Sharing Saturday - Solo Tattoo Adventure

Hello, Dear Friends!

We decided to spice things up with a regular post entitled, "Sharing Saturday."  Shall we begin?

David's schedule has shifted to include four nights a week for a bit, so as usual, I'm pretty bored. Normally, I would watch my favorite shows on Netflix for hours on end (Right now, it's Missing. Watch it!) or stalk Pinterest and Facebook.

Who am I kidding? I'm still doing that.

But I did go a bit wild and have a little adventure solo yesterday:





Well, if you're not just stopping by as a stranger, you probably already know me and my husband. We're both into tattoos and have been for awhile. No, we're not gangsters, bikers, hooligans, etc.  He's a nurse, and I'm a Human Resources Consultant with a graphic design business on the side. See? Professional people can have a wild side.

When I entered the workforce, I got a few strange looks because of my tattoos, but to be honest, the farther I go along...The less it becomes an issue. If I have a big meeting, it's covered. If I'm meeting someone that I don't know very well that I think might take offense, it's covered. If I'm representing my company at a conference, it's covered. And so on and so forth.

But in my daily life and with my graphic design customers... I've got tattooes.

I have had the cartoon hearts and the phrase, "All you need is love," for a about 4 years. A very talented artist friend, Cory Hand, did that for me, and I've gotten a lot of compliments on it.  I also knew that I wanted a large back piece, so I started thinking about what I wanted and what direction I was going in.  I knew I wanted a piece that went from about mid back to my shoulders, but how could I incorporate what I already had dead center in between my shoulder blades?



The starting point.



It finally hit me a week ago. The hearts I have currently are new school: bold, heavily outlined, edgy... I wanted to frame my current tattoo with something ornate, vintage, and very classic. I knew if I could blend those two styles together with a frame, that I would have no problem finishing the rest of my back.  

But I hit a snag.

I knew I was going to need to find a new artist to work with, because Cory has since moved on to another shop in Georgia. (They're amazing. Check them out here.) I also knew that I wanted someone who had a certain style and was easy to get along with.

Enter Daniel Chandler, a new artist at Lucky 7 Tattoos, a shop right down the road. He's got a strong art background and immediately clued in to what I wanted to do from my reference pictures.

What do I do when I can't see something in my head? Pull it into Illustrator and mess with it.



After spending some time looking at these and some reference books of his own, he showed me some of Alphonse Mucha's work, and we decided to go with something a little more organic and flowing:

He worked up the Art Nouveau style frame freehand using a grid to ensure symmetry. I've got one more sitting to go on this part of the tattoo following my session yesterday, which took about 4 hours, but I'm very pleased with my choice of artist and the direction we went.  He's got some mad skills, and I'm looking forward to working with him more.

No doubt, I'll keep you posted once we've finished this piece and then again when it's completely done.

Hope you've enjoyed my (extremely) long Sharing Saturday!