Sue came back to get another tattoo. This one is based on a drawing by the tattooer Steve Soto.
Sadly we didn’t have time to finish it this session but I’ll finish the shading and add some roses next time.
Here’s some of Sue’s other, healed tattoos I did last year.
Blog
Some Black & Grey Tattoos
Blossom Sleeve
It’s not often I get asked to do a full sleeve with just blossom and background. For me it’s a very classic traditional Japanese subject for a tattoo.
It’s not easy to plan out a sleeve without large foreground elements to anchor the composition but I enjoyed the challenge and I’m pleased with the outcome.
To make matters more difficult Andre has a pretty dark complexion, which isn’t a problem to tattoo, but it’s very difficult to photograph fresh tattoos on dark skin. Thanks to the brief period I worked alongside Thomas Hooper last month, I eagle-eyed his photography setup. When I got home I invested in lenses and lights that would help me get the best results from my photographs.
I’m looking forward to working on Andre’s other sleeve in the future.
Peonies in Progress
Here’s a couple of shots of a sleeve I’ve been working on sporadically for a couple of years.
Carp Half Sleeve
Alex travelled from Cornwall to get this tattoo. Thank you for your dedication and patience Alex.
Dragon Backpiece in Progress
Matthew has sleeves by Jason Saga and Alex Reinke.
He asked me to tattoo his backpiece taking influence from Japanese sumi-e paintings.
Neil’s Bodysuit in Progress.
I’ve been working on Neil’s bodysuit, on and off, for around 4-5 years now. Some of it is coverups, some is working around other tattoos. Some is working over older tattoos he’s getting lasered. Here’s some photos of the recent work on one of his legs. Some of the tattooing here is a couple of years old.
Carp Half Sleeve
I finished this half sleeve the same day as the backpiece below.
Carp Backpiece
Lal Hardy tattooed the two smaller Koi around a decade ago.
Tim Hendricks Machine
Tim Hendricks posted about a custom machine he just made for me, here.
I was recently diagnosed with carpal tunnel syndrome. If you’re interested, you can google it but the short story is that I needed to drastically cut down my work load, alter the way I tattoo, draw and pretty much do anything with my hands, remember to stretch and massage my wrists & hands but also pay attention to the physical weight of the equipment I use.
The planets seemed to align and while Valerie and I were in New York recently, we were invited to the Kings Avenue Tattoo 1st anniversary dinner. There I wound up sat next to Tim and we chatted, among other things, about carpal tunnel and other work-related pitfalls. I regularly use machines from a variety of machine builders and Tim’s machines run great but I particularly like to use them for black & grey tattoos. His machines aren’t heavy but if I can make them lighter I could tattoo for a little longer with them. I mentioned that if he, at any time in the future, had time to make a one-off super-light machine, I’d love to get one.
Little did I know that he’d work on it as soon as he got home. One more reason Tim is amazing
This machine looks, feels and runs great. Thank you Tim, for the machine and for showing a great example of how to be a great guy as well as a great tattooer and machine maker.
For me, it’s also another reminder, if I needed one, to use supplies and equipment from craftsmen instead of corporations wherever possible. The quality of the product is usually much better and I know I’m contributing to tattooing as a whole instead of filling the pockets of a company that doesn’t care about something I love.