"Comedy, at least the way I write comedy, is just drama with jokes." - Rob Walton

This amazing tatt was done on Dontae's arm. As You can see the art derives from the comedy/ tragedy masks of ancient Greek theatre but done WAY BETTER!

 

 If you know Don, this tattoo fits him perfectly. He's always smiling but in a split second that smile can turn into serious face, hence the quote "I Might crack a Smile BUT NOTHING IS FUNNY". Thanks for the pic Dontae.

• "Aries are full of fire, indepence, and passion." - Uknown

This is a wrist tattoo of the zodiac sign which represents an aries. Shout out to my good friend Victor for sending this in!

• "Flow is so sweet, I eat angels for dinner. Call me what you want I dont give a finger in the middle." - Lil Wayne.

 Again we have my crazyyyy friend Chi Chi , with a very interesting tattoo inside the lip. The tattoo consists of 3 faces : a laughing face, a shades face (which is cut off in this pic), and a "sticky face" as she calls it. "The laughing face because I'm always happy and the one with shades because I'm too cool. Cuz sometimes when youre cool and youre happy, you drool and get a lil nasty!" LMAO! gotta love Chi for this !

"Ain't Sh*t in this World Deeper than Loyalty and Love." - 50 Cent

 Music which inspired this post, which happens to be one of my favorite songs.

This was sent to me from my friend Shea. Self Explanitory Loyalty and Love tatted on the hands. Two of the most truthful words to live by. I love this pic! SHADYVILLE WASSUP?

 

Proceeding with the theme of Loyalty and Love. This is an ankle tatt on my Bm Johansei =]. As you can see it is also a memorial tattoo in rememberance of not 1 but 2 people. The Purple heart with the letters ty inside are in memory of our friend Tyshawn* the pink ribbon coming around the heart is for her grandama who passed of breast cancer. The words at the bottom read "Officially Missing You...". This tattoo was done so nice and put together in a very unique way, thumbs up! Thanks For the Pic Joha !

• "Trust your own instinct. Your mistakes might as well be your own instead of someone else's." - Billy Wilder

 This is my sister-in-Law Jade's tattoo, which was also done on her ankle. The inspiration behind this tattoo? None other than, trust. Without trust, there can not be any Loyalty. "I was going through alot with someone in my family and never appreciated their actions. Led me to believe that sometimes you cant trust anyone but yourself in this world." - Jade

Fuck Love iM PAid!! =]

Check out Yours truly Featured on my girl Yenifel's blog  at FuckLove I'm Paid

"I believe whatever doesn’t kill you, simply makes you…stranger." - Heath Ledger as The Joker in Dark Knight

1 of my favorite posts so far, my wife BRITTANY SLAM! A Heath Ledger inspired Joker tattoo on her thigh!

 

Of course this is the Joker, the start of a leg sleeve for Brittany, Being a fan of Batman and Harley Quinn myself its only right I inquire what this tattoo means to Britt : "The joker is one of my favorite cartoons because I have always had a fascination with Clowns and When I saw Heath Ledger as Joker in The Dark Knight I knew I had to get him. You could tell that there wasn't much different from the movie and his real life...He wore a permanent smile on his face to hide his pain.Which I kind of felt represented me. I'm a funny person and I Love to make people laugh, but behind my smile.."

• "Are there, infinitely varying with each individual, inbred forces of Good and Evil in all of us, deep down below the reach of mortal encouragement and mortal repression -- hidden Good and hidden Evil, both alike at the mercy of the liberating opportunity and the sufficient temptation"-Unknown

 When I asked D about this tattoo he told me, "I got this tattoo because I like the whole angel vs demon concept and thats what i go through on a regular basis, a war between good vs evil." With Dominick being a Gemini it also made even more sense to me. Astrology studies always infer that Geminis have two sides to their personality a good and Bad. This tattoo is hot And Its still not finished I cant wait.

• "Mama you're the Queen of my heart...Fills me up just thinking about You. I'll never go a day without my mama." -Boyz II Men

 

This is a really special Tattoo on the hand of my homie "40", its a memorial tattoo for his mom.  "This tattoo of my Mother is my favorite because of the spot I chose For it. She passed away before I got to know her, but I keep her on my hand so I can always give her a Kiss."

 I really adore this tattoo!! CHECK OUT MUSIC FROM 40 AT Http://www.ReverbNation.com/FortyMusic 

• "Loyalty is the pledge of truth to oneself and others." Ada Velez-Boardley

This is my brother Steph's Chest Piece, Also a Memorial tattoo done in Honor of our fallen bro Tyshawn!

