Mermaid

Here's a few preliminary sketches for Robert's mermaid tattoo. I like the one that's swimming up toward the surface the best. I don't want it to look realistic, I'm going for more of a Craig Driscoll look with this one. Anyway, this is really early on in the process, but I'd just thought I'd share. I'm really excited to be able to do something custom like this.

OKTOBRE pt.2

So apparently you can only upload 5 pictures at a time, which is gay. Yeah, I said gay. So here's the other two or so photos I wasn't able to upload on the last post. This was a walk-in so I only had about a hour to draw it, and an hour to tattoo it. I've noticed I've been doing a lot of blue/pink color schemes lately, I need to try something else. Sometimes it just takes a while before you catch yourself doing the same things over and over.

OKTOBRE

More taaaats. I don't really have the time to scan in all the drawings and make a lot of remarks on any of these. uh, enjoy. there is some "bonus" stuff in here for those who have already seen some of these on the ole' facebook.

from drawing to tattoo. . .

What people don't normally see in the process of getting a tattoo is all the hours spent beforehand on R and D. Research and drawing(forgive the awful pun) is just as essential as the actual tattoo itself. Now, I'm not complaining about the time spent doing this, most of the time, I am rightfully compensated. I just want the general public to know that when they do get tattooed, they are paying for a lot more behind the scenes work than they are aware of. I typically do a lot of drawings, especially if it's a subject I'm not familiar with, and really only a few make it to the final round. Some people don't really have something really specific in mind as well, so if I have the time to, I will present them with two or three options. Such is the case with William's tattoo. He said he wanted a samurai helmet with some clouds/ windbars and maybe some cherry or lotus blossoms in the background. None of the rough sketches are posted here, but the three finished sketches, the final linework sketch, and the tattoo can be seen below. This is the first session, it will probably take one more to finish.

some more shoulder progress

I did some further work on Tobias yesterday, finishing off his shoulder cap. This is the result. Some of the pics didn't turn out so well, but you get the idea.

shoulder progress

After tattooing Tobias for around a year and a half or so, He wanted to bring the tattoos on his shoulder together to kind of tell a story and make the entire thing like one big, flowing piece. The plan is to put water and waves surrounding everything, as water is has a significant place in Christian imagery, and goes well with the baptism of Jesus piece he has. It's still in progress, but the I wanted to share the wave on his chest, which is healed. Japanese waves are super fun to do, and, in my opinion, always look good.

grizzled frankenstein

This tattoo is another one of my thirty-dollar fun pieces that I got to do. I was in a bit of a rush to do it, so I only set up one liner. I would have liked to do some thinner lines inside to give it some contrasting line weight, but i think it turned out pretty well regardless. I have some kind of weird obsession with putting cigarettes in the mouth of every creature I draw. Well there you go. It's been a little slow around here so it might be a while before anything else goes up.