Vital Statistics: My name is Luba Muzichenko, most people just call me Luba because my last name overwhelms them.  On Twitter people know me as LubaSF, as do my blog readers. My occupation is, believe it or not, a realtor. There are lots of real estate agents that have a little tattoo here or there, but many agents tend to think I'm a little odd for putting something so huge and "unprofessional" on my body. Oh, and I'm 32.  

Tattoo: My name, in Russian, means "love." And this goddess is named Kurukulla, (also known as the Red Tara) and is the goddess of love in Tibetan lore. I loved that she is known to be both enchanting and erotic at the same time. She also is wise, a symbol of perfection, and stands on the a corpse that symbolizes ego -- which is essentially the root of all evil.  Crushing the ego; that was one of the most powerful images to me. It sounds cheesy, but in my business, people walk around with huge egos all day and they feel like if they don't act self-important, then they won't be a successful agent. My approach has always been to remain down to earth and even though I had been thinking about this piece for years before I became an agent, this was the confirmation that I needed that this piece was truly the perfect one for me - a reminder that a big-ass ego doesn't actually bring you happiness.
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The foot piece stretches from just above her ankles to the the tops of the toes ("I knew I should have painted my toenails today," Erin commented when we asked her to take off her shoes), and features a classic seafaring scene, complete with a pirate ship, anchor, waves, and flower. The piece isn't just a pretty work of art, however. It's an homage to her grandfather.

"My grandpa was a fisherman, and he went down with the ship," she calmly explained.
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 On the back of her right arm, Joanie Park has a tattoo of a light switch. It's simple and strange, and it tends to leave a certain kind of person powerless against the urge to approach and inquire, "Hey baby, can I turn you on?"

The classic response: "No, bro, I'm already on."

Park is 25 and works as a manager at Chrome, a hipster-y accessories store on Fourth and Brannan Streets. She has nine tattoos in all, and four of those were on display Monday afternoon.

On her left inner forearm, she's got two trees growing together at the roots and branches with "love" inscribed above. That's based on a painting by Park's aunt, and it's inspired by, you know, love.

"The reason it's on my left arm is because originally the idea of putting a wedding ring on your left finger was because they thought it led directly to your heart," Park said. 

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​Spotted: Strolling in Washington Square Park

Vital Statistics: Thom McClusky, retired, lives right by the Transamerica Pyramid.

When: May 6 1978, the night before my niece's wedding.

What: It's hard to tell now, but if you look at this half, it's a crescent moon. There's the eye, the nose the mouth and the beard. One half is a centaur, because I'm a Sagittarius. It's coming from behind the moon.

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Vital Statistics: Christy Colcord, video store co-owner.

Spotted: At her store, Lost Weekend, on Valencia in the Mission.

Tattoo: The logo for a music venue she really dug in northern Holland.

When/Where: "I got it in 1990. I was living in London at the time, booking European tours for American bands. I had booked Green Day's first European tour, and we were in Amsterdam. They wanted to get tattoos."

Incidentally, this was four years before Dookie would make Green Day a near-ubiquitous band. At the time, they were decidedly up-and-comers.

And Green Day got?:

"Billie got Baby Huey, the little baby that smokes a cigar [Ed.: Baby Huey was the gigantic duckling chick; Colcord may be thinking of Baby Herman from Who Framed Roger Rabbit]; Mike got ... I don't remember what Mike got."

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Vital Statistics: My name is Drea Ramos. I am a 25-year-old style and fashion writer/columnist. I am a single mother to the "most amazingest" and spunkiest son in the world, and he's the real inspiration behind my ink.

Tattoo: I have a half sleeve of a phoenix cradling a peony flower.

Why/When: Last year in September, I decided to get this piece because the phoenix is essentially meant to symbolize myself, and the peony which is cradled by the mythic bird is supposed to be my son. The reason why I was drawn to a phoenix was because they symbolize rebirth and divinity. By the bird cradling the flower, it symbolizes a protective and nurturing stance towards my son. I feel strongly about this piece because the meaning behind it is dear to me. Both my son and I have been through some shit together, side by side, the majors having been rising from a tough and rather abusive situation at home, to my son currently battling childhood cancer. I got this piece in honor of him because my son has proven to be a definitive warrior without really trying (coincidentally, his name [Arieson] means "son of the god of war") and he's only two! He's my hero, and I truly feel lucky to be his mother.

