Jess Shares Her Colorful Rooster

I met Jess last month and, still using a loaner camera, managed to get a shot of one of her three tattoos, located on her right forearm:

Aside from the fact that the picture is not ideally crisp, one can still see how beautiful and colorful this tattoo is.
The inspiration came from a book of Chinese propaganda posters.

Jess noted that she asked the artist, John Reardon at Saved Tattoo, to give the rooster a "gentler eye" which she hoped would "embrace [its] masculinity while poking fun at it". Reardon's work has appeared previously on best-tatto-design here and here.

Thanks to Jess for sharing this lovely rooster with us here on best-tatto-design!

Zoe's Tattoo Makes the Cut

I spotted this superbly-done tattoo on Zoe's upper left arm last month in the New Jersey Transit waiting area in Penn Station:

Straight up and simply, these scissors represent Zoe's tat-tool of the trade - she has worked as a hairstylist for two years.

She credits Mike Lucena at Fly Rite Studio in Brooklyn for the tattoo.

Thanks again to Zoe for sharing her scissors with us here on best-tatto-design!

Lower back tattoo in maori style

Hi!

I know it has been too long since my last post, but here are a few new sketches I have done for some customers. First a lower back tattoo for a British customer, who wanted a simple symmetrical design with some nice flowing lines, representing the waves and sea:

This first design was a bit too wide, so I had to narrow it a little.

In the upper part of the tattoo I created some stylized wave shapes.









The final tattoo looks like this:





Kind regards, Mark Storm

We Interrupt Our Regularly-Scheduled Program for a Word from a Tattooed Poet...

Those familiar with best-tatto-design know that April is dedicated to the tattoos of poets, in honor of National Poetry Month. It only seems fair that, six months on the other side of the calendar, we let one of our contributors from this past April share her newest tattoo.

Theresa's original post can be seen here.There you will also find links to her beautiful online literary magazine The Holly Rose Review, which combines poetry and tattoo art. Sadly, Holly Rose has ceased publishing, but Theresa remains a lovely supporter of best-tatto-design, and her new tattoo is quite fetching. Let's take a look:

Photo courtesy of Theresa Senato Edwards

I would also like to acknowledge that there, on her other leg, is a tattoo that says "life" in pink, with the ribbon representing breast cancer awareness acting as the "l" in life. Since October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it seems doubly fitting to share this photo here, even though the post is more about the paisley design.

But I'll hand the explaining over to Theresa:

It took quite a few months before I finally found the right tattoo artist to do my new tattoo: a ¾ calf, color, black, and grey shading of paisleys, thorns, and teardrops. And without naming names, I approached quite a few artists, either by phone, e-mail, facebook, or in person. Some said yes but then decided it wasn’t a tattoo he/she wanted to attempt, or said the tattoo would be limited because of price, or yes but, oh, the shop only takes cash. Or yes, but maybe hold off from getting the grey shading...

Other reputable tattoo artists were recommended to me, and, hey, I’ve met a lot of great tattoo artists online because of Holly Rose Review, but, honestly, I didn’t want to schlep too far from home.

My oldest son, Richard, told me to check out Graceland Tattoo in Wappingers Falls, about 20 minutes from Poughkeepsie—yay! no schlepping! I went to the website, checked out the artists’ work, saw that they were very decently mixing color and grey shading, went to the shop.

Long story quick—the shop was clean, bright, and bouncy and Shane behind the counter was great. But when I talked to tattoo artist Diego Gonzalez about the tattoo I wanted, that’s when I felt confident that I had come to the right place and that he was the one to do it. He was non-judgmental and very helpful.

And throughout the entire experience: tattoo prep/design—discussion of what I wanted, where, and why (both in person and e-mail)—and both tattoo sessions, Diego was patient, kind, and very professional.

Much respect and thanks go out to Uruguay-born Diego Gonzalez, who has been tattooing 12 years, 9 years professionally, the last 3 out of Graceland Tattoo; who also enjoys watching Syfy movies and Science channels; and who feels that “nature is the greatest muse.”

