Monday, March 29, 2010

Japanese Backpiece Tattoo: The Outline

The Outline Tattooed in One Session
We begin! (Why do I always say "we"? I'm obviously a passive participant at this stage.) The design requires a little fine tuning to fit my back but for the most part, the stencil goes on and then Greg redraws a few things.


Composition
The body of the dragon directly connects with the cherry blossoms and wind at the upper left. The clutched pearl of wisdom takes up a place of some prominence at the upper right, providing balance to the design. The lower body of the dragon now loops downward and to the left while the tale finally ends downward and to the right, somewhere on my upper thigh.
The design is essentially as big as it can be.

What You're Looking At
Purple ink from the stencil and Greg's hand drawn changes mix with the black lines that are the permanent tattooed outline of this back piece. My skin is red and slightly swollen in this picture, taken right after the outline was finished. This is a completely normal reaction. Because my threshold for pain had been reached before the outline was finished, Greg was forced to tattoo some of the outline lightly and quickly. He also didn't start the scales of the dragon's skin (although he did do the belly scales). You can see the sweeping wind left by one of the claws and the spiral design of the pearl of wisdom.

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