I’m new here, hoping to find ideas for a sleeve

[Cherry Blossom]

Hi folks,

I’m new here 43 year old Irish woman.  I have 6 small tattoos so far, 3 are very old, 3 are in the last 2 years.  I’m hoping to find someone here who can help me with ideas for a full sleeve.  I want it to represent my journey over the last 11 years from my dads death through resulting mental health struggles and family issues to coming out the other side stronger and a better person.  I’ve been getting my life back on track and I’ve gone through massive personal growth.  I’ve lost a lot of the weight I gained on meds in the last year, got back to work, am studying part time.  I’m looking for a full sleeve on my right arm.  I have an existing cherry blossom tattoo on my collarbone with 3 falling petals on my upper arm.  This will have to be incorporated.  So far I have the following ideas:

Compass with arrow pointing north and a feather on the non pointy end - representing triumph over a struggle and traveling in a new direction while also staying connected to where I’ve come from.

a broken clock or watch with the time my dad passed away.  
 

Some combination of the following flowers:

Sunflowers - happiness, hope, growth

cherry blossom - new beginnings, in honour of a loved one who has passed.  And to tie it in with existing tattoo.

Roses - just because I think they look good in sleeves.

 

Any advice or ideas for anything else I can add to this that would be relevant to the theme would be really appreciated.

Nice to meet you all.  I’ll go and have a look round the site.

[oboogie]

I would talk to a trusted tattoo artist and let them work something up. We are all collectors here, not artists. Plus, any decent tattoo artist will want to draw something up themselves, not have someone come in with random ideas from strangers. Just tell your artist what you want and let them have a go.

[Cherry Blossom]

Hi oboogie,

Thanks for your reply, as it’s all symbolic elements I suppose that’s what I’m looking for help on, that aspect of it and what things would fit in with my story.  I have a tattooist designing it for me but I need to tell him what I want included in it.  If people have ideas I’d just look up the meaning and decided if it would fit it aesthetically with the rest of my ideas for the design.  It’s just a starting point I’m looking for help with really.

[Hogrider]

Although I agree with @oboogie, if you want suggestions, it would be helpful to post pics of what you already have.

[Cherry Blossom]

This cherry blossom thing on my collarbone and arm is on the arm I want the sleeve on. (Right arm) The 90s style barbed wire on my left arm will most likely have a cover up done on it at some point.  The semicolon heart with water colour background is on my left wrist.  Two butterflies in blue line ink behind my left ear.  Dragonflies on my left foot/ankle.  I’ve a 90s style dolphin on my stomach that will also probably be covered up.  The older ones are not good tattoos but I can live with the dragonflies for now.

I appreciate all input.  Thank you.

Sorry, I don’t want to put up a photo of my stomach and that tattoo will be covered up at some stage anyway so it doesn’t really matter.

[Hogrider]

Seems you like the Japanese style. I’d go with a dragon or koi dragon, some flowers, water and call it a day. Actually, that’s just what I did per my artist’s suggestion. I told him I was open to anything in the Japanese style and just sat back and let him work. My first sleeve I didn’t give any input at all.

[oboogie]

Same here, @Hogrider. I trust my artist, and both of my sleeves were designed by him with pretty much no input from me.

[Hogrider]

1 hour ago, oboogie said:

Same here, @Hogrider. I trust my artist, and both of my sleeves were designed by him with pretty much no input from me.

Yup. No one told Leonardo da Vinci to paint the Mona Lisa. "Hey Leo, can you paint a picture of my girlfriend, maybe some scenery in the background. maybe have her hands crossed, no smile, but not frowning. I need to see a sketch of it before you start."

Edited January 11, 2023 by Hogrider