Ancient Art

Have you ever wondered when tattoo started and where? I have; plenty. Unfortunately, we will never really know. But we can be certain of this; tattoos have probably been around for almost as long as humans have inhabited this planet and were aware enough of their own existance to create art. I think that some people simply find it fascinating that art can be carried with them; wherever they go. Portable art, if you will.

While we don't know and never will know who the first person was to accidently (maybe on purpose--but I don't think so) poke themselves with a sooty splinter; we can be sure of this. Tattooing has been around a very long time. Women who lived when and where Jesus lived tattooed their faces and hands. That's 2000 years right there. Women in ancient Egypt tattooed their body and limbs; this evidence dates back 3500 to 4000 years. But the oldest of them all is the tattooed "Iceman". His frozen remains revealed tattoos on his back, knees and other joints; this fellow is 5200 years old (now those are some old tattoos). Anthropologists speculate that his tattoos were more theraputic in nature due to their placement. Follow this link to read the full article (Tattoos: The Ancient and Mysterious History by Cate Lineberry) in the Smithsonian Magazine. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/tattoo.html

Soldier of God

Today, I worked on Brian's Soldier of God piece. This is the end of session one; background to follow. More Later.

Dawn of a new day.

Don't you just hate it when you set up an appointment for a large tattoo and you set aside a very large chunk of the day for this same tattoo and the person doesn't show up? I know I do. No show, no call. How nice is that? You know, all it takes is one little phone call to let me know what's going on; just one call.

Anyway, I used the extra time to do some chores that needed to be done and to simply enjoy the day; Wednesday was a beautiful day after all. You know, sometimes a little break does the body and mind good!

In other news, I worked on Mike again yesterday finishing a sacred heart/banner/name tattoo on his chest and also reworking an old crappy black and grey grim reaper on his left arm (now it is in color). I didn't take any photos this time so I'll try to get some healed pics in a couple of weeks.

Toy Soldiers

Brandon came to me with a request; "Can you do the raising of the flag (Iwo Jima) with toy soldiers and raising a breast cancer ribbon? You know, the little green soldiers with platforms on their feet?"

So, here it is. Today is round one of a larger piece which will include a helicopter and background. The four soldiers represent Brandon and his sisters; the ribbon is for his mother.

Week of the Skull

So, this week saw the return of Mike! I always enjoy working on him; he sits well, never complains and will sit as long as I will let him! Gotta love that in a client! Anyway, this piece started out as a cover up of his wife's name (that part of the tattoo is above this skull and is not visable in this pic) and all of the work on him is custom and drawn directly on him with a ball point pen (no stencils). The piece started out as black and grey and then I decided to go with color; I'm really glad that I did! Mike is too! The color really took the depth of the piece to another level. I also love the sick green color of this piece; I used the Zombie Greens from Alla Prima.
I'll post more pictures of the progression of this piece as it unfolds. Hopefully, future pics will be better than this one. I'm a tattoo artist, not a photographer! But, I am working on it; I need to buy a "natural light" light bulb to show the colors better and to help illuminate the tattoo. Hopefully I'll get one soon.

Remembrance

A little work I did in Knoxville. Steve's new half-sleeve in progress. He traveled a long way to come see me for this piece and I was happy to oblige him.

What's your flavor

A custom half-sleeve by Keith Groves.