Full Back Piece Thread

[Cork]

Looks great @Kinglambert. Of course you have a leg idea in the works. Since that back is your first tattoo, I'm pretty sure that your only option from here on out is full suit.

[Kinglambert]

Looks great @Kinglambert. Of course you have a leg idea in the works. Since that back is your first tattoo, I'm pretty sure that your only option from here on out is full suit.

It looks that way, though I'm still not keen on getting my arms covered. Other than my partner, hardly anyone knows I'm tattooed, and I like that. Well, people on here know, but no one on here knows me in person so it doesn't count ;)

It's not that I'm embarrassed by my tattoo, I just don't like people knowing everything about me.

[Cork]

It looks that way, though I'm still not keen on getting my arms covered. Other than my partner, hardly anyone knows I'm tattooed, and I like that. Well, people on here know, but no one on here knows me in person so it doesn't count ;)

It's not that I'm embarrassed by my tattoo, I just don't like people knowing everything about me.

I totally understand, I'm similar.

[Kinglambert]

I totally understand, I'm similar.

Though being a modest man, I have decided to enter the tattoo of the month on here. I figure I owe it to my tattooist for all of his hard work

http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/lst-announcements-contests/6716-june-2015-tattoo-month-contest.html

[Rob I]

Second session with Chad Koeplinger! Done at the Grim Reaper Tattoo Shop in Roma! Great Shop, great guys!

I LOVE this back piece. It is so insane!!! It's coming out so great and I look forward to following the progress on it.

[Flo Ania]

Thank you Rob! Chad Rules!

[MrToby]

Hello all,

So I haven't put up any progress shots on my back for a couple of months. In all honesty it was a lot of cherry blossoms. Anyway after the weekends session at the Bristol Tattoo Show I thought I better put up a full progress shot. Apologies for the slightly blurry pictures these were taken with my slightly rubbish little compact digital camera. I'm stoked with how it is coming along though now and am super excited to see it coming together with the colour in the dragon over the next few months.

[OutOfIdeas]

That's pretty rad! Looked really good in person as well

[MrToby]

Thanks a lot. It's healing up really well and I can't wait til July to hopefully finish the top of the skull and then go in to some more colour.

[Cork]

@MrToby Have a color picked for the dragon?

[MrToby]

We keep going back and forth on it. We've talked about blue, green and golden but it changes every time we talk about it. Basically I think we'll end up making it up. Whatever we choose it isn't going to be your classic black and grey with red and yellow. Honestly I'm quite excited that we're improvising as we go along.

[Graeme]

This was last Saturday's progress on my back. We're getting close.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SeeSea]

Just love those tiger's claws @Graeme. Truly looking awesome.

[Graeme]

Just love those tiger's claws @Graeme. Truly looking awesome.

Those tiger paws are around the size of my hands. Tough stuff!

[jimmyirish]

@Graeme, if jealous was a picture it would be your back. That is truly a thing of beauty, I love the look in the tigers eyes. Like he's been in one hell of a fight but has finally got the better of that snake.

@MrToby, your back is by Ian Flower right? Absolutely amazing composition, he's got to be one of the very best Japanese tattooers in Europe. Doesn't get the credit he deserves I think because his shop is in a bit of an unfashionable outskirts of London. He seems like a really nice bloke though?

[hfs40000]

A lot of these back pieces with background and stuff seem to go all the way up to the tops of shoulders, although i can't really be sure from the pictures. Do you think getting work on top of your shoulders, for instance the old dagger through the neck, would interfere with getting a full back piece?

[Graeme]

A lot of these back pieces with background and stuff seem to go all the way up to the tops of shoulders, although i can't really be sure from the pictures. Do you think getting work on top of your shoulders, for instance the old dagger through the neck, would interfere with getting a full back piece?

It depends on what you mean by interfere. A full back will extend into the area where the dagger would be, but the design could easily be worked around that. A lot of backs have cover ups and compromises worked into them and they can still be amazing, powerful tattoos.

[bongsau]

A lot of these back pieces with background and stuff seem to go all the way up to the tops of shoulders, although i can't really be sure from the pictures. Do you think getting work on top of your shoulders, for instance the old dagger through the neck, would interfere with getting a full back piece?

Nah, I wouldn't call it interference, I would call it a design variable. Think of it like framing the top of the backpiece. Or you can tile the background underneath the neck-dagger or whatever. The tattooer has to fit/cut the tattoos on your body and that fit/cut will depend on your body type, the look you're going for and the other existing tattoos in the area.

I got my neck / tops of shoulder pieces completed before I started my back. Check out the pic in my gallery, you can kind of see it what I mean by framing. My blackground doesn't pop out of my shirt and now I've got this sweet gap (or maybe two?) on the back of my neck that I will fill in...now to chip away at my wife about how high that gap tattoo is going to travel up into my hairline hehehe...

[MrToby]

Yes indeed @jimmyirish my back is by Ian Flower, as is my Dragon-carp half sleeve and the grammophone on my ribs. I think both are up in my gallery. The thing that's super cool about the way Ian works is just how little he stencils. For instance in my back he stenciled a basic outline for the dragon's head, the skull and the cherry blossoms. Everything else was drawn on and he would work on a different section of the outline each session. He used to work in London but for various reasons didn't want to anymore so moved out to Surrey. As you say though, nice guy, and he has a huge amount of experience and knows exactly what's going on.

[jimmyirish]

Wow that's really interesting @MrToby, I always thought his larger scale work has such a great flow to it and that explains a lot! I know he used to work at Frith Street, and I've heard Stewart Robson talk very highly of him in some blog posts and interviews. Your a lucky man to have that on your back mate.

[Rob I]

@Graeme Absolutely amazing!!!!

[hfs40000]

Thanks for the input @Graeme and @bongsau. Bong, do you have a pic from the top? I can't quite see what you're talking about from the ones in your gallery.

[MrToby]

Thanks a lot @jimmyirish

It's been quite interesting finding out who has worked with Ian, or who he has worked with at various times. The walls of his little studio are covered in great bits of flash and paintings as well by people like Wido de Marvel, Alex Binnie, Thomas Hooper, Jondix and Valerie Vargas. It helps quite a lot when having sessions on my back to state at something cool.

[Graeme]

@Rob I Thanks! We're going to have to get a group LST backpiece photo at the Montreal convention this year.

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@jimmyirish Thanks! I am so stoked with how it's coming together and I'm lucky to have such a good tattooer working locally.

[jimmyirish]

@Graeme, yeh I remember you saying that you travelled quite extensively for your Thomas Hooper sleeve. Has the fact that you haven't had to travel for your back made it a less daunting prospect, especially with the sheer amount of work involved in a full back piece?

Having just moved to Australia from London I don't think I realised how lucky I was to have so many great artists on my doorstep. Now that I'm gone and can't see myself being home for a couple of years I regret not tackling some bigger work. As has been said before, I don't regret any of my tattoos, only the ones I didn't get....anyway, sorry for the digression, Congrats again on a truly soulful tattoo