Hello from Kentucky

[millerb]

My name's Brandon and I'm a 25 year old father of a 5 week old with my wife of 2 years. I'm an electrical engineer that enjoys building and collecting bass guitars and of course tattoos....

I've got a color traditional sleeve on my right arm with Japanese background and a b/g Japanese style half sleeve on my left arm as well as a large color traditional chest piece. I'm looking to drop my half sleeve down to a full and was wanting to seek advice on how to complete it since I'm wanting to complete it with color traditional. I travel from KY down to Nashville for most of my tattoos so it's tough with a baby and my job to travel an hour just for a consult.

Thanks for your help/advice in advance.

[SStu]

what . . . no pictures?!

[millerb]

what . . . no pictures?!

Here's a couple

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Then one of my and my newborn for the heck of it.

I'm just not sure how my other arm would look if it was half b/g and half traditional color since there's no way to add color to what I have. I'm not worked about mixing themes. I like the look of traditional with a Japanese background. Just wish my traditional arm wasn't so dark and had more flow.

Next thing I'd like to change is darken up or do something to my mandal. Just seems a little bland. Maybe some dotwork inside or something to make it more detailed.

[pidjones]

Well, those all look great (particularly the newborn)! Where in the Bluegrass are you located? The wife and I grew up in Monticello.

[millerb]

I'm from Bowling Green so most these were done at Carters Tattoo

[Beans]

Your work is lovely but the baby! Precious! Congratulations.

[millerb]

Thank you everyone. Now that everyone has seen what I'm working with would you think it'd look funny adding traditional art work on the lower half of my arm? Im worried it'll look two toned. Like upper is all black and grey and the lower is all colorful woth just black and grey background

[pidjones]

I think your artist can blend a traditional scheme with the B&G just fine. There are so many traditional that have the same colors that you have on the other arm that he should be able to blend from B&G to full color on your forearm easily.

[millerb]

OK thanks for the input. I just didn't know if it'd look weird with one arm half color and the other half just b/g

[SStu]

Yeah - and afterwards you could always throw a couple of color accents into the black/grey piece in order to better tie them together, if you think it needs it . . .

[millerb]

Yea that's my plan. Not much room to throw in color accents though unless it's in the waves. I'm worried trying to color over grey wouldnt turn out so good looking like in the ship or tenticle.

Oh well I'm trying to get some work done from Tony Talbert if he ever emails me back. Love his work

[pidjones]

You might have green in the tendrils, red in the sails.

[millerb]

Good idea. I'm just worried about the color looking muddy blasting over black or grey

[sighthound]

Are you completely opposed to doing the extension in black & grey? That's what I would do in your shoes. Nothing wrong with doing it in color but if you're worried about the overall aesthetic then just do it in b&g and let it be. I like that half sleeve and think it would look awesome as a full b&g sleeve - just my preference though.

Great tattoos, and beautiful baby!

[GlaryMilberg]

Both of your arms look dark and bold, which works in your favor if you throw a little color up top on the black and gray tattoo.

[millerb]

I think I'm going to just keep the Asian theme and do the traditional stuff I wanted on my legs down the road. I made an appointment with James Vaughn from season 1 of Ink Master next week so it should turn out good since he's killer at Japanese type art.

[millerb]

Long time no talk but here's what I ended up with to finish my arm. I'm still looking to add some color in the upper half in the future to balance it out a little.

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Here's the progress on my leg. Knee rose and tribute guitar to a friend I lost to cancer done by Omar at Trader Bob's in St. Louis, Dagger done by Mike Woods at Trader Bob's, and arrow head done by Mike Fite in Nashville.

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