"Live to Ride"

Man, this guy sure had stories about motorcycle accidents. He was fun to talk to and spends most of each year professionally racing on huge bike tracks. This is his right arm; the left will have "Ride to Live" on it some day.

Jennifer Cover-up

This is a cover-up from an ex-wife's name on a man's arm. It didn't work out, so it needed to be fixed.

The man was told by another shop that he would have to turn the shape into a huge black mark somehow in order to hide what was originally there. I told him I could do a few more things than that and he was hooked. He knew he wanted an exclamation mark, so I created one out of broken glass. You can still see "Jennifer" if you look carefully, but if you weren't aware of it being there, you'd probably not notice it at all.

I actually forgot to take a before picture so here's the highlight.

Apple

A pretty cool story to go with this one. The client took this image from the albums created for The Beatles, but turned from green to orange. The reason she changed the color was to symbolize a family member of hers whom was a model for a character on Snow White with Walt Disney. Pretty awesome story.

The details were difficult, but I like the effect when it has. The guys told me this would take 3-4 hours, but the client was only there for 2 total.

Wow... the Christmas season is awful for tattoos apparently. I hope that after people are spending money on others, they are once again able to go back to the art of bodily expression. This girl came to the shop, obviously, but things have been slower since about Thanksgiving.

My 1st Koi Fish

This design was a surprise. I was texted last night by a regular client of mine, informing me that he wanted to meet me this morning at the shop. He, who is student teaching right now, by the way, got this fish on his forearm. I, being a teacher, am very hesitant to put anything on a place that will show at work and have no intention of being required to wear long sleeved shirts my whole career. However (and it sounds like it was teacher day at InFamous Ink), there were two other clients who were getting work done today who teach at various places near here. These women also wear their tattoos with pride at school. I am starstruck.

Anyway! The fish was derived from an image we found online, but changed. I shaded the entire thing impromptu and created the waves based on a few different styles we saw as we were looking for ideas. A complete original! And not bad for my first Koi fish. It only took my a year and a half of tattooing to do a design that is this common. Odd. But I'm very pleased.

"Always Faithful"

This phrase is the English translation of the Marine Corps slogan "Semper Fi." Looking at different type fonts, I suggested that we try out a look that is textured, rather than completely solid. He said he liked it because it was different. I kind of think it looks like a slightly shiny texture with a rigid feel.

Sons of Anarchy

This design comes from a show I have never seen; it's name is Sons of Anarchy. This thing took me forever. a total of 3 hours. I attribute most of this time to the intricate details that the white lines call for, as you cannot cover those with black beforehand. Then the fire. ... The firs took a long time all by itself. Detailed and tedious. However, despite the time taken, the client will be back for more soon. He's thinking of another symbol from the same show.

Recent catch-up from an old piece

I have not had a whole lot of work lately, despite my waiting at the shop. I haven't had the best luck in picking times to do this second job lately. But oh well!

I was able this last week to complete the "strength" kanji started ever so long ago. In fact, this was one of the first ever tattoos by me. It was left outlined for some time. Finally, I was able to meet up again with this guy and finish it. He allowed me to come up with the designs in the middle of the symbol. It's freehand work, and I like it. He loves it. He requested the sword, while the rest came from different inspiring ideas he talked about as we went on. The skulls were a must and the floating dismembered eye were just cool.

 

Brothers in Arms. ... or Brothers on Arm and Chest

The two brothers had a family member who was recently diagnosed with leukemia. To honor them, as well as others they know and love with similar ailments, they got these tattoos this morning. Slight variations make each one unique, but the main idea the same. I'd like to mention that the design was created by the client. He laughed because it was a rough sketch that he sounded like he expected to change a lot, but it ended up being very similar indeed. Minor shading added.

Tree Roots and Branches

This one is finally done! I took the original pieces from weeks ago and finished them all in a unified piece. I love working with tree branches. Somehow, the element of chaos involved in free-handing the lines makes it easier to make a more incredible design.

