Tattoo: My First Tattoo!

The other day I went to Colly who gave me my first ever tattoo! (bar the ones I poked into my fingers but I don't count those!)

I met with her three months back and discussed what I wanted. I showed her this picture.

I drew this when my niece was born almost two years ago. Her name is Rosa. The words come from a song I love by the band Why? I had been holding onto it for a while with the hopes of getting it tattooed but, every time I looked at it, I wasn't sure about whether I wanted it permanently on my skin, so I asked Colly to alter certain aspects of it. I think you are always so critical of your own work that it's hard to be 100% happy with it so creative input from another source can be really helpful... especially with something so permanent!!

This is the outcome - I love it! Although the changes a quite subtle, it makes all the difference. She used a mixture of tattooing techniques, using a gun to do the outline and hand-poking to do the shading.

Project: D&AD Awards - Future You

One half of the Future You project was to create a digital image to represent yourself in 10 years time.

I developed the idea of me just being a massive hippy!!! But covered in the tattoos from the previous post.

The idea is that I am not necessary physically covered head to toe in tattoos, but more the symbolism of what each tattoo symbolises and the person I have become throughout the journey of getting them/creating them/doing them/achieving these goals.

I quickly compiled some ideas with my very, very limited Photoshop knowledge!!

I then ran out of time! But compiled this image using the coloured in tattoos from the final flash sheet with the intention of colouring it in digitally.

I thought I could use this for promotional materials. 

Project: D&AD Awards - Future You

I have been asked to do an extra module to help make up marks for my Professional Practice module from the second year.

The brief stated that we were to imagine ourselves in 10 years time - what would we be? who would we be? what would our world be like? and then produce both a digital and printed image of our outcomes.

I experimented with some outcomes and settled on the idea that I would be covered in tattoos, each one representing an achievement or a goal that I wish to have achieved in the next ten years i.e. graduate from uni with a masters, live on a houseboat along with some more humorous ones (like being a spinster!)

I made a flash sheet of these tattoos by planning out what each one was going to look like, hand drawing them and then scanning them into Photoshop to arrange into a flash sheet. I then printed this off and hand coloured the images with pencil crayons to give it that American Traditional painted affect without actually having to paint it!

 

Meanings of each of the tattoos :

1. Beetroot/ Carrot - the idea that in 10 years time I will hopefully be completely vegetarian, or maybe even vegan!

2. Spinster - I'M GOING TO DIE ALONE!!!!!
3. Goat/Chicken - I want to live self-sufficiently and have pets (obviously I will only drink the goat's milk and eat the eggs if I'm not vegan!)

4. Hand with Pencil - Hopefully I will be a successful illustrator.

5. Graduation - I would love to have done a MA within the next 10 years.

6. Born Free - The thought that I will be a free spirit and have enough money and time to travel and go where I please, which leads me onto....

7. The Globe - I'M GOING TO TRAVEL THE WORLD! (or maybe conquer it!)

8. Peace - Hopefully my illustrations can be used for good! Like charity and political activism. So Don't Hate, Illustrate.

9. Boat - For years, I want to live in a bus, but that has altered to wanting to live in a house boat, on the canal, just free to draw and come and go as I please. In peace. Alone....

10. Plants - I want a vegetable garden and a roof garden on my boat!!

11. India - I love India and Indian culture. I have never travelled there but hope to visit. I also sponsor a child who lives in Sri Lanka, so I would like to visit there often too to see her progress.

12. Om - See abovc ^^^ :-)

The rest are just little fillers!!



Personal: Tattoo of Cai

Back in the summer, before I started back at uni, I was commissioned to draw a picture of a beautiful saluki hound called Cai whose owner, Jess, wanted to get tattooed on her leg. Jess is a dancer and wanted the tattoo to follow the shape of her leg so when she moved, the dog would move too!

This was not the first tattoo design I had been asked to do, however, Jess is the first personal to actually have a piece of my artwork permanently on her body!! With great thanks to Colly for translated my artwork so well onto her body, here are the finished results (photo credits: Jess)