Month / March 2020

by theremonster

More Clouds and Feathers

I’m sorry I couldn’t come up with a more interesting title than that.  I sometimes wish I had just numbered these entries instead of laying awake at night trying to think of a title.  Not that you should care, this is my cross to bear.

Anyhoo.

For appointment 73, Horizakura continued to outline the phoenix on my chest.  He also added more clouds which are not present in the original painting.  In my previous entry, I suggested that this might be to add more layers and make the thing look more like a tattoo.  I was kinda right.  I asked Horizakura about that during this appointment and he said he is adding the clouds to break up some of the color in the painting.  Traditionally, Japanese tattoo is very judicious with its use of color (This is mostly due to what was available at the time, though I think their lack of pigment ended up contributing to a more specific aesthetic.  That’s a conversation for a different post.) and since the original painting is very colorful, Horizakura believed adding black/gray clouds and wind would help balance that out.

My wife and I are going on vacation, so I’ll be missing my last appointment in March.  Horizakura also has some travel plans, though he may have to cancel due to growing concerns of Covid19.  So I may or may not have an early April appointment.  Take a good look, you may not see me again for a while!

by theremonster

Shake Your Tailfeathers

This post covers an appointment from two weeks ago.  The weekend prior, my camera battery died and my charger was MIA.  It was finally found (left on a job site) so I decided I would post up these pictures in advance of my next appointment tonight.  As a result, you can see some of the lines are still healing.  My only major take-away from this appointment was how fond I am of the background elements he is adding to the piece.  If you look at Hokusai’s painting, there isn’t any wind or cloud elements separating the layers of the tail feathers (for example).  In my opinion, adding these background elements goes a long way in making the phoenix an incorporated element of the whole suit vs. a copy of a painting tattooed on me.  It’s subtle, but I believe it will pay off huge once we’re into shading and color.

Horizakura only did about an hour and change because we were going to meet a mutual friend who was in town.  My next appointment is tonight, so I imagine we will continue with the tail across my lower abdomen.

 

I also thought I would include a little note here about perspective when viewing pictures of tattoos.  Especially when we are evaluating tattoos online, it’s important to remember that you are looking at flat images of three dimensional surfaces.  A good example (and the reason I wanted to add this note) can be seen below.  If you look at the right wing from today’s post, it may appear to be overly thin in comparison to the left wing.  But if you look at this side view taken four weeks ago, you can see how the perspective changes the shape of the wing.  Not earth shattering information, but I figured it was worth pointing out.