Best Tatto Design: June 2011

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Andrea's Half-Sleeve with Mermaid

Today we are checking out an awesome traditional half-sleeve by Charlie Foos at Reade Street Tattoo Parlour. I spotted it on Andrea outside of the Fuse studios on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan:

Andrea told me this was completed in three sessions of three and a half hours each and was inspired by s piece of jewelery. "I bought this pendant of a ship," she said, "and I decided I wanted a half-sleeve of something traditional." The rest is history.

Thanks to Andrea for sharing this great tattoo with us here on best-tatto-design!

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Wednesday, June 29, 2011

one challenge at a time

Remember this one? I did this in NJ a month ago and he stopped back in the other day to have a few lines added to it and to thicken up the swirls.

BEFORE

AFTER - really like this one now. really weird tattoo to do because of the area but happy with it.

I was working over on 4th street last week and this girl came in. I met her and her friend the day before when I was working sales at No Ka Oi. This was her first tattoo and she did so well! She brought this image to me and we basically kept it the same for the exception of the light in the lampost... we added a little bit of shading and white highlights to make it look like it was lit up. Her friend is going to come in to get the same thing sometime soon.

Just for fun... of course her friend had to snap a photo of it happening. They were really nice, hope to see them again.

Was working in NJ on Saturday and this was the only thing I did all weekend. It's been very slow at the shops lately. Probably with July 4th weekend upon us everyone is heading to the shore and away from the tattoo shops.

This was also the dude's first tattoo, it went smoothly for the bottom half of the letters, the top half I was really sweating it out over stretching the skin right in the armpit there. After this one I have a better idea of how to get up in that area.

Last week on South Street Tony came in for some more work on his thigh. Super excited about this one. We only got to the ship, but as big as it is I worked on it for about 2.5-3 hrs. Can't wait to get a healed photo of this and work on the background.

so I worked at No Ka Oi yesterday and this was the only walk in. This guy was really nice and this tattoo was really challenging. If I could redo this one I would have approached it differently. He wants to extend the bars up to his elbow the next time and add something else to it so when I get a good look at it all healed up we will take it from there.

More to come.

Kerry Unveils Some Masterpieces

A couple weeks ago, I felt like I had won the best-tatto-design lottery. In my own neighborhood, I ran into Kerry, who had a bit of a tattoo peeking out of her left sleeve. I stopped her and introduced myself, and she shared some simply phenomenal work. We'll get to that left sleeve in a second, but Kerry figured I'd be impressed with this tattoo on her upper right arm:

Well, she was certainly right about that! This is a piece by Anil Gupta at Inkline Studio in Manhattan. The detail of this work is astonishing.

Anil Gupta is considered a master of the biomechanical tattoo. Kerry explained:

"I'd seen Gupta's work and I really wanted something in the biomechanical style ... I just thought of a butterfly, which is usually something very feminine and soft, just made it out of parts and steel ... like a cool mix of the styles ... we just kept building and adding more stuff to the design ... he was great to work with."

To get a full appreciation of the tattoo, check out the work from Gupta's portfolio. Simply stunning!

That's twenty-five hours of work by a master of the biomechanical.

Remember, it wasn't the Gupta tattoo that caught my attention, but this colorful section of a sleeve, on the lower part of Kerry's left arm:

Kerry rolled up her sleeve to reveal the entire arm:

What you see is approximately forty-two hours of work by the talented Kaz at New York Adorned.

Kerry explained the genesis of this sleeve:

"I saw this picture when I was looking up samurai stories, because I'm a martial artist and, initially, we were just going to do it half-sleeve, but then just decided to go whole hog. Kaz is really good, so I just let him go crazy with it."

Kerry's focus in martial arts is grappling and kick-boxing.

And to think, I would have missed all of this amazing work, had I not been intrigued by the head of this Japanese monster, peeking out from one of her sleeves!

Thanks to Kerry for sharing her simply stunning tattoos with us here on best-tatto-design!

