a striking figure - despite her tiny frame, she fills a room with her personality and she commands a great presence.

Not to mention, her bright hairstyle makes her easy to spot in a crowded tattoo convention. She was kind enough to spend a significant amount of time with me talking about her tattoos. I could have written much more, but had to pare down our conversation for brevity's sake.
Incidentally, this is my last remaining item from 2012, and I'd like to think I've saved one of the best for last. Among her tattoos, Melissa chose to share the gun inked on her right thigh:




Melissa gave me the nitty-gritty about why she had a gun, specifically this gun, inked on her thigh: “I met this guy a long time ago, his name was Blackie ... he was ripped and tattooed and rockabilly and sexy and he had this, you know, powerful thing about him … He moved away with his girlfriend, it must’ve been … five years ago and the girlfriend and him had been together for a while, and I had a crush on him for a long time …[when] him and the girlfriend are breaking up and, this must’ve been 2008 ... I went on vacation from my job at the beginning of 2009 ... He talked me into going out to California with him and ... I went out to California and we had a week-long vacation together that was probably the most ... fun time I ever had with somebody. And the best sex I ever had in my entire life. And one of the things we did together was we went to the Downtown L.A. gun range and I fired his .45 magnum in that gun range wearing a mini skirt and six-inch stiletto heels … the chunky heels ... and the guys in the gun range were like, this girl cannot fire this gun … it’s like a cannon of a gun ... it’s life size, compared to little me ... and, you know, um, I weigh a little bit more now than I did back then, but only like five pounds more, and they were like, she still can’t fire this gun. In those heels? No. And I said, Oh yeah I can fire this gun, and I was just ballsing it and I took the gun and I fired it and I asked for the most bizarre absurd targets. And I fired that gun and I hit every target. And ... he was so impressed. It turned him on. And we went back home after I fired that gun. I saved every target and we had the best sex afterwards, I mean, he was just so turned on that I could fire a gun that well. And I’ll never forget that experience. It was like, I could fire a gun and hit a target in the forehead and it was just like really exciting, girl power kind of thing and I left L.A. and he left me at the airport and said ... I’ll see you later kid.”
She added that "he was cordial enough after we broke up when I got the idea for the tattoo to scan the gun and send me the image of the gun."
Melissa praised Gene Coffey, the tattoo artist, to no end. He was responsible for the art on her left leg, which she said he had worked on while he was still an apprentice.
What's cool about the tattoo, as well, as that it circles the thigh, with a garter and a badge:

Guns N Roses Tattoos

t seems silly to not post anything when I have the time and five years of material that is wandering the ether. So, I am pledging to dredge up some oldies but goodies, should I find myself lacking new material for any given day. That said, here we have a post that originally went live on February 1, 2009. Enjoy

I met Amanda in my neighborhood a couple of weeks ago on a cold day in January. She wasn't wearing gloves which, despite the cold, was a good thing, as her hands bore a couple of nifty tattoos that really flashed in the sunlight. Unfortunately for me, I was bogged down with a bag of groceries and dry cleaning, so I wasn't in any position to take pictures.
I did manage to chat with Amanda briefly, and I told her about Tattoosday. I passed her my card and asked her to email me if she was interested in sharing.
I was happy to hear from her a day or two later and, this past weekend, sat and chatted with her at a local Starbucks. It was there that I got to see her tattooed hands in all their glory:


Amanda hails from Kansas City, Missouri, and moved to New York several years back to pursue her dream of an artistic career. She estimates that her body is 30% inked, most of which was done by her home town artist Steve Drew, who works out of a shop called Irezumi Body Art.
She was looking around for an artist in New York, when she accompanied a friend to Red Rocket Tattoo in Manhattan. There, Mike Bellamy was working with her friend on a concept sleeve. Amanda liked what she saw and started working with Mr. Bellamy on her hand guns. You can see other Tattoosday-featured work by Mike Bellamy
So, why put guns on your hands, of all places? Amanda says it was an aesthetic decision, and not any sort of moral or political statement. Nor, she says, was it necessarily a nod to her roots in Kansas City.



But Amanda wanted her hand guns to be colorful and depict a feminine side, reminiscent of a weapon tucked into a saloon-girl's garter belt. The red roses, set into the handles, give the guns a softer edge. Their placement on the hands recall a childlike innocence, reminding one of the gesture kids make when they pretend their hands are toy guns.
Amanda said that she had these inked in one sitting, each gun taking about an hour and a half each. Mike Bellamy inked the outline on each hand first, then went back and did the color and shading on both. How did it feel? "The most intense pain I've ever felt," said Amanda, "especially on the knuckles".

Hide Message On Tattoo


Lettering tattoo designs are gaining in popularity. You can combine lettering with a design, you can add lettering to a previous design to change it up a little or you can have lettering tattoo designs by themselves. When you add lettering to a design you want to make sure the lettering font style matches the type of tattoo image. Everything should flow together.


Lettering tattoo designs can be just as time consuming to decide on as an image tattoo. You first have to decide what you want to say. Then you can choose to say it in your native language or another, perhaps ancient language like Greek or Chinese characters. Then you have to decide what font type you want to use. And lastly (or perhaps first, depending on you) you decide where on your body you want your lettering tattoo design.


Those are a lot of decisions to make. You have to take your time about all of them because any one can affect your tattoo greatly. A tattoo is for life and you want to be proud of your tattoo forever. Take your time and make one choice at a time. Don't be afraid to change your mind and start over. You want a tattoo that you are 200% sure that it's right for you.

I think the most important decision is what do you want your lettering tattoo designs to say. Since a tattoo is personal, this is your chance to speak to the world. If you choose a saying, it should be something that would be a lifelong commitment. If you choose a name, make sure it's a name that you will still want 20 years from now. One of the biggest sources of tattoo regret is a name of a past love. Unfortunately tattoos last longer than most relationships.


If you go to a good online tattoo gallery you can have everything you need in one place to make all your choices. You can see different lettering styles, get information on translations and see if you want to add an image to your design. One note about lettering tattoo designs in a foreign language, check with several different sources to make sure your translation says what you want it to say. 

There is nothing more horrifying than to walk around with an incorrect lettering tattoo

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