2013

It seems like a long time now that I've been able to update this blog.  I'm starting to realize that I'm missing it, and it was becoming a pretty great tool for some self reflection and critique on how I work.  I'm not a real embracer of technology, nor have I ever been the journal keeping type, but something about being able to combine the images with my rambling thoughts totally works for me. 

 Newborn son, moving the tattoo studio to a temporary location while my building gets remodeled (more on that another time), guest artist and friend Horimasa staying with me and working for 5 weeks, in addition to the usual day to day non stopness has really eaten up any free time I used to have.

All's well though, and I've been constantly on my toes starting and continuing some really fun projects. Hoping to catalog some recent pictures and get them up soon...

One thing that is happening this week is that my helper (I need all I can get) and I are finally ready to schedule 2013.  Thanks so much to those on the wait list for their patience and understanding.  With on going work and new projects waiting in the wings, it looks like a decent chunk of the year will be spoken for, but if anyone is interested in time for the coming year please feel free to email any ideas to truenaturetattoo@gmail and we'll see what we can do.  Doing the booking a year at a time is a bit overwhelming, but seems to be the best system for me.

The new studio should be done around mid December, so we will be starting out the new year fresh in a brand new space that we're very excited about.  Same building, but they're in the process of ripping of the roof and making a cool upstairs loft work space (that will have a huge deck overlooking the forest). We'll have a little more square footage and a cooler lay out.  There will be four dormers in all, so each of us will have our own nook with some cool angled ceilings and views.  My landlord and I have a really good relationship, and he's been letting me have a say in the layout, where fixtures and such go, and I pick the paint and flooring etc...

I really love the idea of being a building from 1905 with brand new everything.  Old time soul with all the modern amenities...

Peony

So here's another from a while ago, but at least I'm finally starting to work through some of these older photos.

This flower is on the sleeve I started recently that has a big hannya and shake up top.  The bottom has since been outlined with a skull, another snake and a bunch more peonies (photos soonish...)

The idea for this arm is to just have almost all peonies as background (with the snake bodies intertwining between everything).  Kind of like everything is nestled in a peony bush.  There are only going to be a couple that are done in this style (with the white tips on the petals) and the rest that are more underneath and in the background will be darker shades.  It's an idea I've always wanted to try and this is the perfect piece and client to do it.  We've worked a bunch together before on a very solid whole leg piece and a few other odds and ends.  

This arm was another perfect storm situation where he knew exactly what elements he wanted and the basic layout, and let me run with it from there.  These are the types of pieces and people that really keep me highly motivated and wanting to push myself and set my expectations of myself much higher.

I was sort of hoping to outline the whole arm before starting any color, but time has been scarce lately for serious drawing sessions.  New baby, shop moving soon (more info on that soon too), and the day to day business of life with a very full tattoo schedule means that some things just have to wait.  I'm not really comfortable rushing artwork, and especially for an involved cool piece on a very dedicated client.  Yet somehow all things seem to be working out how they should and life is good...

Dragon Back

So these photos are actually from a while ago, but I'm just starting to work through a back log of pictures from the past couple months.  

We've done a couple of sessions since this, but I like looking back at every step and trying to figure out for myself what I'm putting into making these things.

This session was drawing on and outlining the right buttock and down the thigh.  I had it sort of mapped out on paper and it ended up working out in real life (sometimes before starting a big piece I'll take a picture of the person's blank back, blow it up to an 11X17" piece of paper and sketch out a large thumbnail for the piece.  I either then blow that sketch up to the traced out actual area and refine it, or use it as template to draw stuff on.  Sometimes I really prefer this method as I find drawing a larger piece actual size from the get go you end up trying to put in too much detail and watering down the over all impact of the image.  Drawing it smaller and blowing it up later almost prohibits you from fussing over the details too much as you don't really have enough room.)

Since this session we've filled in the whole lower left side with background and are moving over the middle and starting to fill the stuff from this time.  More regular updates soon I hope...

