East River Tattoo (1047 Manhattan Ave.) opened in 2000 out of a storefront on Franklin Street, making them Greenpoint’s first tattoo shop. They have since moved a few blocks to their current Manhattan Ave location, where a glance in the window reveals a taxidermy fox next to a spotted and stuffed fawn. Continue reading →
You’ve probably seen her work around Instagram. And if you haven’t, Jenna Bouma of East River Tattoo(1047 Manhattan Ave) is known for her signature style illustrations – characterized by bold, vintage icons with a dismal charm… all done without the help of a machine. Her commitment to hand poking purveys a traditional emphasis on taking one’s time and doing it well, despite a high-volume clientele. In the midst of today’s mindful action concerning “faster/cheaper” output (which by the way, her Instagram handle is “@slowerblack“), it’s another admirable reason to put her on today’s spotlight.
If you live in Brooklyn, then at least one person on your gift giving list has a tattoo and you know once you get one – you can’t stop!
Maybe your roommate needs one more tat to complete his sleeve or your sister needs to cover up that butterfly on her shoulder she got on her 16th birthday. Greenpointers’ gift guide can help!
Our favorite local tattoo shop,East River Tattoo is offering 20% Off Gift Certificates for Greenpointers readers. Do the math. That’s $100 Gift Certificates for ONLY $80! Just mention Greenpointers and this deal is yours!
Founded in the summer of 2000 by Duke Riley, East River Tattoo is located on Brooklyn’s historic Greenpoint waterfront. The artists of East River Tattoo specialize in high quality custom tattoo designs in a variety of styles, heavily influenced by maritime folk art and 19th century traditional tattooing often evoking antique nautical charts, woodcuts, engravings and scrimshaw.
East River Tattoo
1047 Manhattan Avenue (between Freeman and Eagle)
(718) 532-8282
Follow East River Tattoo on Instagram @eastrivertattoo
Duke Riley’s Show See You At The Finish Line is opening tonight from 6-8pm at Magnan Metz Gallery (521 West 26th St) all the way in Manhattan – all the way between 10th and 11th St. The incredible journey documented in this solo show will make the measly trip across the East River and hike to the west side well worth it.
The US governement spends billions of tax payer dollars on high tech surveillance of the waters between the US and Cuba, but one thing their fancy balloons don’t detect – pigeons. As a sort of “FU” to the ridiculous “Trading with the Enemy Act,” Duke trained 50 homing pigeons in Key West to make the 100 mile journey from Cuba to smuggle cigars. Mission accomplished.
In a recent NY Times article Duke said, “I wanted to subvert this billions-of-dollars high-tech system with things that were being used in ancient Sumeria.”
Not only did 11 birds successfully return with cigars, others strapped with cameras filmed the journey. The shaky but unbelievable footage below will be shown in its entirety tonight, as well as the actual birds in their loft, their smuggling “bras,” the cigars and other objects. Plus, a pair of birds is for sale for $100,000 – live pigeons sold as artwork.
See You At The Finish Line is on view through January 14th, 2014.
Raf Delalande (guest artist who just arrived yesterday from France!), Rob Banks and Rachel Hauer will be tattooing their own flash pieces ranging from $50 ‘charms’ to $150 flowers/other stuff and donating the proceeds to Threads for Teens from 10am to 1pm.
Duke Riley’s Project Manager Kitty Joe, an awesome Greenpointer, wrote in to let us know about this charity that her niece Allyson Ahlstrom started in 2011 when she was 14. Allyson runs a boutique in Windsor, California that welcomes teens in foster care and cases of extreme poverty to ‘shop’ for free in an upscale boutique. The project started out simply to satisfy 10 hours of required community service through her school. After graduating from high school in May, she outfitted a 62′ trailer as a mobile boutique and is currently on the third leg of her 48 state tour of the country, making daily stops in cities to distribute clothing to deserving teens recommended by social agencies. Continue reading →
Just kidding – but if you are in looovvveee with someone who loves tats you should get them a gift certificate to one of Brooklyn’s most well known tattoo shops, East River Tattoo.
Bonus! East River Tattoo has a new beautiful location at 1047 Manhattan Avenue between Freeman and Eagle Streets. Be one of the first people to check it out!
East River Tattoo is moving from its current location on Franklin St to 1047 Manhattan Ave (betw. Freeman and Eagle) in January 2013, which is next week.