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Nicole Takes Us to Candyland

At the beginning of the month, I had the pleasure of encountering a young lady named Nicole in Herald Square (34th Street and 6th Avenue, for you out-of-towners).

Nicole is heavily inked, estimating that "about 45%" of her body is tattooed.

So with so much work, where to begin? She offered up her lower left leg, which is fully-sleeved.

I always find photographing sleeves challenging, because it is so hard to capture all of the details accurately and perfectly in a photograph. So here's a collage of Nicole's Candyland sleeve:

Why a Candylamd-themed sleeve? Nicole explained,

"Growing up, that was my favorite game in the whole world.

Getting my tattoos never really meant anything, so that was kinda the one, like, childhood thing . . . I feel like if you're a girl, you should have pretty, colorful tattoos ... otherwise, you don't look 'girly' anymore.

So that's why I did that."

Nicole credited Brian Randolph, formerly of New York Adorned, with this work

Nicole informed me that Brian had moved to California, but he comes back and forth every six months. She did say that, although this work is solely from Brian, she also gets tattooed by Justin Weatherholtz at Kings Avenue Tattoo in Massapequa, New York.

Thanks to Nicole for sharing her incredibly colorful leg sleeve with us here on best-tatto-design!

Monday, June 27, 2011

Musician Monday: Doug from The Sleeping and Gramp's House

This installment of Musician Monday features Doug Robinson, lead singer from the rock band The Sleeping. I ran into Doug last week in Penn Station and stopped him when I saw all of his tattoos.

Doug has had some of his work featured in Tattoo Magazine and is in the current issue of Tattoo Flash, so I was indeed honored when he agreed to share a piece from his right forearm:

Doug explained that this tattoo is based on a logo created by a friend of his, whose grandfather had passed away and left him his house. Doug's friend, along with Doug and three other guys, lived in the house which they dubbed "Gramp's House." The home was, as Doug told me, "a really important place for all of us," and many of them got this logo tattooed, as a tribute to that special place that they all held near and dear.

Doug credited Jelena Nikolic from Lone Wolf Tattoo in Bellmore, Long Island, with this tattoo.

Thanks to Doug for sharing his work with us here on best-tatto-design!

Check out The Sleeping's video for "Don't Hold Back":

Friday, June 24, 2011

Jessica: A Sugar Skull and Scream and Scream Again

In yesterday's post, I talked about meeting Corey and Jessica in front of Penn Station, and we featured two of Corey's tattoos. Today it's Jessica's turn.

She praised to no end the tattoo artist who did this sugar skull, her friend Chris Handford at Perkins Road Parlor in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

"They do a lot of traditional and he's originally a painter, so we just said, 'Do Whatever," and he drew up these awesome things ... he's actually a really new artist, but I would say already, skills-wise, far beyond a lot of people who have been doing it longer, especially in the South."

Jessica also shared this incredible piece on her right calf:

Jessica credited this tattoo to a different artist, Richard Hart, who currently works in Baton Rouge out of Art Addiction Tattoo Studio.

Jessica explained the story behind this interesting piece:

"[Richard Hart] is excellent at photo-realism. I found this ... it's from a movie called Scream and Scream Again (1970).

I just loved it and he drew it up on the spot ... I've never seen anyone just draw it, make a quick stencil, look at a computer, and then go off the picture itself. It looks exactly like the picture; I mean, it's insane. Insane. He's definitely awesome!"

It's always great to hear tattooed folk talk so exuberantly about how much they like their artists, and it was certainly nice to encounter some talent from a part of the country we don't see too often up here in New York.

Thanks to Jessica (and Corey) for sharing their tattoos with us here on best-tatto-design!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Corey's Traditional Creatures

I met Corey and Jessica last month outside of Madison Square Garden on a bright, sunny afternoon. Between the two of them, they have dozens of tattoos, so I had a lovely time chatting with them. They're originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and had been tattooed by a couple of artists who are friends of theirs working out of Perkins Road Parlor.

