I'm getting my work done by Jake at Inkies Tattoo in Fremont, CA. Sorry no State of Grace :(
I chose the artist as I wanted someone that was as excited about doing it as I was to get it done. I looked at quite a few places and talked to a few artist but I walked away not feeling it. I only went to Inkies on a whim one day as I passed by as my next consult was not until late Oct and I said WTF. When I went in I met the receptionist and she asked me what I wanted to do. I said it was a cover-up with a weird idea that was in my head. When I told her I wanted a Zombie sleeve she sprang out of the chair and ran off. Next thing I know Jake walks in yelling that he heard someone wanted a Zombie Sleeve.
Come to find out Jake is a HUGE Zombie fan. He even hosts a Zombie Crawl in San Jose (now Alameda) for Charity where everyone dresses up as Zombies and goes from bar to bar. Needless to say he was very excited to do my sleeve. We sat down right there are started tossing out ideas. We met two weeks later to start the sleeve. He does not have decades of experience but his work is good and the excitement he had was my deciding factor. As you guys know, when you decide something this large you want the whole experience to be positive. I could not imagine sitting for 7 hours with an artist you didn't mix well with much less letting someone put ink into you where you felt like they would be more exited doing something else.
I posted up a pic in the cover-up section but here is another. I hope you guys like his work. I know I do and I have gotten a ton of positive feedback and even a little old lady sitting next to me on the BART tapped my leg to get my attention and told me she really loved my tattoo and that it was original and different :) Gotta love the Bay Area for stuff like that.
This is after my 3rd session with at least one more to go for Highlights, Color and Touch-ups.
As far as other stuff on the Bucket List. Well there is the mother / daughter threesome to yet be done :)