Mermaid

I've been too busy to keep up on the blog lately, so the next few are from the last couple weeks.

Got all of the hair colored in on this.  It took a little longer than I expected but it's a pretty good sized tattoo.

She wanted a redhead, which we didn't want to look super orange, so we went with the more earthy, muted look.  The vibe we are going for is mature and classy, using richer tones...not super bright or cartoony.  Lately I've been leaning a lot towards a more subtle color palette and people seem to be digging it...

NYC Tattoo Convention

Just got back from the NY tattoo show.  I've worked in NY I believe around 7 or so times now and this was by far the best for me.

Nice steady but relaxed pace of work, and got to spend some real quality time (and eat some incredible food) with truly amazing people.  I stayed with my friend Shinji (Horizakura, from Tokyo now living and working in NY) and his wife, and shared the living room with another friend visiting from Tokyo, Masataka (Shunho is his tattoo name).  They are both members of the Horitoshi family and amazing people.  Their level of dedication to their craft, artistic capabilities, and just how they carry themselves as individuals and representatives of their family and teacher was very inspirational. 

 As always I worked with my tattoo"family"and mentors...Bill and Junii Salmon from the Diamond Club in SF.  Cruising around Manhattan and working with these amazing folks was very special and as good as it gets.  Already looking forward to next year...

Clockwise from L...Junii, Bill, Me, Miki, Horizakura, Shunho

P.S.  I was so wrapped up in the convention, I didn't take any actual tattoo pictures...

Body Suit

Pretty much capped in most of that section around the arm pit.  This was one of those shortened session due to the back injury, but forward progress is always welcome.

Almost time to start thinking about colors...

Chrysanthemum Cover-Up

So the mission is to cover this up completely...

She was fairly open to ideas, but kept bringing up chrysanthemums as something she was super into, so that's where we headed...

I'm not gonna lie, this was pretty difficult.  Had to draw it on and as soon as the body temperature started rising, that pen was wiping off like nobody's business.  Had to try and work very loose and kind of go with the flow.  The image underneath is also pretty dark and at times it was hard to see what was going on.  Chrysanthemums have a lot of lines and the are always over and underlapping themselves, so it can get confusing very quick if you're not reall aware and focused.

All that complaining aside, I feel super good about the results.  She really didn't want to have to get a gigantic tattoo to cover the vine, and I feel that we're keeping it a pretty managable size considering the difficulties asscoiciated with cover ups...

Going to be outling the other half later today.  Wish me luck...

Portfolio

I recently realized that it's been a year since I added any photos to my portfolio.

I try to stay somewhat current on this blog, but it's nice (and necessary) to have an actual physical portfolio for folks to check out.  Usually I print some photos up at the local drugstore photo department and try to stick them in a nice album.

Inspired by my great friend (and amazing tattooer in SF) Kahlil, I've decided to just get an actual small hardbound book made.  It's super clean and really is a convenient and classy presentation.

My other good friend and graphics guru Sonny Wong helped me lay everything out in Photoshop.

These are a few sample pages from the book.

Hopefully if I ever decide to embrace computers, I'll figure out how to put this actual portfolio in a gallery somewhere on this blog...

All in all, I'm very happy with this new look and feel it's a much better way to represent myself.

Koi, Skull and Chrysanthemum Leg

Got a lot of shading done down the back of the leg (all those rocks and the water).

At one point I looked at what I was doing and realized how much black was being put into the back of the knee...poor guy.  He did awesome as usual though and we're both liking the fact that some more darkness is getting worked in to contrast all the soft shading at the bottom.

We were the only ones in the shop for this one, so the door was locked and the phones went unanswered.

It was very relaxing and we were both able to be super focused and "in the zone"...

Medicine Buddha

Definitely one of the more intense line jobs I've done in a while.

I was a bit nervous because of the injured back (if I'm shading something and need to stop early it's no problem, but with a line job like this once you get going there's no turning back...) but we pulled it off.

Three different outline thicknesses and a bit of time later and it all worked out.  Maybe the power of the Medicine Buddha transferred to me and helped me through (seriously).  These types of images can be even a bit more intense to do because of the psychic importance they have to the wearer.  As if tattooing anything nice on anyone isn't enough of a karmic responsibility...

Plans for the future are black and grey shading, then eventually blending in the existing tattoo and turning it into a 3/4 sleeve...