Corey credited Brent McCarron and Chris Handford with this pair of cool, traditional-style tattoos:

Corey, who has 14 or 15 tattoos, just asked them to draw him something and they did. This sabre-toothed tiger and his newest piece, the spider, about two weeks old in this photo, have a very traditional feel about them. I particularly love the yellows in the spider.

Thanks to Corey for sharing these tattoos with us! Check back tomorrow to see what Jessica had to offer!

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Kathy's Back, The Beginning

I spotted Kathy walking in front of Madison Square Garden, near the corner of Seventh Avenue and 33rd Street earlier this month and, although I couldn't see specifically what she had going with her tattoos, I was intrigued enough to ask.

Some folks are often dismissive of me when I approach them, but Kathy was the total opposite. She was joyful and excited to share her ink and, when she removed her outer layer and adjusted her tank top, it was abundantly clear why. She had recently embarked on a full back piece and was proud of the foundation for what is ultimately going to be a phenomenal work of art:

Kathy had enlisted Derek Noble of Lucky Devil Tattoo Parlor in Seattle to create this tattoo. She explained, "he's really into horror, traditional, and all that kind of stuff, so I went to him back in January."

Kathy is an interior designer with twelve tattoos and agreed to share the back piece in its early stage (approximately three and a half hours in). She has tentatively agreed to keep us posted when she heads back to Seattle at the end of the summer so that we can see the work develop.

She explained further:

"I broke my back about two years ago, so I figured I'd make something nice out of a bad thing. There's little vertebrae holding candles and I love zombies ... I gave [Derek Noble] the time period, I said I wanted something Jack the Ripper era, and he went full out for it. I saw [the design] the day of, and I never even thought I wouldn't like it."

Well we here at best-tatto-design can't wait to see how this turns out. With just the outlines, the piece looks incredible and, well, it's Derek Noble, after all, so we know it's going to turn out magnificently.

Thanks to Kathy for sharing the early stage of her new back piece with us here on best-tatto-design! I know we can't wait to see more!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

fun at No Ka Oi yesterday

I figured I'd post a few more things I've done before heading into work today. It's looking rather cloudy today but hopefully the rain will hold off til I get there.

I worked the night shift at No Ka Oi last night, which was nice considering it's busier in there and i get to work with the people that I don't usually. I got a few cool walkins last night, this one being the biggest.

I had alot of fun with this one, and it was his first tattoo. I got to play around with drop shadows and thanks to some tips after this was finished I have more ideas as to how to deal with that for the next one. This is one of the things I would really like to get good at - lettering. My linework could be better here but I took my time and I hope he comes back in a month so I can see how it healed. I get really pumped over larger pieces so I can experiement and sort of push the limits a little bit since I'm restricted with what I can and cannot do right now.... so any chance to do something like this I'm jumping on it.

This was my first walkin for my shift. It was a father and son, super nice guys. This one in particular was put on the son, Trevor. He also is a very talented photographer and was kind enough to take some photos of me while I was working, including my new blog header! They each got this D on their wrists. I used this as an opportunity to use the drop shadow again and beveled the lettering a bit. Still need to perfect my linework....again.... but I figured I'd put one of them up so you can see. This whole not using an armrest thing is killing me. I feel like my lines could have come out much cleaner had I used one. I'm trying to stick with my guidelines that I have been given and not use it at all, but in some cases I use it anyway. This should have been one of those times. For most people I don't need the armrest at all, but for those with skin so damn stretchy like this wrist.... definitely could have used it.

