Skin Art Love

Saturday, I went to Atlanta with Jon for a visit with Danielle at Only You Tattoo. It's in Grant Park, a part of town I instantly loved, and Danielle did the piece on my inner forearm. She was with 13 Roses Tattoo when I last saw her, now she has her own shop. She's AMAZING.

I wanted the bee theme continued, and so asked for honeycomb and bees- I want it to eventually all morph together as a single piece of art. (for anyone who hasn't seen it, the lower arm is Silas riding a bee through the night sky) Sleeve style. She got an entire sheet of honeycomb and then we cut pieces out on the sheet until it felt "right." She drew up the bees and the three of us took turns finding the right placement... I needed serious help because, well, I can't really look at the inside of my arm. And the mirror was disorienting. Thank Jeebus Jon was there. There is no "right way up" and the organic shape will make it easily "blendable" into the next piece.


This was the first break after the stencil was placed. We had been actually tattooing for about 45 minutes- though she spent an hour on the drawing and placement prior.



Things are starting to get real ouchy here, I had to change into that position because we had been going long enough that my hand kept falling asleep and I was totally sore. She had been working with me for about five hours...




This photo was taken just prior to the one above it; you can see things are getting swolen and bloody,but she's uber-gentle and I only had a few honeycomb and touchups left...





This is immediately after finishing and washing me down...






Six hours. Several smoke breaks and a supper break later, this is how it looked. After we ate, we went back to the shop so that she could photo it sans yucky blood and such. It will be healed in about a week or so, and then the grays (she put several shades of gray in there) will be able to be seen. For now, it's red and black. The colors will settle and make for a clearer pic.

Phew.

Yes. It hurt. And I love it. (Silas too!)