Paternity Leave

Wow.  Just realized how long it's been since I've updated anything on here.  Past few weeks have been a whirlwind as my my new son was born on June 11th!  I've already got an amazing 7 year old daughter, and now the family unit is all balanced out with this great new little dude.  Couldn't be happier with how it all worked out and we're all feeling super blessed and looking forward to the next phase for our little crew.  Here's my scene these days:

That's Sparrow in the background.  My wife came up with her name early on in pregnancy and we both instantly knew that was the one.  This time around it took a while to really wrap our heads around a name.  For several months I was having this feeling like the one I was looking for was right in front of me and I just couldn't see it.  Then thankfully one day it finally came...Enso.  Not sure if it's really been used as a name before (I'm sure there's plenty on Enzo name confusion in his future) or if it makes a ton of sense, but we really dig it and I think it's going to work perfect for him.

An Enso is a Zen brush stroke of a circle:

I've always been very attracted to and interested in Zen Calligraphy and shodo in general (stylized Japanese calligraphy).  I don't know a ton about it on an academic level, but I've always really connected with it pretty strongly on a visual level, and enjoy trying it in my own way.  I've spent many late nights just drawing simple pictures/shapes/and words with brushes or brush pens and getting really lost in it for hours.  It can be super meditative and the flow of your hand can really help tap into a good stream of consciousness that ends up on the paper.  Really more about the process than the result for me (nice break from the pressures of tattooing where the result has much more importance).

An Enso is sort of an embodiment of this mental space...a quality I strive for and value.

Here's a description lifted from Wikipedia:

Ensō (円相) is a Japanese word meaning "circle" and a concept strongly associated with Zen. Ensō is one of the most common subjects of Japanese calligraphy even though it is a symbol and not a character. It symbolizes absolute enlightenment, strength, elegance, the universe, and the void; it can also symbolize the Japanese aesthetic itself. As an "expression of the moment" it is often considered a form of minimalist expressionist art.

In Zen Buddhist painting, ensō symbolizes a moment when the mind is free to simply let the body/spirit create. The brushed ink of the circle is usually done on silk or rice paper in one movement (but the great Bankei used two strokes sometimes) and there is no possibility of modification: it shows the expressive movement of the spirit at that time. Zen Buddhists "believe that the character of the artist is fully exposed in how she or he draws an ensō. Only a person who is mentally and spiritually complete can draw a true ensō. Some artists will practice drawing an ensō daily, as a kind of Spiritual Practice."[1]

Some artists paint ensō with an opening in the circle, while others complete the circle. For the former, the opening may express various ideas, for example that the ensō is not separate, but is part of something greater, or that imperfection is an essential and inherent aspect of existence (see also the idea of broken symmetry). The principle of controlling the balance of composition through asymmetry and irregularity is an important aspect of the Japanese aesthetic: Fukinsei (不均斉), the denial of perfection.

The ensō is also a sacred symbol in the Zen school of Buddhism, and is often used by Zen masters as a form of signature in their religious artwork.

Sorry for the ramble.  Point being basically alls well with the little guy and family, but there's been no real time to keep up on everything other thing (like this blog).  With the way the schedule's been the past few years, this whole time was already booked before my wife even got pregnant, so there's been a lot of shuffling and adjusting of the appointment book.  Thanks to all for their understanding with missed or changed appointments, my helper Darci who sorts it all out for me all the time, and most of all my wife for putting up with how much I work and how much it takes of me to make it happen. 

Hopefully in the next week or so I'll be able to sift through the tattoo photos of the past couple months and get them updated.  Getting close on some super cool ones, and been starting some new stuff I'm really excited about...

Tiger Sleeve

I'm sure I've said we're almost done before, but seriously, we're almost done...

This was one of those classic ones for me where I'm convinced I can finish a much larger area that is actually possible for me in the allotted time (i.e. thought I'd finish the whole tiger during our session time).  Once I get into something I tend to have a fairly methodical approach, and I always forget that the style I prefer to do things takes a lot of time.  Ideally, there is minimal skin showing at all, dense black and color, tight little air spaces (leaving a small strip of skin between the color and the outline to give a little more pop to what is essentially a 2D image) and on and on.  I've realized it's just not an approach that can be blasted through and still maintain the look I'm striving for.  

I'm glad that my clients enjoy me and the process (I think/hope) and appreciate what goes into these things.  It can be an unexpected lesson in patience and endurance for a lot of people, not to mention seriously challenging their previous comfort levels.  These things are a serious commitment, and I genuinely hope that they're getting a little something more out of the experience that just a tattoo...

Mr. Tiger Guy here is a great example of someone I think has evolved and grown a bit through his two or so year tattoo journey so far.  Understanding his connection the the experience and enthusiasm for the art really helps me stay focused and motivated...

NY Convention

This piece was the majority of my time at the convention.

Friday I had a bunch of fun doing swirling clouds around the forearm of a super cool dude I know (got caught up in chatting and didn't get photos) for about six hours.  The above piece was pretty much most all of Saturday and a big chunk of Sunday (it's a really big tattoo, he's like 6'4" or more in real life and built like an ox).  Saturday we outlined everything, and finished the koi and the pink peony I believe (seriously, it was non stop and it's kind of a blur).  He had a fairly good sized tattoo on his upper arm that we were able to cover very successfully and still have everything flow nicely.

On Sunday we added the water and finished the flowers.  Eventually we'll add more black background around everything and really give it a traditional looking half sleeve silhouette.  He really wanted a half sleeve done in a weekend, but I just couldn't bring myself to cut the corners to make that happen.  When you're on the road, you're usually dealing with limited time constraints.  Folks tend to want to get as much as possible while they can,  and too often it can be tempting to choose quantity over quality.  I'd rather leave him with this portion finished in a way that I'm proud of and was done right with intention and focus (and we're the only ones that know it's gonna get more).  Also, I feel like the biggest virtue that big tattoo projects teach you besides perseverance is patience.

He hadn't gotten tattooed in a very long time, but did perfectly.  Couldn't have asked for a better guy to work with on this one.  I think we're both very motivated to continue on with this one and on to the other side...

And as a really great added surprise, Horitoshi came to give us a surprise visit!  When I first got to NY, I found out that he had just decided to come to New Jersey a few days after.  He was so good to me when I stayed with him in Japan, and has been such a big influence on me, that I was really bummed that I wouldn't be able to make it over there (full schedule of work) and he wouldn't be coming to the city.  Then on Saturday they decided to show up unannounced and surprise us (Shunho, who I was sharing the booth with) with a short visit...

It was a really great show and I'd really like to thank the folks who helped us out around the booth.  And an extra big thanks and debt of gratitude to Bill and Junii Salmon for entrusting the Diamond Club booth to me and trusting me to represent them in their absence.  Very big responsibility and honor in my world...

NY Peonies

Just starting to get settled back in from a whirlwind work trip to New York.

Had pretty much the best trip ever and can't wait to go back next year.  I was very honored to get an invitation to be a guest artist at NY Adorned for a few days and had an amazing experience there.  It's very high energy shop with an extremely talented and down to earth crew of tattooers.  I felt completely welcomed and really enjoyed my interactions with everyone there.  It was an interesting experience for me as I usually work in a private room where it's pretty much just me and the client.  To be in a big open space working alongside all these great tattooers non stop all day was hugely motivating and helped push me a little further than usual.  

I had one client a day for the four days, and put in a lot of time on each of them.  The peonies above were this guys first tattoo.  He sat great and was a real pleasure to interact with.  All of my sessions there went really well, and everyone I tattooed was a seriously great person and pleasure to work with.

I was sort of hoping to get this all done in one day (very wishful thinking), but the reality of doing peonies in this style (bright white tips, color edged up in rows between the white, little air spaces in the leaf veins etc.) is that they take a very long time.  Most of the ones I've seen done by friends of mine in the Horitoshi family (whose style I'm emulating in these) take 3-5 hours each by hand poke.  My friend Horizakura who  I was staying with was joking with me that he thought machine work would be faster than that, but with this look there's no real shortcut or time saving with a machine.  It's all about following a stylistic formula and making sure every part of the process is perfect...

Big thanks to everyone at the shop for being so welcoming, Horizakura and his wife for putting me up for 9 days, and an extra big thanks to the owner Lori for all of her advice and inspiration.

Small Butterfly Tattoos (HD Pics)

Butterfly - Spiritual immortality, temporary element of life.
A generally feminine tattoo design choice and a perennial favorite. It's ranking shows the growing influence that women have in tattoo culture. Even so, the Butterfly is not entirely the exclusive domain of the feminine. The Roman Emperor, Augustus, took it as his personal symbol, and the warrior priests of the Mexican Popolucas peoples sported the Butterfly as a motif on their breastplates. Their Butterfly was also the symbol of fire. Delightful, magical and transformational, the Butterfly reminds its admirers of the mystery of nature and the richness of human imagination.

While butterfly tattoos for girls can be cute, their symbolism is entirely different. Butterfly tattoos with meaning is quite ambiguous because some consider it as a representation of childbirth will others associate it with fragility impermanence of human life.

Unique Skull Tattoos

Skull tattoos do represent death, but they typically represent the fleetingness of life. “Memento mori” is latin for “remember your mortality,” meaning that it is important to keep your inevitable death in mind so that you may live life to the fullest while you still can. Death comes to us all, so that thought shouldn't be depressing. Instead, an unlived life is the depressing thought.

Skull tattoos, a little like death tattoo designs, remind people to experience obstacles and hardships, to take chances and be their best. “All is vanity” is another common motto seen with skull tattoo designs. This design shows that death eventually comes to everyone, and anything achieved in life will pass or fade away. Oftentimes, this combination of meaning and imagery represents a belief in an afterlife. People who choose these tattoos want to remember that their mortal life is meaningless in comparison to the wonders and glory that await them after death.

Strangely enough, skull are also used as a good luck tattoo design. Gamblers wanting to change their bad luck sometimes choose symbols of ill will and bad luck, like skulls and black cat tattoo designs. These tattoos, contradictory though it seems, is meant to bring the gambler success in the future. Perhaps this tattoo is based on the idea that skulls not only represent death, but also change. This symbolic change is neither innately bad nor good.

In the Kabbalah belief system, the skull represents rebirth and is a time for celebration, not sadness, sorrow, and mourning. In the same way, death does not always mean something negative. Death can be a positive experience and remembering those who have died can be uplifting.

In Mexico, the Day of the Dead is a time of festivity and celebration. This festival celebrates the lives of family members who have passed. For this day, the dead are revered, honored, and respected. Day of the Dead skull tattoos, also called sugar skull tattoos, usually resemble the sugar or white chocolate skulls used in the festival. These skulls are usually idealized and very stylized. They are decorated with bright colors and vibrant flowers.

Rose tattoo designs are also frequently tattooed with skulls, to represent the contrast between life and death or beauty and decay.

In the Christian belief system, skull tattoos often represent eternity and the repentance necessary for eternal life. Most Christians believe in an eternal life spent in either heaven or hell. The earthly remains, portrayed as the skull, shows that the body is left behind and becomes nothing, but the soul goes on. Some Christians use skull tattoos to remind themselves to a life according to God's will and the Bible, so that they might end up in heaven after death.

The skull has also been a symbol of triumph and rebellion. When a group won a war or conflict, they sometimes piled the heads or skulls of their enemies for all to see. The skulls served as a reminder to those who would harbored thoughts of revenge; they too would experience the same fate as their fallen comrades if they tried to attack. The anarchist movement and anarchy tattoo designs sometimes use the skull as a symbol of their political beliefs. They used the skull and crossbones symbol, which they took from an earlier pirating flag.

Pirate tattoo designs often use skulls. The pirate's skull design, known as the Jolly Roger, features a skull with the crossbones underneath. The Jolly Roger was flown in rebellion of governmental rule and authority. The anarchists embraced this way of life, this denial of organized authority, and adapted the Jolly Roger for their own purposes.

Nazis and Neo-Nazis have embraced the skull symbol, too. However, this design features a skull with the crossbones placed behind the skull, rather than beneath it. Interestingly, this symbol has been embraced by subcultures other than skinheads and prejudiced groups. Bikers believe that the Totenkopf, as it is known, is a protective sigil that will keep them safe from harm or death, so its inclusion is frequent in biker tattoo designs.

Obviously, the skull tattoo has a very different meaning depending upon how it is viewed and the historical understanding of those who are looking at it. For this reason, it is important to understand, at least vaguely, the possible connotations implied by a skull tattoo. But, like all tattoos, the choice is very personal and the meaning can be entirely private.

chest tattoos provide a popular way to show off your favorite body art. This larger canvas area means that you can display much more than could be inked elsewhere.

About Chest Tattoos

When you want a design the requires a larger body canvas, the chest is a terrific location to consider. You can show off your artwork whenever you think the time is right, but chest tats can also be covered by shirts and other pieces of clothing - a fact that is often taken advantage of in Japanese full body tattoos known as horimono.

Cultural Chest Tats

In Japan, tattoos are far less common than they are in the United States or in portions of Europe. Originally associated with the yakuza, or Japanese mob, the full body tattoos in the style known as horimono often cover most of the chest. These chest tattoos are unique because the tattoo artists usually do not cover the center of the chest. Leaving a center strip bare in horimono means that men (women are not recipients of this sort of full body tattoo) can partially unbutton their shirts and not show off their tattoos.
Woman with chest tats

The Maori are also known to tattoo their chests in a cultural/ritualistic way. This tribe is most commonly known for the tattoos that adorn their faces and heads, but these swirled, hand-tattooed symbols can also extend down the neck and onto the chest.

Women's Chest Tats

While most chest tattoos are found on men - it's easy to picture large tattoos of ships, religious tattoos and other intricate designs - women also get this part of their body inked. The breasts are a popular canvas for many women, and small tattoos are often seen adorning the cleavage of women from all walks of life. This sort of tattoo is very easily covered, especially in women, who don't tend to go shirtless. Tattoos on a woman's chest can also be very sensual for their partners. The relatively private nature of chest tats on women means that images can be inked here that a woman may not want elsewhere - popular themes for tattoos on women's chests include names, hearts, flowers, butterflies and other feminine images.
Men's Chest Tats

Men who choose to get their tattoos on their chests are usually looking for a large spot to display an intricate image. One of the most popular and old school pictures that can be inked on a man's chest is a ship. Usually depicted as an old time schooner or pirate ship, these tattoos are much larger than you would typically find on other parts of the body. Many sailor tattoos were inked on the chest, including nautical stars, anchors, and swallows - all of which have their own meaning.

Other popular images include portrait tattoos, hearts (something a man may not want to display on a more visible part of their body) and lettering/words that mean something to the wearer.

Butterfly Tattoos (pics)

For most people, when they think about tattoo imagery, the subject matter of insects probably does not spring immediately to mind. In fact, it's probably not even a close second. Yet one of the most popular designs being done today, probably ranking right at the top of those being done on women, and a symbol that has even come to typify the tattoos of the 90s, is the butterfly. While tattoos that use butterflies surely do capitalize on their great beauty and diversity, they are also highly symbolic creatures in many cultures, including our own. Beginning in the east though, in Japan, one butterfly stands for young womanhood while two symbolize marital bliss. To the Aztecs of ancient Mexico however, the butterfly stood both for the souls of dead warriors who had fallen on the battlefield and the souls of women who had died in childbirth – the two most noble deaths of which an Aztec could conceive. In Christianity it likewise stands for the soul which has escaped the confines of the flesh. In the west, as elsewhere, the symbolism of the butterfly centers upon its unique transformation. From one existence as the slow and crawling caterpillar, then to the dormant and captive chrysalis or cocoon, and finally the rebirth into a light and airy winged creature, the metamorphosis of the butterfly is one of its most powerful and uplifting meanings. Accordingly, over time, the butterfly has also come to represent not only beauty itself but also the transitory nature of that beauty and indeed of all life. Despite their enormous variety and their delicate and detailed coloring, their embellishment in tattoo art may well rival that found in nature.