I'm kinda bummed about the quality of this photo, but it's all I have for now until we get final photos of this finished. This is on my friend Tichina who is leaving town pretty soon. She had the idea to do a cartoon/caricature of a hipster kid with some traditional roses. Ideally I'd like to throw a frame around this one day, but for now this was SO much fun! I got to try out greywash on a face which I'd eventually like to get really good at. The best part about this is the face I drew it completely made up... no real error here when shading. I stuck with mostly lighter tones so I can darken them later, and when it heals we're going to add a bit of color to the roses and the cap. Kudos to Tichina for contributing to my cause! YOU RULE

I threw this one in there because I forgot to the last time I posted. I did this one in NJ on a world traveler from Ireland. Really nice guy, him and his wife were at the very beginning of a 3 month USA tour. Philly being the first stop. I'm not really sure why he got the cards, but the date was pretty self explanatory and he let me do whatever I wanted with the shading. I wanted to try and make them look old/faded/torn. Sorta got away with it but I know how to deal with it better for next time. The banner looks kinda dark, but I stuck with mid-tone greys so that should lighten up. Good luck to this guy on his travels, and thanks for stopping in for this!

TEENY TINY one. done in nj

Another done in NJ from a photo she brought in. She let me modify the original slightly, and sat great. I kinda like this style, heavy outline with soft shadows within. I need to get drawing and painting more. I've fallen off the wagon!

Until next time....

Emily's Typewriter

Last week, on Eighth Avenue, I spotted an incredible tattoo on the back of a woman's calf and knew that I had to speak to her about it. Check it out:

This vintage typewriter belongs to Emily, and was tattooed by one of my favorite artists in New York, Virginia Elwood at New York Adorned. You can click the tag at the bottom of the post to see other work of Virginia's that I have been fortunate enough to spot in my best-tatto-design travels.

Emily explained that she is a writer, and wanted a vintage typewriter inked to represent her vocation. My guess she had decided on one of these Royal typewriters, and then Virginia worked her magic. Emily elaborates:

"I asked her originally to give me a little typewriter on top of the books here:

but there wasn't enough room ... [Virginia] was like It'll be too small if I put it on your arm, we'll have to do a big one to get the best detail."

The rest, as they say, is history.

Emily has nine tattoos in all, counting a half-sleeve as one large piece, and all of her work has been done by Virginia.

Emily is managing editor for a website called xoJane, and has even written about her tattoos. She directed me to this article she recently wrote, called "My Tattoos Make Guys Think I'm Easy." She's got a smart style that really taps into the heart and soul of the subject. I'm sure many tattooed women can relate to the sentiment in that piece. She also pointed to a more current article she wrote, with some input from Virginia, as well, about sexism in tattoo shops, specifically with the drama in the premiere (and subsequent episodes) of the latest tattoo reality series, New York Ink.

I, for one, certainly recommend checking out Emily's site, xoJane, and exploring not only her contributions, but those of the other writers, as well.

Thanks to Emily for sharing her incredible work with us here on best-tatto-design, and for talking with me, even though she was running late. I do appreciate it and hope we'll see more of her tattoos here in the future!

Monday, June 20, 2011

Orlando the Brave

Last fall, I met Orlando near F.I.T. and posted some of his tattoos in December. I had wanted to get clearer photos, but I hadn't been able to contact him, so his work appeared here, in an end-of-the-year recap.

Fast forward to a month ago, when I spotted Orlando again on the corner where I work, so I was able to get a clearer photo of one of his tattoos, and obtain something new from him.

I was waiting until this week to post the picture, to coincide with Pride Week here in New York City.

Orlando explained that these are antlers and he got them for a specific reason:

"I got it last year when I was 19 ... antlers, for the animals who have them, are a symbol of strength and sexuality ... I came out when I was 13, so last year that would have been six years ago. So I got it just to commemorate me coming out, and I got "BRAVE" underneath it for it being the bravest thing I've ever had to do."

I wanted to share this during Pride Week as a tribute to Orlando's bravery, and with the hope that it helps instill courage in other people to be proud of who they are, and to not be ashamed of their true selves. I don't often get up on a soapbox here on best-tatto-design, so I'll spare you the rhetoric, Dear Readers. Nonetheless, I want to thank Orlando for his bravery and his willingness to share a bit of his journey with us here on best-tatto-design.

Orlando credited Chantal at Bleeding Image Tattoo in Astoria, Queens, with this tattoo.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Orphans: The Hungry Lion

So what do I do with a tattoo photo that has been abandoned and forgotten?