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Justin Miller as a relatively ink-free Minor Leaguer...

​Justin Miller has never picked up a copy of Ray Bradbury's The Illustrated Man or watched the 1969 Rod Steiger flick based on the book. But, as Pee-wee Herman told Dottie before they biked out of his own "life story" -- "I don't have to see it. I lived it."

Miller, 32, is a big, friendly looking man with a shaved head and a casual sartorial style; when he met us at AT&T Park he was wearing a sweatshirt, jeans, and Chuck Taylors. Before elbow inflammation landed him on the 60-day disabled list, he'd amassed a 3-3 record for the San Francisco Giants pitching in long relief. Like most baseball players, you wouldn't look at Miller and think "That guy must be a professional athlete" -- but you would look at him.

Justin Page

...and now as a San Francisco Giant (click pix for larger versions)

​When asked if he even knows how many tattoos he has, Miller shakes his head, smiles and admits he does not. "One," he says with a laugh. "Just say I have one big one." In short, Justin Miller is a tattoo. If we attempted to describe, in detail, every last one of Miller's marks we'd crash the bandwidth on our server. In Major League Baseball circles, the 2003 stipulation that pitchers with arm tattoos must wear long sleeves -- the tats ostensibly distract batters -- is known as "The Justin Miller Rule."

Miller -- who hails from Torrance, Calif. and has a two-foot-high "L A" emblazoned across his back amid scores of other tats -- got his first tattoo on his 15th birthday. He was escorted to the parlor by his father, who'd struck a deal with the future Major Leaguer -- the elder Miller had noticed that Justin's buddies were showing up with tattoos older friends had given them out of garage-based studios. Miller's dad figured that if he couldn't stave off his son's budding desire to be inked up, he might as well "be done professionally, done right."
 
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Vital Statistics: Tracy Tingle, 48, Food Justice Maven

Why/When: I've had a thing for fleur de lys for ages. Who knows why one gravitates toward certain imagery? The number three is one that crops up in my life in numerous places, so the triad represented in the image holds import. Also, I've had an affinity for so long that it's become akin to a "personal power symbol."  Sounds cheesy, I know, but there you have it. I got the one at the base of my neck in 1991 (Deborah Valentine did it), and the other four in 2007. I've been getting work done on various spots over a 20-year period, some in timely proximity, some with years between. I wanted to be sure of design-- it took a while to decide. Plus, money. More >>

Eva Dancel-Jensen

​Vital Statistics: My name is Travis Jensen. I'm a 30-year-old writer, photographer and skateboarder living in San Francisco's Miraloma Park district, a neighborhood that many locals refer to as "The Mountains." Ever taken the 36 Teresita? It's a rare bird.    

Tattoo: I have a large, intricately detailed black and gray tattoo of the Ferry Building on the outside of my left forearm. The piece is complete with flocking seagulls and a sun with rays of light peeking through patches of dense fog.  I've seen plenty of different San Francisco skyline tattoos over the years, but none of them ever include the Ferry Building.

Eva Dancel-Jensen

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Why/When: I got the tattoo about two years ago to celebrate my ten year anniversary of living in The City. The tattoo has a couple of different meanings:

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This shot was taken the day Palarca got her lower-body tattoo.

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Vital Statistics: Juliet R. Palarca, RN Risk Manager at San Francisco General Hospital

Spotted: Foraging for food at her parent's house in the Outer Sunset, or your neighborhood dive bar.

Tattoo: Tribal sharks with Filipino script (alibata), Philippine feminine and Polynesian symbolism.

Why/When: I got these shortly after I bought my home a couple years ago -- a developmental milestone for me at 26. It celebrates my achievements, my cultural identity, Philippine American nationalism and unconditional love for my family, the ocean, and Polynesian dancing. ... I'm a bit of a nerd for sharks. I never miss Shark Week on Discovery. I have a profound respect for the creatures. Ancient Polynesians even treated them like gods. They were seen as protector of fishermen and "guiders of lost canoes". ... I knew I wanted to make the tattoo personal and meaningful and my artist, Aleks Figueroa, really captured that for me. The top shark has the Philippine Sanskrit for "Pa" "La" and "Ka" down the back. [For Palarca's last name.] There's no 'R' in alibata. The octopus is my mother -- three visible tentacles for her three daughters and one for my dad.

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