Photo courtesy of Theresa Senato Edwards

Theresa sent me an excerpt from what she e-mailed Diego prior to their sessions, which gets closer to the core of the idea behind the tattoo:

"...just wanted to tell you why i'd like to get this tattoo. maybe this will help you as you finish drawing it. to celebrate turning 50, an age that i didn't think i would like too much, but i do. in india the paisley symbolized a time of harvest, and for me it is a positive symbol of a fruitful transition. yet the thorns are to show the pain that comes with life and what we endure before we learn and change, the tears (tear drops) to show the emotions. but tears and thorns both spill into those paisleys: that "hope" in which outweighs any despair. the art should say beautiful yet brutal--not necessarily a pretty, frilly tattoo but one that's pretty with touches of "darkness," if that makes sense...”

We were originally going to run this in August but, as Theresa best can explain, "Being a perfectionist that I tend to be (not always a good thing), I realized after getting this tattoo that the pink just wasn't bright enough in the bottom paisley. So I e-mailed Diego to ask him if he could touch it up. He kindly said yes and did a great touch up of that bottom paisley, free of charge, no less. Now it's perfect!"

Thanks so much to Theresa for sharing her lovely new tattoo with us here on best-tatto-design!

Another turtle!

Just finished this little turtle on a woman heading out of town tomorrow....

She was super duper tan so the pic is a bit orange.
This was fun to do and I was able to outline and fill in the entire thing!

Really having a great time tattooing here in Hawaii... can't wait to do more!

ALOHA!

Playing catch up

So I have a bunch of stuff to show you all!

I'm going to try and remember the order of these so bear with me!

I did this on my friend/coworker Iona...

This was alot of fun and challenging... especially with the swirls. I'll take a picture once it's healed so we can see how I did.

I did this one on a super sweet Australian guy. Bill outlined it and I filled it in. Didn't take too long and I think I'm getting the hang of stretching the skin and getting the color solid.

Did this one on an Australian girl last night actually... It's the same thing only slightly modified. Anna outlined and I filled in as well. Freckly skin is so different to tattoo.

 This came in late one night.... this guy just wanted some stars around his exsisting stuff. It was fun to do some stars finally!

This came in for Anna the other night... So she let me outline the entire thing and then she did all the color work around the sunset scene. I'm getting better at lettering and making those lines deliberate. Here's a picture of the background from Anna....

All finished with background..... Nice and colorful and he was really excited about it.

This one I was allowed to do from start to finish... took me like 2 hours BUT the guy knew that I'm no speed demon as of yet.... it was challenging but I'm happy with how it came out and the dude loved it! I'm getting better at my linework and just trying to relax and focus while I'm working.

This little one came in with the freckled girl on the hip. I didn't outline it but I filled it in and added the color. The hip area was weird tattooing, but not as bad as I thought. I liked coloring in the flower. She was super sweet and a team player for letting me tattoo her!

At the end of the night a newlywed couple from Italy came by. I was able to draw up the lettering and fill it in. Since I haven't worked on the inner arm before Anna did the outline. She and I did 4 tag-team tattoos together last night... talk about fun! Assembly line tattooing done by request haha!

I also tattooed his wife... Anna also outlined this and I filled it in. REALLY weird tattooing behind the ear.

So cute.... even though it was weird, I learned alot about the skin back there. Next time I'm hoping I'll be able to outline whatever they throw at me.

Keone stopped back in the other night to show me his island I did two weeks ago... it healed great! I may want to go a little darker in some areas... but I'm going to wait until after his wedding to do that. Not to mention he wants a half sleeve with a Hawaiian owl.... it's too big for me to do right away, but I'm going to draw it up mostly and then Bill/Anna will outline and I'll help fill in.

Thats all for now! Sorry for the delay and I will post more later!

ALOHA!

Rebecca's Memorial Butterfly

I met Rebecca a couple months ago in Penn Station and asked her about her tattoos.

Of the eleven, she shared this one from her leg:

This beautiful, yet battered, butterfly is a memorial to her unborn child. She lost the baby when she was just nineteen. The cherry blossoms are often symbolic of the fleeting nature of life.

The tattoo was completed on October 13, 2007 by Nate Hudson when he was at Virginia Beach Ink. He now tattoos at Folk City Tattoo in Suffolk, Virginia. As today is October 13, I've been hanging on to this post, not only to correspond with the day the tattoo was finished, but also the due date of the baby that was lost.

We here at best-tatto-design truly thank Rebecca for sharing, not only this poignant tattoo, but also for allowing us to relate the emotional story behind this butterfly.