Update from a week later below:

Heart and Keyhole

The title on this design is the name of the client's band. "Live or Die Trying," such an awesome phrase!
Below it is the sentence, "If we fail, we fail together." With the dates of several people who are pivotal to the wearer's life.

Construction Cross

 This client works with iron (as you can see) and designed this cross made of I-beams. I only adjusted it a little bit, including perspective, shadows, and draping the flag over it, as per his request. It is 6 inches tall, and took about 2.5 hours. Maybe closer to 3.

I used a 5 liner for the lines and letters. Everything else was a 5 magnum.

Tennessee "T"

 

This is a really cool marine from Tennessee. He's got a lot of national and state pride was was fun to talk to. I was concerned with the idea of putting white in each of the white checkers that this concept called for; white is really difficult to get to stick in large areas. What I came up with was only outlining the white boxes to let is jump out still, but not risk having a bunch of it fall out. It gave the orange a cool lift from the rest of the skin.

Viking Man

This is the second time I have worked on this design. What I did this time was touch it up and add a few things to it that I didn't get done the first time. This is on the same arm as the Viking Woman shown earlier.

Biker Gang Logo

This is on my mentor's leg. He is the president of the Utah chapter of Brothers in Christ, a motorcycle group that have a blast riding their Harleys all over tarnation. Several of the members already have the design tattooed, but they were all the usual logo (as seen below). Steve wanted a unique flare.

Charlene - a tale of modesty

This guy had a tattoo of a naked woman riding a shark. His mother really, really didn't like it. To make her happy, he asked to have us put a top on her. So here we are! While I was at it, we put the woman's name above her image.

Burning Money

This is on my boss. We are going to work on filling what's left of his already tatted arm with various forms of money. This is the first of the series: burning $100 bills. So cool. To the left, you will eventually see poker chips. To the right will be gold coins. I'll tell you more later on.

The detail was time-consuming, but turned out like I wanted. 5-liner on smaller stuff, 5-shader on most ofhter areas, and a 9-mag for coloring and shadow effects.

A few small projects

These are a couple of weeks old, but I thought I'd get them posted. I missed the apostrophe on the "I'll," but that's a mistake that's easy to fix. The "mkbk" was all I did on the colorful cloudy tattoo, just FYI.

Viking Woman

This is the third part to the Viking-themed sleeve a client and I are working on. To generate this woman, I used multiple sources to create the pose, costume, and shadows on the body. People got really excited when they saw her drawn out, so I was looking forward to completing the tattoo.

I used three types of needles for various parts. For the fine details in the face: 3-liner. Other details and lines: 5-liner. For all shading (minus face): 5-mag. I am really liking the soft capability of the mag to shade and fill areas both large and small. I think I'll use them more often.

More to come on this theme. He may include his other arm on the viking theme in the future.

Altered Tribal Initials

This client is the husband of the woman with the recent butterfly tattoo. He used the same letters to become symbols, but wanted to go in the direction of a tribal design. Somehow, and don't ask me how, the 'tribal' style turned into metallic shapes with a drop shadow. I am very happy with it. They liked the shadow, too.

Music Sleeve

This was a fun project. The client had worked with another artist for one side of his arm and asked me to do the inside. I didn't get any photos of the other parts, but it includes some roses, lettering, and a giant star.

Viking Man

This is a piece that was started by a different artist. All I did was the axe, as the rest was already there. The fun part was trying to keep the shading style the same as what the other artist started with. I will be working on this guy a lot in the future.

This is the second part of the sleeve. The designs are all viking-themed after the client's ancestry. I love the lighting and shading on this. I know my style is not perfect yet, but I'm stretching myself like crazy lately and having a blast.

Butterfly with Cherry Blossoms

The butterfly is made up of symbols the client requested.We spent a good deal of time working on the design to make sure it was absolutely perfect. She and her husband are awesome people. Just saying.

"S" and "K" Tree

This is a work in progress that will span a few months as the client gets money ready. The letters represent his children. they are kind of tangled in what will be the roots of a large tree that will reach the top of his shoulder. It's kind of like the tree is gaining strength from the kids.

I'm excited to see this one take shape.