Our @bloghomework from @missy and @rambo this week was to talk about who and what are dream tattoo would be. Pretty fitting for this website, right?
Well, I am kind of lucky because I have gotten one of my dream tattoos out of the way. Last April, I traveled to the far away land of Seattle to meet a great wizard named Derek Noble. I had heard about him through a guy I used to date. He had mentioned the name since we were supposed to go to Ink n Iron together. I looked up his work and became reeeaaallly interested. He has a very particular style that is fairly uncommon, especially in my area. I had conversed with this man back in October to set up an appointment all the way in April the following year, he's just that busy of a guy. My original idea centered on one of these horses which are of his design.
The outcome was more then I could have imagined. Here are some photographs to document the joining of his majestic artisty to my very flesh.
The man hard at work
I found this tattoo to be amazingly beautiful even just as line work and some shading...but wait...there's more!
My sweetly designed sausage leg.
He slaved long and hard on that piece. Because I was traveling from SoCal to Seattle specifically for this tattoo, I was pretty insistent we finish it in one go. See, I am horribly impatient and the only alternative would have been to meet up with him several months later at Ink n Iron to finish the piece (since I couldn't afford another trip up). It was finished in one day, about 8 hours. I pretty much could not walk on that leg for a day or two afterwards. But man, was it worth it. I had someone recognize it as his work while I was at InI last year and I get regular compliments on those who see it. I feel it's a really unique piece...and it's all mine!
One day, sooner rather then later, I would love to get tattooed by Alex Strangler. She does wonderful, fun pop culture pieces as well as these beautiful mendala designs. All of them are always bright colors. I've settled on one of her mendala designs on my left shoulder area.
My last dream piece would come from Derrek Everette. I love his neo-traditional work and would love to have his women on me. His style also reminds me of Derek Noble's.
I am lucky to have a superb artist that I already go to on a regular basis, Brynne Palmer. She's already done 4 of my pieces including my sternum and my special memorial piece for my mom. I trust her judgement and let her make some of the decisions like color direction. I am hopefully in the works to get something else done by her but it is definitely nice to have something different once in a while. Variety is the spice of life, right?
I can't wait to read other's blogs as you never know what artists you might discover in your own backyard!
