Finished Color - More or Less

I forgot to ask my friend to take a photo for me today. It was a beautiful, sunny day... I even had my camera.. but no.

So.. here is a photo taken at 9PM.. by me.. camera phone.. bad lighting.. sorry ;{ for poor quality.
However, I said I would post a photo of the finished color. I left the paste on for about two hours, then just did the olive oil after care.. and voila!

Practicing Peacock Arm Tattoo

Inspired by the henna video showing work by the artists of Nepal, I decided to practice to improve both speed & style.

Here is a photo of late night henna practice where the work focused on creating an armlet tattoo. I feel very good about peacock faces in general.. and I am sure the eyes are improving.

I also feel better about my use of negative space, and am remembering to double line major design areas so that they really stand out.

Also, bolding or filling some areas also sees to help bring a design to life.

Of course the greatest difficulty I find when henna-ing myself is working upside down!

And then there is not smudging as I go! This is when the use of lemon sugar glaze & a blow dryer is priceless.

I can work out the pattern, spray, dry, and continue without having to be overly careful.

I will be able to put up finished color photos of this tattoo.. so ..

Stay tuned?


Namaste

Mike's Reminder, Emblazoned on His Chest

An unseasonably warm Monday, when the temperature rose above 60, proved to be a bonus here at Tattoosday.

I met Mike in Penn Plaza, outside of Borders, and of his eleven tattoos, he chose this one to share here on the blog:


I was struck by the diamond in the middle of the chest, which reminded me of the piece in the Tattoosday banner at the top of the page.

Mike told me that the message "Never Fail" was a reminder to himself to always strive to achieve his goals, to do the best that he can, and to never fail.

The piece was tattooed by Sean Foy at Rider's Ink in Newark, New Jersey.


Thanks to Mike for baring and sharing this self-motivating message here on Tattoosday!

Winter Henna - How to Wrap for Good Color

I am so fortunate to have met a new & wonderful goddess with a love of body art! Here are photos of her henna journey in December.. Jacksonville, Florida.

The first photo in this series is of the palms of the hands. To accomplish this tattoo, I started with the Lotus Om on the left hand, then the mandala center on the right.. back to the left and so on.

The patterns were misted with a lemon sugar glaze and allowed to dry as we moved from hand to hand, finishing the palms... but stopping before we got to the tips of the fingers. This way, it is easy to turn the hand over, resting on the finger tips, to apply mehandi to the back of the hands.

It is very important to remind that henna is a heat activated body dye. What that means is that warm temperatures help open pores, keep palms warm & moist, thus allowing the henna to stay active on the body for a longer period of time. All these conditions make for a dark finished color & a longer lasting tattoo.

The second picture in this series shows the "henna wrapping" which is a photo of tissue (which is taped when necessary to keep the tissue in place) and the plastic gloves used to create a little henna spa.. or sauna.. to give dark color in the winter time.

The tissue actually sticks to the lemon sugar glaze that is regularly applied during the henna process, and the tape helps keep the tissue in place. The little gloves (food service grade) are also taped shut at the wrist for comfort. There are so many benefits to this method, which I always use for bridal henna to ensure the darkest color, winter or summer in this air-conditioned part of the country!

Photo three is Tara's peacock garden pattern. You may be able to see the head of the peacock page right, then notice the tail that spreads across her fingers. The little six petaled flowers that grace the back of her hand are traditional, as are the little dots.

Once the back of her hands was finished, we turned palms face up to spread henna paste to cover the tips of her fingers. Photo four show the joy of a good design... that the back of the hand is visually pleasing when presented with the palm. As always, I hope to be able to post finished color photos in the near future.

Although this pattern was completed on Saturday afternoon, the finished color will not reveal itself until Monday. Henna usually takes about 48 hours to develop. For more tips on how to have a successful henna tattoo, please visit my site, or browse other posts in this blog.

As you can see from the photos, Tara got her manicure before her henna... which will make her design last longer & provides us all with these lovely photos. Henna tattoo is available by appointment during the winter months for those who chose traditional patterns, palms and backs of hands.

Summer time is our henna party season.. for that little something, just for fun. Namaste!

Isn't She Lovely? Camille from TV/TV Shares Some Ink

One of the benefits of Tattoosday is that, because musicians tend to have a lot of ink, I meet a lot of them, and learn about bands that I may never have heard about.

