NY Convention

This piece was the majority of my time at the convention.

Friday I had a bunch of fun doing swirling clouds around the forearm of a super cool dude I know (got caught up in chatting and didn't get photos) for about six hours.  The above piece was pretty much most all of Saturday and a big chunk of Sunday (it's a really big tattoo, he's like 6'4" or more in real life and built like an ox).  Saturday we outlined everything, and finished the koi and the pink peony I believe (seriously, it was non stop and it's kind of a blur).  He had a fairly good sized tattoo on his upper arm that we were able to cover very successfully and still have everything flow nicely.

On Sunday we added the water and finished the flowers.  Eventually we'll add more black background around everything and really give it a traditional looking half sleeve silhouette.  He really wanted a half sleeve done in a weekend, but I just couldn't bring myself to cut the corners to make that happen.  When you're on the road, you're usually dealing with limited time constraints.  Folks tend to want to get as much as possible while they can,  and too often it can be tempting to choose quantity over quality.  I'd rather leave him with this portion finished in a way that I'm proud of and was done right with intention and focus (and we're the only ones that know it's gonna get more).  Also, I feel like the biggest virtue that big tattoo projects teach you besides perseverance is patience.

He hadn't gotten tattooed in a very long time, but did perfectly.  Couldn't have asked for a better guy to work with on this one.  I think we're both very motivated to continue on with this one and on to the other side...

And as a really great added surprise, Horitoshi came to give us a surprise visit!  When I first got to NY, I found out that he had just decided to come to New Jersey a few days after.  He was so good to me when I stayed with him in Japan, and has been such a big influence on me, that I was really bummed that I wouldn't be able to make it over there (full schedule of work) and he wouldn't be coming to the city.  Then on Saturday they decided to show up unannounced and surprise us (Shunho, who I was sharing the booth with) with a short visit...

It was a really great show and I'd really like to thank the folks who helped us out around the booth.  And an extra big thanks and debt of gratitude to Bill and Junii Salmon for entrusting the Diamond Club booth to me and trusting me to represent them in their absence.  Very big responsibility and honor in my world...