Why post it here, of course.

Back on May 10, I met a guy in Penn Station and took a picture of his tattoo, which he referred to as his "Hungry Lion":

And then, before I could talk to him further, his girlfriend emerged from the bathroom and he told me they had to catch a train.

He had a best-tatto-design flier, but never e-mailed me.

So if anyone wants to adopt this tattoo, leave a comment. Or, if you know who the artist is, please let me know.

Thanks to you, Dude, wherever you are, for sharing your cool tattoo with us here on best-tatto-design!

Friday, June 17, 2011

Delphine Shares a Lucky Cat and a Sailor Jerry Design

I met Delphine last week and she shared two of her tattoos with me. First is this piece:

For those of you who do not recognize this image, it is a common piece of ceramic sculpture popular in Japanese culture called the "Maneki Neko," or Lucky Cat. It is a good luck charm, and is often seen in Asian-owned stores as a totem of good fortune. Delphine explained further that this was her most recent piece and that "I have always loved the Japanese Lucky Cat. I felt that this would be a great time to get it (due to the economy - cat has a prosperity in Kanji) and as a tribute to the Japanese that were affected by the Tsunami)."

She credited her Lucky Cat to artists Megan Wilson at Picture Machine Tattoo in San Francisco.

On her other forearm is this tattoo:

This tattoo is attributed to Anthony Gonzalez at Lucky Stars Tattoo in San Jose, California. Delphine explains, "My father and I are Marine Vets. I saw this Sailor Jerry piece and loved it to honor my father and me. On the original piece it says 'Never Again'. I updated this to 'Never Forget' - the 'forget' is done in red to look like spray paint."

Thanks to Delphine for sharing these two tattoos with us here on best-tatto-design!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Vaughn's Elemental Sleeve

I met Vaughn in the Borders in Penn Plaza and he shared this half-sleeve with us. It's one of four tattoos that he has. He wanted a sleeve representing the intermix of the elements fire and water, and John Clarke at Holeshot's Premium Tattoo & Body Piercing in Amherst, Massachusetts came up with the design. Work from Holeshot's has appeared once before on best-tatto-design, here.

Thanks to Vaughn for sharing his ink with us here on best-tatto-design!

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Jay's Hands Express Faith and Doubt

I met Jay in Penn Station, stopping him because he had a whole lot of tattoos. He estimated that he is probably 60 to 70 percent covered. He offered up his most recent work (as of May 31, 2011), the following tattoos:

Jay explained that, as a Christian, and as a pastor at the Revolution Church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, faith and doubt are two things that he deals with on a regular basis. Jay expounded on this for me:

"I got [these tattoos] because of this quote by Paul Tillich [a German-American theologian] that says doubt is not the opposite of faith, it's merely an element of it. And to me, being a believer, a Christian, having a church and a bar ... I deal a lot with crisis of faith, even in my own life ... So, I decided to embrace doubt, because I think embracing doubt allows you to embrace your faith much more. And it's not about belief then, you know, it is actually faith and everyone doubts ... I think there is this kind of idea that if you doubt, you're bad or something, so it kinda has to do with that."

Jay's hand tattoos were inked by Bailey Hunter Robinson, a freelance artists in Brooklyn.

You can learn more about the Revolution Church at Pete's Candy Store at http://www.revolutionnyc.com/.

Thanks to Jay for sharing his tattoos and thoughts of faith and doubt with us here on best-tatto-design!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Tim's Sleeve Illustrates A Vision of Life on Earth

I met Tim back in April in Penn Station and took several pictures of his left arm, which is fully-sleeved. What follows is a presentation of the work, from top to bottom:

There's a lot going on here, but Tim summed the theme of the sleeve as "Hell is the world we're living in, and we're all trying to escape Death." The top of the arm features the angel, Gabriel, watching over us.

The city that is burning is based on Boston, where Tim is from.

