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New York Post
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Knicks fans are getting permanent ink for playoffs: ‘Way more Knicks tattoos than I've ever done'
Knicks pride is more than skin deep. New York fan Brandon Soler is showing his love for the Big Apple hoops squad Friday by permanently etching a blue and orange team logo tattoo into his shin — and he's just one of many hoops-lovers flocking to city artists to get some team ink, as the Knicks continue to make their deep title run. 'It's New York and the Knicks – I also wanted to represent New York as a whole, where I'm from,' the 45-year-old Bronx man told The Post. Advertisement 4 Tattoo shops across the Big Apple are reporting a surge in requests for Knicks-themed tattoos during playoff season. Courtesy of Adam Korothy 'It's New York Proud. We're all proud people.' 'It was a spur-of-the-moment thing,' he added, as he got the work done at a studio in Gowanus run by artist Steven Avalos. Advertisement 'Really, just that I'm a big fan and they're doing well this year.' And Soler isn't afraid of having any regrets if the underdog squad goes down to the Indiana Pacers in game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals Saturday. He thought it might even bring the team some luck. 'I figured I'd get it in the first round [of the playoffs], we did well against the [Detroit] Pistons and we're doing it better. So I feel like it's more luck,' he said. Advertisement Nikhil Dhanani — who was also at Avalos' studio — opted for an arm tattoo with the Knicks' 'NY' logo spelling out 'New York' above the Unisphere from Flushing Meadows-Corona Park in Queens. 4 New York Knicks fan Brandon Soler, 45, got a permanent tattoo Friday with the team's blue and orange logo on his shin. Stefano Giovannini for NY Post 'New York's never leaving me,' the 26-year-old said. 'I've wanted the New York Knicks tattooed on me for the longest [time], it's been on my list – and then there was like all this New York pride going on right now,' he said. Advertisement 'It felt like the right moment to do it.' Avalos, who tattooed both fans on Friday, told The Post the Knicks' 2025 play off run, which saw them causing wild parties in the streets as they knocked off the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics, is causing a rush to get Knicks tats like he's never seen. 'It's way more Knicks tattoos than I've ever done,' said Avalos, 40, who has scheduled roughly a half-dozen Knicks-themed appointments for this week alone. 4 The Bronx native told The Post, 'It's New York and the Knicks – I also wanted to represent New York as a whole, where I'm from.' Stefano Giovannini 'I think this is the craziest I've ever seen Knicks fans, because of the playoffs. 'When it comes to being a Knicks fan, you kind of expect losing,' Avalos added, 'so I think that being a Knicks fan – or being a Jets fan – there's certain New York teams where you think you're never going to win. [Fans] are really just that glad they're doing well this year.' A rep for Live By The Sword, a tattoo shop with locations in Union Square, Williamsburg and Soho, similarly reported a surge in Knicks ink – and even dropped a 'flash' sheet of ready-made designs on April 25. 'We definitely have had a lot of interest in the Knicks designs,' a rep for the studio told The Post, adding that the flash sheet was shared among local ink lovers nearly 500 times online. Advertisement 'The Knicks are momentous right now,' said Michael Bellamy, a tattoo artist and owner of Red Rocket Tattoo in Midtown – which has been asked to do a 'handful' of tattoos honoring the Knickerbockers in the last month alone. 4 Soler got the tattoo at a studio in Gowanus, done by artist Steven Avalos. Stefano Giovannini Michelle Myles, a tattoo artist and co-owner of Daredevil Tattoo in the Lower East Side, similarly said Knicks fans have been no stranger to her shop — with fans getting everything from the Knicks' logo to team-inspired knuckle tattoos in recent weeks. 'If they continue on, I imagine we'll probably get some more [customers],' she said, noting the shop's upcoming Friday the 13th flash sheet will 'definitely' have Knicks-themed art. Advertisement Avalos, a longtime Brooklynite and Long Island native, told The Post that he notices a spike in New York sports team-related tattoos, unsurprisingly, when a team does well — and recalls a surge in Yankees-related tattoos during the Bronx Bombers' World Series streak in the early 2000s. 'The Yankees, I remember, they had a really good era of being champions,' he said, 'so imagine just growing up in New York and going to Yankee Stadium and seeing your home team win: It gave you a lot of pride for the city. 'I think sports tattoos are super important, it gives people the sense of pride of being a New Yorker [and] ownership of this city,' he added — though the Knicks ink may not be limited to just New Yorkers for long. Advertisement 'Tourists will hop on the bandwagon with that one,' Avalos said, 'if they win the championship.' The Knicks are down 3 to 2 against the Pacers, who they face in Indiana Saturday night. If they win, the series will go to it climactic Game 7 finale in New York Monday.
