Unfortunately, I'm not a cool artist like most of you. I can't draw. At all. Fortunately, I do have a great artist.
However, I am an...er..."enthusiast". I got my first piece of flash almost 20 years ago (a wolf howling at the moon. I felt not-so-cool almost a year later when I saw someone with the exact same piece on his arm...If I knew then what I know now...)
This past June, I decided to work on a proper piece. Turns out my missus grew up with an artist who got into tattooing several years ago. He was an established artist before that (lots of murals, sign painting, fine arts studies, etc). She went down to his shop to get a piece by him, and I knew as soon as I saw what he drew that I needed to talk to him. He's since become "family" to me.
I started talking about a memorial piece for my mom (ironically, she hated tattoos). I originally wanted just a drawing of Nefertiti on the outside of my lower leg (and also to cover up two tiny old pieces on my leg). We quickly got to talking and evolved that into a sock.
The sock got done in a few months..and I liked it so much that...well...Maybe I should just show you:
Ink Gallery
This started in June. We got 71 hours in in 13 sessions and ended it in October or so. The shortest session was around 4 hours, the longest over 7 (a few of those). My artist has never laid down so much work in so little time on anyone, period. Since then, we've also covered up my original piece of flash on my chest with a larger, Fenrir-inspired wolf. I also have an idea for an arm sleeve in the near future...
I'm hoping to hopefully hit the West Coast Tattoo show here this spring (near Vancouver, BC) and the Seattle show in the summer. I would really like to get my artist some awards for all his hard work and for the shop where he works (I love when people say "nice work". I always tell them "Thanks, but it's not my work. I'm just the guy paying and gritting my teeth.")
I haven't read enough to know if it's OK to plug an artist here, so I'll wait to hear the yay or nay on this.
Thanks a lot for a great site.
Phil