This past Friday, I met Camille (pronounced Cah-mee) outside of Penn Station and he showed me a couple of his tattoos.

Camille is the drummer for the band TV/TV (MySpace here).

They just released their 5-track EP Something to Get Excited About this past year (read a review here). I've heard several of their songs since then, and I've enjoyed their sound (see the bottom of the post for more info). TV/TV is playing at the Highline Ballroom on January 15 and are booked for the Warped Tour in the Summer of 2009.

Of Camille's sixteen tattoos, he showed me this one first:

On the day the world mourned the passing of Bettie Page, it seemed appropriate to get a shot of a pin-up tattoo.

This piece is a vision, like many pin-ups, of the wearer's "dream girl". The top caption, "Isn't She Lovely?" is a nod to the Stevie Wonder song (his "favorite song ever"). Camille notes he's a big Stevie fan.

He says it's not obvious from the piece, but the woman has a knife behind her back, which explains the warning "Trust No One".

Just below the pin-up are the theater's Comedy and Tragedy masks:


See another version of this motif, appearing previously on Tattoosday, here. He added these to his arm because he loves the theater and musicals.

Both tattoos are on his left arm. The comedy/tragedy masks are on the inside of his wrist.

The artist on both pieces were inked by Turk at Guru Tattoo in the Pacific Beach section of San Diego.

Thanks to Camille for sharing these tattoos here with us on Tattoosday!

You can hear the songs from their debut EP here on their YouTube channel. Here's a taste, listen to "Call it Love":

Fabiana Shares Two More Colorful Tattoos

A couple of weeks back, I posted some ink from a guy named Tom (here), which featured the trinacria of the Sicilian flag.

The above example, from our good friend Fabiana (see her last post here - which links to her previous ones, as well), is a more colorful and elaborate take on the design.

Fabiana explains:

"The tat of the Medusa head I got because it's on the Sicilian flag. I was born there and it reminds me of all that I left behind, kinda just reminds me of my fam there and the time I lived there and all the things I went through! I love Sicily! It's such a beautiful place, hope I can return there some day! So now I look at it and it takes me right back to where my life first began."

This piece is on her upper right bicep and, like most of her work, was inked by Lou at Third Eye Tattoo in Brooklyn.

Another relatively new piece on Fabiana is this card on her left forearm:


Again, in her own words:

"The other new one I have is the orange one that kind of looks like a card. I got that because of my ex-girlfriend. I used to say to her 'I love you to the moon and back and all the stars in the universe.' So because of that, I got a moon and seven stars with the color orange because that was her favorite. She meant a lot to me but things just didn't work out. I will love her always!"

Yet again, a hearty thanks to Fabiana for letting me post her ink here, and for sharing the deep personal meanings behind the tattoos.

Tattoos from the Blogosphere: The Back of Nathan's Legs

My recent affiliation with Nathan over at KnuckleTattoos.com has been fairly sparse with the cold weather seizing the Northeast. However once he added me as a contributing writer, I queried about him sending me photos of some of his ink to put up over here on Tattoosday. This post reflects a couple of leg pieces he sports.

First a pre-color peek:

And then, with some color, in its completed form:


A little limb isolation (click to enlarge):



These pieces were inked by Jason Brooks ("he is incredible") at Rock of Ages Tattooing in Austin, Texas.

The following is an excerpt from Nathan's blog, which begins to explain "bitter strength" and "Quixotic honor":

So I went under the gun again. First time in almost six years. I was just supposed to get the outlines done, but then his appointment after me canceled and I got a four hour session. The crook behind the knee and the area around the Achilles tendon were miserably painful, but the rest was pretty tolerable.



The theme behind the piece is a warning about virtues bordering on being vices. Values that can bite you back. Just because I am strong enough to endure hardship does not make it any less hard. Sometimes not bearing the load is better than having the strength. Honor is good up to the point that it becomes pride or self delusion. Of course it also works backwards. I am strong enough to persevere. Sometimes the windmills are dragons in disguise.

Thanks to Nathan for sharing his ink here on Tattoosday. Be sure to check out his ink blog here. Who knows, may be you'll see a post by yours truly over there one of these days...