On What inspired this piece : " Its a Loyal Purple Heart flying with Angel Wings into a Loyalty sky. Purple, of course because it represents Loyalty in the Bible...and its a LoyalTy thang!" - Steph.

Thanks so Much for this pic Steph, your tattoo is one of my favorites!!

"Everyone leaves footprints in your memory, but the ones that leave footprints in your heart are the ones you will truly remember." Nicholas Sperling.

Shout Outs to Justin Gaddy for this !

When I was 14 I met a dude named Tyshawn at a gym in corona queens ps 119.  At the time we were both playing for an AAU team called Running Hustlers coached by Rob Diaz, which would eventually be named NYCs Finest.  Then I just saw him as more competition on the court until 2 years later he transferred from Christ The King High school to Newtown junior year.  Ty was an exceptional basketball player, but an even better friend.  Even tho everyone wasn't as talented as he was, he still made u feel as if everyone was equal, sharing and motivating us all equally.  He was a funny guy to, every time one of us smaller guys did a big move he would say "you getting scrolly on da block baaaabbbyyy!" lol.  He told us one day him and his friend from lefrak started something called purple city Byrd gang, and he wanted all of us even in school to wear purple. Ty told us purple stood for royalty in the bible so we followed suit.  He even wore a purple tuxedo jacket to prom.  As time went on it evolved in DIP Fam meaning "Dipped in Purple" with his friends from Lefrak.  It was big everywhere he went they were there.  College to college, because all the young men eventually attended universities all over the east.  It wasn't a gang it was a family, and they were loyal.  Ty was murdered in 2008.  His wake and funeral was a sea of beautiful purple, being that all the people in attendance wore purple.  Sharon Bierra let all who knew Ty speak freely at his wake.  Rest in purple Tyshawn Bierra.

In 2009 i decided to get Loyalty & Royalty across my chest and color the tys purple in each word in remembrance of my friend.  In December of 2010 I let Richard Parker Aka woo Aka made rich  (www.ARTMADERICH.COM) put purple clouds behind the words.  No matter how many years past I will never forget the impact Ty had on my life man.  I love you, we love you.

This was for the whole Lefrak queens, Sharon, Laren, Mike, Rain, rich, Rasaad, Maybank, Honey DIPS,Choo, A Milly, Alex, Domo,Jakey, P-weezy, Theo, Chad, rip Tone Jay, Chris, Geno, Phil, Will, Kwame, Byron, jeff, Pat , Keefe the whole entire DIP Fam... Anybody that ever lost a son, brother, cousin or a friend... Most of all it's for you Tyshawn.

"But to see her was to love her, love but her, and love her forever." -Robert Burns

These are Urmilla's black roses. One of her favorite tattoos done on her ribs. Roses are widely known as a symbol of love, romance , and desire. Red roses being the most popular. Urmilla took a different route however and chose to make them Black. Why Black ? "Black roses...for this dying love. It symbolizes me, my heart. Even when they are dying that can still be as one and look pretty", Urmilla.  Beautiful!

•  “Please take my hand. I give it to you as a gesture of friendship and love, and of faith freely given. I give you my hand and welcome you into my dream.” -Wonder Woman

This is my sister Squeaksz Wonder Woman tattoo:

 Why wonder woman ? : "I came into the tattoo shop looking to get something empowering, cute, * something I would like, most of my tattoos are symbols, names or pictures etc, ink that I feel accentuates my body and I'm not done. This is a start of a rib tatt which isn't complete as of yet. The next is an actual pic of Wonder Woman"

 This is another tattoo from my dear sis Squeaksz, Her Lucky 7 tattoo .
The meaning behind this one ? : "I wanted to give the feeling of hitting the jackpot when you are being intimate! Im just kidding, but i actually had the Lucky 7 first, ironically it being my 7th tattoo and when I got the lips that just happened to be the "it" thing at the time. So I figure why not add on to it plus the lips are sexy!"

•  "Look to the Lord and his strengths seek his face always" 1 chronicles 16:31 

This is Meeka's tatt also done by Rich (www.ARTMADERICH.COM)
  I asked Meeka what was the inspiration behind this tatt " I tend to think sometimes I can do shit by myself and handle it on my own, and the Scripture is a reminder to me that I need to let go and let God"
 * "...And if you look closer the hands have stars on its wrist just like me"


- Meeka really touched my spirit with this one. I love it .

