Published August 2009 in TATTOO Magazine
by Polly Gee
Daytona Beach collector Wendy Keezer is a rare specimen—a native-born Floridian. Speaking from her job as a bartender at The Station, a popular Daytona watering hole, Wendy says, "I think that tattoos are for the be-yourself kind of person and that's what I am, so I kinda fell into it. It also happened that not long after I got my first tattoo, which was my backpiece, I married a tattooist who goes by the name of Crazy Dave. It was love at first ink," she continued. "Now we have two kids and just opened up our own shop, Daytona Hardcore Tattoo. People look at my ink and know where they want to go."
The wings on Wendy's back were taken in memory of a friend. The initial rendering took 14 hours, but after Wendy and Dave met, the tattoo was further refined. "Dave spent another eight hours on it and sort of refeathered it," says Wendy. He also added a Marilyn Monroe pinup on the back of her leg, now being sleeved, and also created the art seen on her arm.
About her arm she says, "I've always been interested in the Aztec culture, so we went with that theme. I'm all about the color. I also like snakes, so I chose the emerald tree boa, one of my favorite snakes. We'll be bringing that imagery down my whole arm, adding more Aztec images and also two baby emerald tree boas which happen to be born red, so they'll contrast well with the green."
Then Wendy casually mentions that her interest in snakes goes beyond skin deep images. "It all started with a friend whose father had a reptile shop," she says. "One day I got a baby snake, and ever since then, they've been my favorite pets. I have a nine-foot python at home. The snake's name is Angel. It eats rabbits."
