Freehand cover-up tattoo of some organic coral-type structures on the backs of both legs. I did this tattoo quite some time ago but I neglected to get a ‘before’ picture so I hesitated to post it. Anyway, this covers the word “White” on one leg and “Pride” on the other…so there’s that.
We did it all in one day, about 5 hours per leg. It was a lot to spring on me spur-of-the-moment but the old tattoo needed to be covered. Like I said this is quite old so the photo is meh.
De-railing the gravy train! What can I say… I had a good time/ stressful time doin’ this one. Due to scheduling restrictions we did this piece over a two-day period. We worked about 4 hours the first day getting the design drawn on (freehand of course) and outlined everything then did most of the sky in the background. We met back the next afternoon and did another four hours doing all of the color. I can only imagine how bad that would feel because I would never do that to myself! You guys that get tattooed back to back days are freakin’ nuts. I always feel bad for them, however I can’t take it easy on ‘em. I gotta do, what I gotta do and besides “Captain Insane-o shows no mercy”
Since this was a two-day job (did I mention that) it was hard to get good photos of it but I pieced this together from the ones that were salvageable. Showing a tattoo like this one is difficult, since it wraps all the way around the limb and is one continuous image.
We did the Doughboy dressed as a bandit, hiding in the bushes and blowing up the railroad tracks in the peaceful little countryside scene. Hard to see in the photos but the explosion is blowing out little cookies, crescents, bits of the train tracks, a failing grade (F-) and a rolling-pin. The engine is bucking up from the explosion causing the flat car with the fancy gravy boat to crash, spilling all that precious fortune and glory! And finally you gotta have a nice caboose bringing up the rear. The caboose was the last part we did so it’s still bleeding a little in the photo.
In hind site, I wish I had put a great big evil mustache on the doughboy. Especially since the owner of this tattoo has double bad-ass ‘stache of his own. Another memorable session with fun people. Stay classy
Freehand mechanical leg innards, done on the leg of a marathon runner. He wanted his nickname “Mr. Perfect” and his birth year in the design as well so I stamped them into some metal.
Hell Yeah! How often do I get told to make it look gross!?… Not enough that’s how often.
All the “redness” around the wound is tattooed on as well. He said he wanted to make it look like it was in the skin somehow, I suggested to make it carved into the flesh and irritated. He loved it. Sure was a fun 2 hours worth of tattoo.
This tattoo weighs in at 8 inches tall and we did it on the young lady’s calf and took about 2 hours or so. I would love to take credit for the concept but it was all her! What a great piece. Her idea to commemorate her families sewing and needlepoint bond, we did a cross stitched rose becoming real. Brilliant.
This little fairy piece took some time (about 3 hours). The client just told me she wanted a flow-y design and to think “purple fantasy”. This is what I came up with and I had fun making it come to life. She took really good care of it and it healed perfectly!
I used to do a lot more black and grey tattoos. The trend was towards bright colors for quite a while but I find myself doing more and more black and grey again or black and grey with small hits of color (which is my favorite to do). The only color in this tattoo are the wolf’s eyes. (the purple near the top is a little of the stencil) I have some other examples of what I’m talking about elsewhere in my portfolio. I’ll provide links below after they’ve been posted.
Sugar Skull tattoo on the back of the client’s calf. This tattoo is about 8 inches tall and took about 3 hours to complete.
This was a rare instance of tattooing someone else’s artwork for a client. I didn’t create the original version of this design but I tried to add a little of my own style to the piece.
