Sunday funday!

At No Ka Oi yesterday two girls came in and wanted matching ribbons on their wrists. The stick is a drumstick....


Again another exercise in color and got to play around with pinks.

Next this chick came in... a regular customer at our shop. Just this week she got something else on her chest. She was super sweet and put this on the back of her thigh. Definitely a weird area to tattoo, but with all the stretching practice I'm getting without using an armrest it wasn't as bad as I thought.

The last of the day was this one. Just an outline of the NJ state with a banner and a tiny bit of shading on the banner. It was so weird tattooing him mainly because the skin puffed up so fast! I definitely have to get used to working with darker skin. This guy was super nice and it was also his first tattoo.

Then to today... this walked in first of the day. I was really happy about this one because I got more practice with working with solid color.

Next to walk in was this one.... an old name that needed reworking, and she wanted to add a simple design around the name so that it looked like a bracelet. This is what we came up with.... Sorry about the crappy photo... for some reason the pics came out lighter than the design actually is.

Obviously her skin got super puffed up maybe that's why the photo came out so light.... I hope to see her again so I can see how it healed.

Then the bracelet's boyfriend wanted a kanji design from off the wall. He got it on his forearm and we will add stars around it once hes all healed up.

Another walk in.... really simple kanjis. She didn't sit so well but overall I'm happy with how it came out.

The last walkin of the day so far was this on the wrist. She was really nice and we added some color in the bling stars.

I'm off tomorrow, but will post more when I have more to show you!

ALOHA

Tony's thigh

So on Wednesday Tony and I met up at the South Street shop to outline his left thigh. He told me about a week before this that he wanted a hot mermaid with a clipper ship and water in the background. I was so excited that one of my fellow artists/friends would want me to do something so big on him! So this is what we came up with. This took me roughly 3 hours to outline and Bill was there too.

I'm about to upload the tattoos I did today here on 4th Street. Stay tuned!

More catch up

Due to lack of internet at my house I'm resorting to uploading whenever I'm at work and not busy. So here's the weekend recap....

Im just going to post everything that I've done and then do my best to fill in with comments...

 So I was working on 4th Street the other day and got a few walk ins.... this was the first. Also her first tattoo.

 Then this one was sent over from No Ka Oi and this was her first tattoo.

 Then that same week I was working on South Street with Carlos and a few things came in. This was the second of the day. He was super nice and despite the crappy photo Bill and I were happy with it.

 Next these two girls walked in and each of them got a paw print. One of the girls got hers on the hip so we passed that one to Carlos and I did this one.

 Next was a young woman who wanted a star bracelet. She was really nice and we went with just an outline for now. Maybe another time she will come back for color or shading.

 Then on Friday I worked at No Ka Oi. This girl came in who wanted to let me practice on her! We gave her this which is her last name in Arabic, then she gave me some references for a pomogranate plant on her ribs. I'm going to talk it over with Bill and draw out a design so that we can work on that together. I'm noticing that the simple things are getting easier and easier the more I work.

 Next this chick came in. This was a good exercise in color. Very fun to do and she is going to come back to get a matching one on her other ankle.

After that a couple came in and each of them got this on their inner arm.


More to come......!

Playing catch up

So I haven't posted anything in a few days, so here is what I've been up to. The other night when I posted the holy on the foot, a 18 yr old kid came in with his parents wanting his first tattoo. He came in with a dream catcher design and a logo that he wanted in the middle. Although this design is a bit larger than what I'm working on at the moment, I went ahead and did it. Looking back I should have done a value study beforehand to figure out a game plan, but I just went for it. I talked to Bill about it afterwards and there are definitely things that I could have done differently like put more variation in the values. So today I did a value study so that for next time I know how to better approach feathers. All in all I was really excited about this tattoo and so was the client. Another thing is that he had a 10 yr old scar that he wanted covered, and this was my first time dealing with covering up anything.

I told him to come in once this heals so we can add some darker values to the feathers.

Saturday was my day off and my cousin Jimmy came in to get his first tattoo, his last name across his back. We only did the lettering that day, he's going to add shamrocks on either side of the letters the next time. This one went pretty smoothly, learned some lessons about stretching with Bill there and about proper shading. Next time I think I won't go so dark. Use more lighter values to make the transition smoother.

Yesterday I worked at No Ka Oi and it was fairly busy. The first one of the day was a woman getting her first tattoo, and wanted a ladybug flying off her arm. Bill helped me out with the design and adding the shading around the flight lines to make it look more like the bug was in flight. This was a good lesson in color and dealing with darker skin.

The next was another first tattoo for a young man in love. This one is self explanatory.

This one came in after, something really simple on a med student. He chose a font from our lettering book and went from there.

The last couple of the day were really sweet! They had read my blog and wanted to get something from me, way to take one for the team!!! This went on the one girl and the other got this next one on her wrist :)

This one was really funny and I had a good time tattooing these two ladies. I hope to see them again!


Now off to another day.....

Four from Christine

I met Christine at the Trader Joe's on the Upper West Side yesterday evening and she shared these four tattoos:

Moving clockwise from the upper left in the photo above, we start with an outline of Brooklyn, in honor of the borough in which Christine was born and raised.

At the top of the other forearm is an om symbol, which captures her focus and has occasionally "helped with panic attacks."

The two butterflies on opposite arms were inked in honor of her nieces, who both love these colorful insects. The shade of each represents their favorite colors.

The Brooklyn piece was inked at Asylum Studios in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. The om and the butterflies were done by artists at Three Kings Tattoo. Both shops are in Brooklyn and have had work appear on best-tatto-design previously here (Asylum) and here (Three Kings).

Thanks to Christine for sharing these four of her eleven (!) tattoos with us here on best-tatto-design!

This entry is ©2011 best-tatto-design.

If you are reading this on another web site other than best-tatto-design, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://best-tatto-design.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Chris's Cherry Blossoms Grace His Forearm

On Friday afternoon, I ran into Chris near the 34th Street subway station near the Manhattan Mall.

He had this wonderful tattoo on his left forearm:

Chris explained that this tree resembles a cherry blossom tree that he played on with his cousin when he was a kid. His cousin has passed, so this is, in essence, a memorial, "without being over the top".

I found it interesting and quite poignant that I spotted this piece on the day of the earthquake in Japan, when the plight of the residents in the northern part of that country was on so many minds. The cherry blossom, as many know, is often associated with the temporary, fleeting nature of life.

I particularly like the shadowy effect in the background of the tattoo:

Chris credited Ryan at ArtCore Tattoos in Naples, Florida with this tattoo.

Thanks to Chris for sharing his tattoo with us here on best-tatto-design!

This entry is ©2011 best-tatto-design.
If you are reading this on another web site other than best-tatto-design, without attribution, please note that it has been copied without the author's permission and is in violation of copyright laws. Please feel free to visit http://best-tatto-design.blogspot.com and read our original content. Please let me know if you saw this elsewhere so I contact the webmaster of the offending site and advise them of this violation in their Terms of Use Agreement.

Another day on 4th Street

So I'm working today til midnight, and this one came in about an hour after we opened up. She wanted this on her foot (upside down of course) with the end of the word turning into a cross. She wrote it out herself then I redrew it and this is what we came up with.

Overall I'm ok with this one. I'm fairly comfortable tattooing feet, just not really excited about the design. Next time I do something like this I'll try and talk them into integrating the cross in another way.

Until next time....