Still Making Tattoos
But don’t tell anyone because I keep hearing I am retired. Maybe if enough people believe it I will actually be able to.
When Robert first came in for his consultation appointment he had given me a list of things that he wanted in his tattoo. Now normally when this happen I send the person back home with their list to pick their top three must haves and then put the rest of the items in order of importance. Normally I can’t fit everything in and I need to know what is super important and what is “if it works”. Instead Robert went through and talked to me about what each symbol meant to him and why he was looking to have it included. He told me that I could pick anything from the list to use and he would be fine with it. I have heard this before from people that I didn’t believe – but I did believe him… and it has turned out to be a super fun project. It has been a real pleasure getting to know Robert and his amazing wife Kara (and their incredible daughter too!). They are the kind of family I think most of us would have given anything to have grown up in. I look forward to the progress on this piece and the time that I am able to spend with all of them.
Leslie wanted an anatomical heart made out of flowers to go on the site of her mastectomy. She is another exceptional human being. I could spend all day hanging out with her. Besides her aesthetics are almost identical to mine. Everything she sent me for reference I though “I love this!!”. The hard part will be filtering down all of the really really amazing ideas before we run out of room.
These photos are from her second sitting on this piece. She is coming in again soon and all of this will be much larger by the time we are finished. Looking forward to it.
Second session on this Freya half sleeve. Super glad that we got to include some of Her kitties. Looking forward to adding the rest of this on as well.
This piece I took a risk on. I completely deviated from the specs that Alex and I had agreed to. I was fully prepared for Alex to come in and tell me “this isn’t what we talked about” – but fortunately that isn’t the way that it went and I was fortunate enough to get to make this tattoo that I was MUCH happier with than how the original specs looked once I drew them out. It’s funny. Sometimes we can envision something in our heads and then when we try to put it down on paper realize that it JUST doesn’t quite work. Thank you Alex for trusting me with this project and being so flexible when it went a different direction.
For his son Lincoln.
Started this celtic axehead on Frank. Don’t let anyone kid you, rib tattoos HURT and Frank sat like a rock.
Then Gretchen came to see me. Gretchen is one of my favorite humans ever. I am so grateful that tattooing brought her into my life. She came bearing the most AMAZING gifts!! and I returned the favor by hurting her way more than usual 😦 On the upside that means she will have to come back again to get this finished. But on the downside I felt like a complete asshat for hurting someone I care about.
Sorry Gretchen. Thank you for being awesome and understanding. I’m glad you aren’t holding this session against me.
Got to make this RottWeiler tattoo for Al. I haven’t worked on him in a while and it was nice to catch up. He was also nice enough to let me grab some healed photos a couple of weeks later.
Super super excited about this I Hate Fairyland tattoo that Starr asked for. She refers to Gertrude as her Guardian Asshole. I have to admit that I made an error on this one. Starr asked me to give Gertrude a gold tooth – but I forgot. Hoping to get a minute where we can add that back in for her when we both have time.
Spank Me. No commentary necessary.
Deer Skull chest piece. Skin was VERY red, so I desaturated the photo so that it reads better, but it makes the left side look too dark. It will lighten up when it heals.
So there was that time that Britney Spears got a little upset with the paparazzi… and now it is immortalized forever on Jesse’s leg. I so love my friends.
Fun (and different take on) Jesus on the cross as a tattoo. Hard to get a good photo of this because of where it is on his arm. This was not my idea, it’s a standard flash tattoo from the internet that I redrew custom for him. So the drawing is mine but the concept is not.
Healed pocket watch tattoo on the same gentleman.
So I’m still making tattoos, at least for the time being. Try not to tell anyone because the next text from some idiot asking me to tattoo his name on his woman’s neck 10 minutes from now might be the moment that pushes me over the edge. Or Yelp. They might be the proverbial straw. Hard to say…
Cool tattoos and good people will continue to be welcome as long as I can hold on to my sanity. If not, Gertrude and Skottie Young have left me with some excellent suggestions.
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