Rock of Ages Tattoo Design

[Petri Aspvik]

Who in Frith Street did that?! Its fucking perfect!

[asradin]

Who in Frith Street did that?! Its fucking perfect!

It was Jordan. He's a nice guy although I've never been tattooed by him. I think he is on instagram as @jordanfst

[Stewart Robson]

@SF Dave and THATS why we watermark photos.

Artist/Tattooer credit and contact information are always useful.

Jordan Teear tattooed that solid, traditional-looking ROA backpiece. He works at Frith Street Tattoo in London. frithstreettattoo.co.uk

[Shannon Shirley]

Ive got one very much like that. It was given to me @20 yrs ago....the glass is cracked,I cant get myself to break the seal on the back to fix it.. What's ROA mean?.

There's a beautiful ROA painting in Tattoo City. I attached a mediocre picture of it, but that's probably best anyways. Go see it in person!

[Hands On]

What's ROA mean?.

Rock of Ages

[SF Dave]

stewart, i hear what you are saying, but believe me, i wouldnt have shared that photo without making sure proper credit is given. if there wasn't already a watermark on that photo, i most certainly would have said where it was from

[Shannon Shirley]

hehehe okey dokey thx

Rock of Ages

[Jack]

I always thought it meant rhododendrons or azaleas. That's not true, but i wish it was.

[BoMcConaghie]

Love the Rock of Ages design. Got one on my forarm! Here is one I did the other day

bomcconaghie

[Kev]

DAMN-that is GREAT!

[irezumi]

rainbow power

[jade1955]

Heres one from El Bara out of True Love Tattoo, Madrid.

He's at the Scottish Tattoo convention in March.

[jade1955]

Here's another tattooed by Stizzo, Best of Times, Milan

[Jennifer Stell]

A Japanese Version I nabbed a pic of at True...

[Donn]

Hey Jen who did that one?

[Jennifer Stell]

I can't remember for crap.... I feel like an ass for even posting without having the artist name... but it was too good to not post. I know he got it in Japan by a hori, all hand tapped/poked.... it was the smoothest thing I had ever seen.

[Dude]

Whats the significance of the Rock of Ages? I tried looking it up on Wikipedia but it didn't help much.

Thanks,

Dude

[JAllen]

Whats the significance of the Rock of Ages? I tried looking it up on Wikipedia but it didn't help much.

Thanks,

Dude

it is believed to be the last hymn that was heard before the ss london left port and was sunk during a storm. it has since become a popular sailor hymn.

[Abellve]

In the original Hymn, the "Rock of Ages, cleft for me" referred to a crevice cleft *into* a wall of rock that the hym's writer is said to have used as shelter from a storm. It's apparently unclear when it switched to a protruding rock in a stormy sea...or at least that's what I read in a tiny bound book on the history of the Rock of Ages.

My boss/mentor collects RoA paintings. When I apprenticed, I would watch over his shoulder in a dim room with most of the light in the room centered on the tattoo, surrounded by antique RoA prints of all kinds.Some with one woman, some with two -- one helping the other and some, fewer, with one woman safe and the stiff hand of a drowned person reaching up from the water.

[Dude]

Cool. Thanks guys. Abellve, that last description was pretty creepy probably makes for a cool picture though.

[Abellve]

@Dude: Yeah, that's probably the one I'll get tattooed on me. Both for its symbolism and it's being so central to my early tattoo experience, I can't not get a Rock of Ages and I think the darker and more somber, the better. Despite its lighter iterations, it's a pretty weighty image.

[Abellve]

Thanks, @JAllen. I didn't know if it was just the era. I had never considered a more sailor-specific connection.

[MGblues]

I remember seeing that design as a very small child, maybe 1969 or 1970 when I was about 3 or 4 years old.

My great grandmother had this huge wind-up clock on her wall with a glass front that had the ROA hand painted on it. The cross had an unpainted circle left out of the center so that when the pendulum swung back and forth you could see it move side to side.

That clock both fascinated and scared the shit out of me, but I couldn't stop staring at. It was scary, dramatic, sad, and powerful, and I've never, ever forgotten it.

I stumbled onto the Bert Grimm version of it a while back and it was like "There it is, this is what I want as my back piece".

It's like karma just worked. Everything is clicking. The money to do it, the artist wants to do it, the time for it, and the girlfriend is on-board to help with the aftercare.

I plan starting that back piece next month, and I'm so stoked!

[Hands On]

Just saw Dan Wyspuph's piece on @Nude Walter in the Full Back Piece Thread and thought it'd be appropriate to share here as well. Post #251, if this link doesn't take you there.

http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/war-stories/492-full-back-piece-thread-page26.html

[TravisGarcia]

I just started my Rock of Ages on the 31st of March. Doing my second session this Saturday. The goal is to be finished by June. Its going to be a full back piece (ass and legs included) which we'll outline our 3rd session. Would like some criticism on it!