Observer
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Observer
Ketchup to Moon rock: What's the point of a World Expo?
Expo 2025 kicks off Sunday in the Japanese city of Osaka but in the age of online information and mass tourism, what is the purpose of a World's Fair? The huge events, which draw millions of visitors to a chosen city every five years or so, hark back to London's 1851 Great Exhibition held inside the Crystal Palace. As 160 countries and regions get ready to show off their technological and cultural achievements at the six-month Osaka Expo, we look at what it's all about: JAPAN-EXPO-OSAKA-2025 What is a World Expo? Expanding on national expositions in Paris at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, Imperial Britain built an immense glass Crystal Palace to host 14,000 exhibitors from 40 countries. That marked the start of the Expo phenomenon that over the decades introduced the world to ketchup, the telephone and X-ray machines among myriad other technologies. The Paris edition of 1889 featured the Eiffel Tower — intended as a temporary attraction — and Pablo Picasso's anti-war painting "Guernica" was first shown at one in 1937. Historically, World's Fairs did not just exhibit new technologies but also included racist displays of actual people from the colonies of the time. Do we still need Expos? While World Expos still showcase future technologies, some argue that the advent of the internet, mass media and cheaper foreign travel have made them redundant. Global turmoil in the form of conflicts and trade wars have also led critics to question the idealistic values of unity and development touted at the events. But organisers of Expo 2025 in Osaka have stressed that in-person exchanges between nations and the resulting "unexpected encounters" are still important. "Humans are creatures that have progressed, little by little, by coming together, interacting and sharing," they said. Among the dizzying number of displays this year are a meteorite from Mars, a beating "heart" grown from stem cells and the world's largest wooden architectural structure. Where are they held? Since 1928 the Paris-based International Exhibitions Bureau has run the Expos. More than 180 countries are members and the host city is chosen by a vote of its general assembly. This is Osaka's second World Expo after the 1970 edition — featuring a Moon rock — that was attended by 64 million people, a record until Shanghai in 2010. The United States once held frequent World's Fairs, as they are known there, leaving behind landmarks such as the Space Needle in Seattle and New York City's Unisphere. But the world's largest economy last hosted one in 1984, with some experts saying their popularity has been overtaken by the Olympic Games and attractions such as Disneyland. The Singapore pavilion What's in focus at an Expo? Buildings often take centre stage at World Expos and this year is no exception, with each country dressed to impress. The Chinese pavilion's design evokes a calligraphy scroll, while the Portuguese one created by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma features ropes that "evoke the movement of the ocean". "Expos have always acted and continue to act, as places of architectural experimentation," said Isaac Lopez Cesar from Spain's University of A Coruna. They offer a forum "where new architectural forms, new materials, new designs and structural typologies and, in general, new technological advances applied to architecture are tested", he said. What's the environmental impact? Themes of sustainability run through the Expo, including at the bauble-like Swiss pavilion, which aims to have the smallest ecological footprint. But World Expos have been criticised for their temporary nature, and after October Osaka's man-made island will be cleared to make way for a casino resort. According to Japanese media, only 12.5 per cent of the wooden "Grand Ring" — a vast structure that encircles most of the national pavilions — will be reused. — AFP The Azerbaijan's pavilion