• "The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything". - Theodore Roosevelt

This is a Chest piece on my boy Marq. So raw and edgy. I love how he took a popular saying and created it into artwork. "I got life is a gamble because I believe life is all about takin chances feel me...that's how u learn and grow as a human being... Money power respect is pretty much self explanatory....those 3 terms stood out to me first as a selected few characteristics of myself."  nice!

• "All for one and one for all
  My brother and my friend
  What fun we have
  The time we share
  Brothers 'til the end."
  -unknown 

 

This is my friend DSmith's tattoo in remembrance of his best friend BooBoo who recently passed away.

The Buiildings represent the City and the Crown over the B's because he's a King! S.I.P ( STUNT IN PEACE BOO BILLS!) 

          STUNTT IN PEACE BOO.

• "Only God can judge me so I'm gone, either love me or leave me alone." - Jay-Z

This is my friend D.Floyd's tattoo pretty much self explanatory. Many can relate, when no one else understands God does! (work Also done by Rich www.ARTMADERICH.COM)

CHECK OUT MUSIC FROM D.FLOYD AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE YUNG VETZ AT http://yungvetradio.blogspot.com/

"Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation. " -Michael Jordan

This Post is dedicated to an old friend whom i went to High school with, Benjamin. "Benja" as I always called him, died in a tragic and unfortunate car accident at a very young age.. .This is for him.

RIP "BENNY BLANCO"

This is my friend Shawny's tattoo, he was very good friends with Benji."He was a good kid,  my first friend to pass at a young age", Dashawn  says. This is a personal memorial for him. Dashawn and Benji were both avid collectors of the very popular "Jordan" sneaker which explains the theme of this tatt. The actual art is derived from the Air Jordan 1s and 2s.

(This tattoo was done by Rich. Check out more of his excellent artwork and tattoos at Http://WWW.ARTMADERICH.Com)

"My Personality is Far from Your Reality" - Tyshawn Bierra

This post is dedicated to my big homie, dear friend, and Brother Ty who also passed away. Ty was a good person, who was very lovable and had a good heart, a "purple" heart at that. I emphasize purple because that color holds a great deal of symbolism in its self.

For centuries Purple has represented the color of Royalty. And Ty always said "Loyalty brings forth Royalty". He had loyalty tatted on his wrist not just because it was a nice word but he truly believed in it and practiced it.

That strong belief in Loyalty was present in all his friendships. And when he died many who were close to him also got the same tattoo in his memory. . .

This one is mine, i got it literally hours after i heard the news of what happened.  Of course it says Loyalty but i had the T capitalized so it could be read two ways Loyalty or Loyal Ty. Either way you already know.

This is my sister Domo's tatt

"Loyalty is Royalty" (her first tattoo by the way)

Chi-Chi has one of the most creative of them all She used the word LOYALTY AND turned it into an acronym!
LOVE
OBEDIENCE
YOUTH
ALPHA
LIFE
TYSHAWN !!!!

D.I.P FAM

This is Ty's Brother Rain's tatt.

 

All of these tatts visually and literally express the one thing that holds everyone together and that is Loyalty. Each tattoo holds a memory that will never fade, A symbol of Love, Loyalty, Friendship and most of all Ty*

"To live in hearts we leave behind Is not to die."- Thomas Campbell

    This post is dedicated to my friend Antonio Cannon Jr. who passed away on this very day 2years ago. He was loved dearly and is truly missed. Gone in the physical but present in the spiritual of all who knew him.

This Tattoo is amazing and makes me smile Every time i Look at it. It was done on my friend "Hottz" back shortly after Tone passed. This tattoo is a perfect example of mourning through art. In this tattoo, Tone is drawn as an angel , hence the wings. The clouds and light over the halo give him a heavenly aura. This tattoo symbolizes that Tone was an Angel, the placement of the tattoo on the back represents no matter what Hes always there watching over Hottz. Great memorial tatt.

....Rest in Purple Tone, we love and miss you.

RIP Tone and TY =]

iNK L O V E

I titled the blog iNk Love because "ink" is something that I Love. Now a days who doesn't have a tattoo? Why do we get them and what do they mean to each individual person? Every tattoo has a story behind it, I would like to use my blog to tell those stories and share them with the world.  I wholeheartedly believe in art and freedom of self-expression therefore I would like to use this blog as an outlet to learn more on the symbolism behind tattoos.