Tim estimates that this sleeve took twenty-seven hours, in three nine-hour sessions. Yes, you read that right, nine-hour sessions! That's commitment! He credits Dan Soule at Milltown Ink in Bondsville, Massachusetts with this incredible work.

Thanks to Tim for sharing his sleeve with us here on best-tatto-design!

Monday, June 13, 2011

Everyday a new challenge

So this is me playing super catch up, as well as filling you in on how things have been going with me. These past few weeks by far have been my most frustrating in the whole almost 4 years I have been apprenticing.

I don't know what my problem is, but for some reason I can't stop worrying and stressing out. I seem to always been frustrated about money and how I'm working my ass off and still can't seem to get ahead. I've become somewhat of a hermit and don't go out much at all anymore. Whatever happened to the social Tina? My good moods have gone out the window and I need to get it back and quick! It's starting to affect my morale at the shop and I'm moody all the time. I was working out in my garden a few mornings ago and I realized something..... why in the HELL am I so stressed all the time? I've spent the last almost 4 years of my life, well actually 5 if you count my previous apprenticeship, working towards this goal. What the hell do I have to complain about? I'm finally tattooing, the one thing that I've wanted to do for years. I love going to work and I love my coworkers and everyday is a new challenge both mentally and technically and physically. I had a super meltdown with my mentor the other day and I think that my way of unloading needs to change. I shouldn't freak out like I did, however it made me feel better to know that I can be vulnerable and not feel bad or worried about it. This method of unloading has leaked into my personal life as well.... something has to give.

Gardening has helped me with the stress, and am working harder to get out more and socialize and meet people, and to make more efforts in certain areas, and not expect other people to do things for me.

And now to the tattoos.....

I worked on South Street yesterday... kind of a slow day, but this walked in and was excited for the challenge. I rarely get to do something so technical and this tattoo in particular helped me SLOW down.

Done at No Ka Oi friday... My coworker has some people in town so they decided to get little liberty bells to remember their trip. They're relatively small and they each got it on the same spot on their ankle. They were in town for bike polo which seems pretty fun. Maybe next time i'll be able to catch a match!

This was done on a friend Simon who I was introduced to a few months ago, and then he came to me to do a version of a painting he had. I was really excited to do this one not only because it's kinda big, but I really want to put more traditional style stuff to build my portfolio and it was alot of fun to do. Kudos to Simon! I hope to do more on him soon!

Wednesday night I was working on South Street and after we closed up my friend/coworker Jason stopped in to finally get his cupcake! I drew this up months ago and we just haven't had the chance to do this. Overall I'm pretty happy with this one, however I'm not too happy with the shading in the cherry part, I'm hoping it heals lighter than that so I can go back into it with a little more color.

Lettering on an ankle done on South St

South St again... this one was a challenge too. All those tiny points all have to be perfect.

More done on South St. This was the day of lettering I think.

This came in NJ last week. Also a challenge. I still have to perfect my linework, especially in an area like this. The swirls aren't as perfect as they should be, but she will be back in so I can take a look at it and touch up a few spots. She's also getting another one on her other foot with lettering complementing the design of this one so it will look like a set.

Im interested to see how light the drop shadow heals.

This came in the same day as the foot over in NJ. This was also a challenge and had a fun time with the little feets. I should have gone a bit darker with these, but I hope to see them healed so I can get a better idea.

Name done in NJ

That same day in nj a group of three women came in, each of them got a version of this.

in NJ again... hard area to work but was a good challenge.

Done on South street a week or so ago, this girl came in with an image on her phone so we need a nicer version of that...

Mini cupcake done on 4th St... one of my lines wasn't super straight but it was a fun little tattoo to do and was a bit of a warm up for Jason's cupcake.

Done on 4th Street as well. I got to try out my friend Bobby's new bright pink he mixed up.... came out super bright and awesome I love it!

Name on the arm done on 4th St as well.

4th st again, she let me draw up her man's name all fancy like with color.

done on 4th St as well, fun little one to do

4th St.

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