Final Tattoo Design

I had been asked by a friend to design a tattoo for her. Size approximately 1" high by 2" wide. She had found a site that had angelic symbols and she liked the symbol for hope instead of the traditional anchor. I did several variations on the theme. She finally chose one that incorporated the angel symbol, script, and a butterfly.

My friend traveled from Iowa to visit and to have the tattoo done. On a reference from another friend, we traveled north of the city to Zaza Ink and the talented and capable hands of Kerwin.

I had no clue what was involved in tattooing. Kerwin explained that over time, fine lines as used in calligraphy would blur. He looked at my design and informed my friend that to prevent blurring he would have to make a few alterations. The antennae of the butterfly were too close together and the upstroke of the descender of the "g" would have to be lowered. Other than that the spacing was fine. Color me beaming.

At first, I wasn't sure if I wanted to watch the process, but curiousity got the better of me. The original design was photocopied and then transferred to the skin using some goop. I never thought to ask what the goop was. The design was transferred to the skin and looked like a temporary tattoo.

Kerwin went over the design and meticulously drew the strokes and touched up the thick and thin lines. He worked from right to left.

and brought my design to life.

What a rush to have my work on living canvas.

Wordless Wednesday - Tattoo Design

Roughs

My friend, Erica, an author and I have had several conversations comparing writing a novel to calligraphy and art. The latest conversation had to do with preparation. Many people are under the delusion that it doesn't take much planning to write a book. One just sits down and belts it out. That misconception certainly applies to calligraphy. Nothing to it. Just take your pen out and voilá.

Visit Erica at On the Write Path and read Confessions of a Reformed Writer to see what she does to bring her stories to life.

Planning, plotting, writing, editing, tweaking, fine tuning...writing a novel or creating art, the process is surprisingly similar.

I've received a commission for a tattoo design. So with Frauee's kind permission, I'll go through some of the steps I've gone through with her design.

First, there was a conversation about what she had in mind. She wanted "hope". I told her the traditional symbol for hope was an anchor and the color is green. Nope, didn't care for that concept. Frauee did a search and came up with "hope" found at Zibu Angelic Symbol It's a nice design and would lend itself to a flourish and the artist, Debbie Z. Almstedt graciously allows people to use her designs.

Next, how big? She thought 1" x 2" would be a good size.

Then Frauee decided since German is such a large part of her life, "hope" should be in German. Ok, what's the word? "Hoffnung" Yup, nice short word to fit into a 1" x 2" space. (-; She thought maybe there was an abbreviation for the word, but there wasn't one. Keine probleme. No problem.

I began thinking about the flourish and some things I could do with it. I sketched out some ideas and the Young One gave me some other symbols of hope: a candle, a shooting star, a butterfly, and an acorn. Thank you, Young One for bouncing ideas around. Your concepts were clever and amazing. I made a list of the things we talked about so I wouldn't forget.

Today, I worked on layout and design. Did a bunch of roughs to size. First, doing pencil sketches and then inking over. I added color to a couple of them just for an idea though color will be up to Frauee and the tattoo artist.

Some people view what I do as "just playing" meaning not real work. Though I sometimes refer to what I do as play because I enjoy my work, it's still work, and it takes time, a very valuable commodity. So far, I've spent a total of 6 hours on the project, and I don't have a finished piece yet. (Seven hours if you count blogging about it (-; )

I'm painfully out of practice with my Blackletter, but other than that, I'm pleased with the results. I love my job especially when working on an interesting project and working for a delightful patron.

Frauee, watch your snail mail for a hard copy of the designs. Let me know what you decide and then I'll work up a finished piece to bring to the tattoo artist.