Melinda's Medusa
Last month I met Melinda on the West 4th Street subway platform , a location I came to appreciate this past summer for its diversity of interesting tattoos. Our conversation began on the platform in Manhattan and ended in Brooklyn after a trip on the D train . Melinda has two tattoos and she shared this one, from her inner left forearm: She explained that this tattoo is based on the shield of Minerva (in the Roman pantheon) and Athena (in the Greek pantheon). The shield features the head of the serpentine-tressed Medusa who, if you didn't know, could turn creatures (men, mostly) to stone with a simple gaze. Melinda loves the contrast between the Minerva and Medusa figures and the relationship between the two mythologies. The tattoo was inked by Kelly Krantz , of the now defunct Hold Fast Tattoo in Brooklyn. Kelly now tattoos by appointment only, and more details can be found on his website here . Work by Kelly has appeared previously on Tattoosday here . Thanks to Melinda for he...