Hot out ch'ea - Hokusai, Temptation, and Prometheus sleeves and such

Long time no post no time but here's bunch of pics.

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!

Ganesh and mouse

Busy few weeks! A few new things got added to Valerie's collection - 

 - a Ganesh! With mouse!

octopus + mermaid

This coverup is pretty fun. His instructions were, "Big, and maybe an octopus". I'm covering a blobby caricature on the upper arm with the octopus' spots, but then I'm recycling the old bust of the sailor-girl, turning her into a mermaid. Part of that process involves layering some pale tones over the existing features that interfere (ex: mouth). After it heals I'll go back into it more thoroughly and finish her details. This is the second session so far. 

Thor vs Midgard Serpent

The past two weeks has been great in terms of completions. We started this Thor vs the Midgard Serpent maybe two months ago, so in terms of speed, Gaven got this finished pretty quick. It was a lot of work and a ton of fun, and this kid is a crazy trooper! The last session was 6 hours long, and his previous sessions were no short stories either. I'm impressed. That's dedication. I think it was worth it too.

Nick's Underwater Scuba Scientist

Nick and I started this sleeve 3 years ago - first to the length of a half-sleeve, then the inside of the arm, then down to the wrist, leaving the elbow for last... what a long wait! But it's finally over. It was weird. I was like, "I guess that's it, dude?" Haha.

It's an underwater/diver theme. Started off with a bunch of creatures, then took on more of a narrative with the treasure chest and diver/scientist.

The scientist is trying to capture the green-glowing-seahorse in a specimen jar, but the octopus, shark, and other sea-creatures are awfully protective of the little guy.

shirts? + thor workings

Although I haven't been blogging, I've been working quite a bit. I have three art shows in August coming up, and some new drawings/paintings and of course, tattoos!

Oh, and maybe some shirts and merch? Just some of the things jostling around my head. Maybe a coffee mugs, maybe a hoodies... who knows! I would like your thoughts though, so if you think of anything you'd like to see just let me know! Here's two of the designs I've been playing around with. More than likely if it's a shirt or whatev it would have both, but like a coffee mug or pint glass would have one...

HHorW. Hell or High Water.

Don't know why, but I took this photo at an angle... but you can see the idea, yes?

Cats and Skulls, what's not to love? I am imagining it on a tan/brown hoodie or shirt.

Thor! Session 2.

Let me know what you guys think of the shirts/merch designs... and the tattoos too! Feedback is always appreciated. As far as the art shows go, I will have to debrief in another post. Very tired, but have a great weekend!

Pirates, hammers, snakes, burning people, clocks...

July has been chock full of new, larger work, but most of it is still in the beginnings (ie, outline/some rendering). I have a couple to post though. Some of the ones that made it a little further than the outline so you can kind of see what's going on a little better.

Derek's Pirate Theme in progress. We're covering up a very old tattoo in the upper middle. This is the second sitting. 4/5 hours total so far. Fun things going on all over this tattoo!! (and a couple surprises - I do like surprises)

Klackity-Klack! Thor Fighting the Midgard Serpent. No cover up here, just pale skin and a kid who can sit like a champ. Maybe 3 hours or so at this point. Again, sooo much fun.

Craig Boe, a man of myth. Sits for hours on end without a peep. How does he do it?? I think we did 4.5 hours of rendering here, with 3 hours of outline on a prior day. Something like that. One more sitting and then pumping some white in there for measure.

I do traditional stuff too, sometimes. If you ask nice. And Jill is really nice. This one is all done, I just trew it in here as a lil treat at the end.

There's more in the making so stay tuned! Maybe one of these days I'll remember to bring my real camera so you won't have to look at these phone pictures. 

Winding up

I have a couple of newer photos of an in-progress art nouveau inspired tattoo to share - The piece incorporates a bunch of local flower varieties, including: gladiolus, magnolias, swamp iris, camellia, and azalea.

It's a particularly labor intensive piece - and I'm trying to keep it simple! Execution wise that is. At this point we are somewhere in the middle stage, probably just past the middle. The middle stage is many hours long you see... but after the middle hump things really start to take shape. The overall look of this piece is going to change either the next sitting or the one after, once I go over the background again. You will see!

and since we we're going on about works in progress, I'll just throw in a few better pics of the scuba diver. Enjoy!

We just have his elbow left, and some bit here and there. Can't wait.

Special Seahorse Specimen

I've been back to work for three days now - today will make it my fourth - and my wrist is feeling waaaay better than I thought. Especially while tattooing. And that's awesome.

On Tuesday I got to work on a really fun piece on a fun client, whose tip of a giant sack of various coffees kept me going during my tightly-budgeted-recovery in my cast, when I wasn't able to work. We did some more coloring on his forearm, which depicts an old-timey scuba diver/scientist being attacked by an octopus while trying to grab a specimen jar in which he's captured a seahorse. Much fun!

Peacock swoop

Here's a quick post. On Monday I started a large peacock on Virginia, a local bartender. It was a marathon session - 5 hours just on the outline! But she's tough. Definitely one of the more patient clients out there. It was a really fun drawing, a bit of a challenge in terms of placement, but that's fun for me too. Of course, it's going to be vivid and colorful in true peacock fashion.

And she's got a lllooot of work lined up! Not only is she getting the peacock, but she's also getting her other shoulder/back redone by Chris Black, who used I used to work with in Kenner, but who now works at Eyecandy Tattoos. He and a few others left Electric Expressions in the beginning of January, and Chris settled there. It's good to see him (almost) as often, since he's right up the street from us. Chris has a blog as well - http://chrisblacktattoo.com/ - check it out!

 Ok - So here's them: