Portrait of Tom’s Tattoos
Here we’ll have a little journey through some of Tom’s tatts that I’ve done, including my most recent one. Tom actually taught me how to tattoo, and all my very first bits of ink are on him, so they’re pretty special- we also have a lot of secret tatts dedicated to each other (one of the reasons I never ask people what their tattoos mean) so we’ve got a bond over permanent scarring. Tom very patiently taught me everything he knew, and I will never be able to thank him enough for giving me something I love so much.
This squid is about the third or fourth tatt I ever did, around three years ago- and my first ever attempt at shading. After this I got asked for a lot of squids and I got damned sick of them.
The above two are cover-ups…sort of. When I do a cover up, I like to leave as much of the original in as possible- simply to change its meaning. So we added the Hawaiian print to the gun and I gave this creepy girl some embellishments in the form of a mask and patterns- though this piece remains very much unfinished.
I love the sneaking bat. It was drawn by my friend Leighton Kelly who is an absolutely fantastic illustrator. As soon as Tom saw it he wanted it, and it remains one of the most popular pieces I’ve done.
This is Tom’s hand- this was the second time I’d attempted the dot shading style and it works so beautifully here, especially on the skull inside the beetle’s back.
This fantastic hand is the start of a much larger concept piece we have for covering Tom’s arm…couldn’t wait to start sharing it though- the hand will feature a tattoo of a goat head when it is finished- really excited about doing that one- just the kind of creepy thing I love to work with.
There’s the man himself…
And here’s my thanks. Much love.
