Salt & Pepper

After moving my main blog, StellaBella to wordpress in 2012, I forgot all about this little piece of documentation I had also been working on.  Here we are in 2013, and I have been tattooed since!  I spoke last about my 3rd and least favorite "Friday The 13th" tattoo.  Right before that one, I decided to tie my right arm together, with an American traditional technique called "Salt & Pepper".

More like dots, asterisks, and plus signs, it's the filler in between my favorite style of tattoo.  After watching myself on NY Ink, I noticed all of my negative space in particular.  I had been adding small pieces around my original piece, but now I needed some cohesion.  My main man, Tom Yak and I had talked about it before, so he was happy to start tying it together.  I also requested an LTD to forever remind me the name of the episode I was on. 

NY Ink Part II "Living The Dream"

Here is the photo from Megan Massacre's website.   The show aired on 2.16.2012, and my segment is the last one.  It has been an honor to be in the company of Ink tattoo customers such as Lloyd Banks, Anthony Bourdain, Method Man, Marky Ramone, John Forté, and most recently Tito Puente, Jr!

NY INK Interview & Taping

I auditioned "on-camera" this Thursday, September 22nd, 2011 for the 2nd Season of NY Ink.  I will find out in 2 weeks if they want to use me.  I signed tons of paper work and put my signature in alot of places, a little un-nerving.   After all of that, I thought it went well.  I wrote to the show after seeing Megan's dog piece that she did for a friend last season.  I have thought about an idea to honor my first pet, Lefty - the one-eyed wonder. After seeing that episode, I wanted to get it done sooner rather than later.  Lefty has been there with with me through alot, an I feel like we have come out of darkness together.  I love that cat, even though I wouldn't consider myself an animal lover.  She won me over with her 1-eyed handi-cat ways!  Anyway, I am anxiously awaiting the notification - it would be really cool to be on the show - I mean really cool!

UPDATE:

I just got a call that I made it to the final round of casting!  It is still possible that my tattoo won't make it to an episode, but I am filming this Monday, October 3rd!
Fingers Crossed! XXX

Erica

New Yorkers Show Off Their Tattoos, NYTimes

I was reading this article, Thursday evening on NYTimes.com -

It was just a brief interview and story about the Season Finale of NY Ink, the spin-off to Ami James's Miami Ink show on TLC that would be airing later that night. There was a related questionnaire: New Yorkers, Show Off Your Ink! I decided to answer 2 or 3 questions, submit my favorite photo of my own New York Pride, one of my 2 Rotten Apples I got done in Seattle, WA by Thomas Graham @ SuperGenius, and thought nothing of it. The following Sunday, The New York Times ran this on its website,and a short related article in the Metropolitan Section, Page 8. As you can see, my photo was top pick, along with two others for the print article! Now when I go back to the original online article - I am the thumbnail to the Multimedia page & it's also on the NY/Region homepage! So exciting! 

Sunday July 24, 2011 - NYT Section MB Pg 8

I give alot of credit to the photographer, although I never got his name.  I think it was chosen because of the contrasting background, and high resolution.  He was a film student and nephew to a friend, visiting from LA 2 summers ago.  He sent me this photo after a fun night of BBQ-ing and drinking!