A cool pic with happy vibes! You can read my babble about it on my art blog if you’d like… (HERE) Or just enjoy the happy vibes picture and leave it at that.
Hell Raiser
Found this in my picture files. It is not the best pic and even has bra strap marks running through it, but I really liked the theme of this one so here it is… She is a hell taker! The idea was this spider like gall went to hell and basically kicked some devil butt. Now she is sitting there showing the skull of old Beelzebub with a background featuring the flames of hell itself and demons kinda showing (my brain says dancing) in the flames. This is obviously an aged tattoo (at time of photo) and I really wish I had been able to get a better pic. I always prefer aged over freshly healed and healed over fresh done when it comes to tattoos.
The client had really thought this one out and had a ton of references. I basically put them all together kinda like a paste up / collage, but by drawing all the bits together. No guesswork was needed… Boots, body, lips, garter belt, jewelry, demons, flames, pillars, zipper, skull, the whole works all came on separate printouts. Overall I like the outcome and totally dig the theme.
Birdy and a brush
A little birdy and a paint artist’s brush tattoo …
Pretty Gladiolus
Some colorful stylized gladiolus which the client requested because both she and her daughter were born in August. Gladiolus are the birth flower (one of) for the month of August.
I went with a soft, barely visible outside the leaves sketch line here because I wished the colors to form the floral shapes rather than the lines. The color selection didn’t lend itself to a zero line tattoo because over time the softening would have made the image blur.
I used what I considered ‘just enough’ soft line to hold it all together over the years to come.
If you are wondering about the background on this one…
The tattoo is on a close friend and the picture was taken at a local market (Country Aire in Port Angeles) which is less than a block from my place of work. I saw the tattoo and thought “photo opportunity” and clicked off a couple shots with my phone. Not sure how entertained she was with me taking pictures of her back while shopping, but I prefer healed tattoo pictures and hadn’t gotten one yet. The tattoo was about three months old at the time of the photo.
If you notice the tattoo on her far right side you can guess she likes floral tattoos. I did that one also, but it was maybe four or five years ago.
Cruella de Vil
An oldie – Cruella de Vil – AKA Cruella De Mon or Cruella D’Enfer who resides in Hell Hall and loves her fur. This particular tattoo was done on my very own cousin who happens to be a huge Disney fan and a major lover of Cruella. This (tattoo) is an oldie with the picture taken a long time after the tattoo was done. I think she had received three or four tattoos between getting this and me thinking to take a pic. That makes it a few years between tattoo and photo. Worry not, her love of Cruella and One Hundred and One Dalmatians has not faltered. It is a classic!
Dreamcatcher
A nice simple dreamcatcher tattoo with a wolf howling into the sky.
Foo Dog
Inside of the upper arm… A Foo Dog. That is what we here in the USA call them anyways. “Foo Dogs”, Fu Dogs “Fu Lions”, “Fo Lions”, and sometimes “Lion Dogs.” We have a lot of cool names for them. They are actually just lions. Guardian lions to be precise. In China they call them “shi” usually. That basically means “lion” I think. Anyways… these guys are believed to have extremely powerful protective benefits and keep the bad away. This particular Foo Dog is of the male variety. It is pretty much an almost kinda sorta rule to always depict the male with the ball and the female versions with a cub. That is a fun bit of trivia for you to keep in mind for the next time you visit China Town, where I am sure you will see at least one set of Foo Dogs.
