Lir and his Children, Prometheus

This swan and skull tattoo is a take on The Children of Lir, a story in Irish folklore. Lir is lord of the sea and his children were turned into swans by their jealous step-mother. They remained swans for 900 years, until a magic bell broke the spell. Pretty fun story with tons of possibilities. I would really like to do some more tattoos based on this story. 

We outlined this Prometheus sleeve a week or two ago. Here we have Prometheus chained to a cliff face shirking away from the eagle that comes daily to eat his liver, as punishment for giving fire to humans. At the top Zeus is lording over fire.

There's some other stuff going on in this drawing though. We're also drawing a parallel between fire and knowledge and have included books as a way of getting that idea across.  The eagle is holding olive branches, arrows, and a ribbon in one claw, alluding to the eagle on the Great Seal of the United States. Zeus is holding the torch of Liberty. Fun stuff.

I've also been tattooing more foliage recently. I'd be interested in doing a few more trees if anyone's looking to get a tree tattoo. Pictured here is a crape myrtle and it is the opposite side of the shotgun house I tagged a few posts ago. Sorry for the poor photo - it was taken on my phone.

Cusp of the Year

The last month of 2012 gave me some fun things to end the year on.

Thomas came all the way down from Shreveport to get this tree, a commemorative for his son who was just born this fall. Trees might appear to be an easy subject to render, but tattooing foliage gets pretty challenging. It was a ton of fun. 

Here we have a serpent/dragon/sea monster/dinosaur type creature for Nick! He is so angry at that little volcano! Or maybe he just read a bad horoscope prediction... we'll have to wait and find out i spose... Not the best photos but I'm hoping to get more once it's healed. It's on this upper-middle arm and extends into the inner arm. One day perhaps we'll extend onto the forearm and see what the rest of it looks like?

This shotgun style house is typical of New Orleans neighborhoods and has become kind of iconic. Here, however, the house is part of the collector's memories of his grandparents, and the whole tattoo is a wrap of various memories of his grandparents and the passage of time. The tracks on this side of his leg (pictured) represent the path through the physical world, and on the other side of his leg (not pictured) the tracks are a passage into the tombs (spiritual side). There is a spot where the two sets of tracks intersect on this shin/foot, which could be read as the intersection of life and death. There's a few other significant elements intertwined into this tattoo which will be unveiled as we get more completed!

The year 2012 was super and I was glad to have ended it yesterday with a fun, smaller tattoo. I got to do a small shrimp boat on Kim that is not pictured, but it was also a very fun one and it was not very large to boot!  We had a difficult time getting a good photo because of the weather and the placement on the body. Of course I will get one once it's healed and perhaps a little more favorable outside.

Thanks again to all of my clients and collectors - it's been a rewarding year and I'm looking forward to the next! Happy New Year and Cheers!