Here's a design I did for a client who wanted a piece of mine as a tattoo. She liked the style of one of the cat heads in my print "Rainbow Cats", and asked if I could do a color version of it. Knowing that you cannot get quite as much fine-line detail in a tattoo, I did a slightly simpler line version of it, then added several color layers from her list of favorite colors. The finished design is above, and the actual tattoo that resulted is below. (It's not as "narrow" as it seems. The tattoo artist actually did a really good job, it's just my photo here exaggerates the warping of the image wrapping around her arm.) I've had several designs now translated into tattoo art, and this is one of the better results. It doesn't matter how good the art is you take in to them, it's the person who wields the needle whose talent is most important.
It's always an amazing compliment when someone says they actually want to wear my art permanently on their body!
Cool. Must be strange seeing your art on someone's skin. Do you have a record of your "published on skin" pieces on your website? How do you judge the circulation of a piece like that? Larger than for a fanzine illo? Or does that depend on the wearer?
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping to get just such a page up on the website. I've got photos of several different tattoos now, just need to get my act together to add the page.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of a tattoo having a "circulation" figure of viewers, like a magazine!