Today, the brief was “I want a massive Hannya mask on my thigh”- and so I did one as large as I thought I could finish in one day session.
Later we will do the whole leg.
So much fun just doing a big, no nonsense, one shot tattoo. Don’t get to do it too often these days as I am always working on large ongoing projects,
The hannya mask portrays the souls of women who have become demons due to obsession or jealousy,which is why you have to get that expression looking crazy !
Lat week I completed this large cover up of some old tattoos on Recce’s arm.
Pretty happy with how the new tattoo looks- big.bold, and simple, with all the distractions needed to take the eye away from the old tattoo underneath.
Next we will work on the ribs to soften back those gnarly skulls, Im thinking that its too crazy for a cover up, so I’m just going to do background behind them. I think this will work to take away how intensely they stand out, and make it start to fell like a big bodysuit.
On the other side of the body are more challenging cover ups to be done, to complete Reece’s front and arms and get him happy with his tattoos again!
This tattoo has been an amazing journey from start to finish, and getting the opportunity to complete work like this is really what makes tattooing an amazing job to do. The commitment on the part of the client to achieve a tattoo on this scale never ceases to amaze and impress me, and the trust they give is extremely humbling.
This is Colins first tattoo. He knew he wanted a bodysuit, and one depicting a story of a warrior or legend, but didn’t have a solid idea of what he wanted. We went through a ton of old edo prints, woodblocks, and floating world art and stories but in the end I just lent him a bunch of my books, and asked him to go away and figure out what he wanted without pressure.
He came back with a solid idea, and had also brought me some extra books that he had used in his research process. He had settled on the warrior Watanabe No Tsuna, who is depicted a lot in old Japanese prints and storytelling, and in this case is fighting an Oni demon called Ibaraki. The fight takes place at The Rashomon Gate, which ibaraki haunts. This gate is depicted in the tattoo by a large red beam, which is a pillar of the gate where Ibaraki lurks. This use of a large red pillar is inspired by a Yoshitoshi painting. In the tattoo you can see Watanabe cutting off Ibarakis arm, because in the story, Ibaraki is notorious for abducting human princesses. In a bid to safeguard these princesses, the samurai warrior Watanabe no Tsuna confronted Ibaraki, severing the demon's arm with his sword. However, later, after the battle, Ibaraki employed his magic to transform into Watanabe's Aunt Mashiba. Deceived, Watanabe unwittingly welcomed Ibaraki into his home, allowing the demon to reclaim his arm and escape into the skies, never to be seen again.
Such a cool myth to try to turn in to a dynamic tattoo. In the end this took us around 17 sessions, some longer ones and some half days. The process, was done quickly on Colin’s part, he came often and consistently, but it still took us around a year to complete. For me this process was a joy from start to finish as Colin was such a strong sitter, he never moved or complained, and the imagery and detail was so much fun to work with. Having a relaxed, mentally strong client makes our job so much easier, so i’m super grateful to him. Hopefully we can start the arms and front soon!
Here’s another completed Kikuryu sleeve for Thomas.
Reese has come all the way up from Tauranga for this project. I love getting clients from all over New Zealand He had a bunch of old tattoos he got when he was 18, about 15 years ago, and he wanted to find someone to get rid of them and start sorting out his past tattoo mistakes. Most of the stuff he got done was from some budget local tattoo shops and he had tried a couple of times to get them reworked which didn’t work too well, and he has also just moved on from the type of imagery that these old tats depict.
Our aim is to start covering the old work with fresh new work that actually compliments the body and works on a scale that fits the body. This can be a tough process with a lot of problem solving and drawing on the skin to get everything in the right place. Planning is essential to getting a good cover up, and its worth the wait for someone who know what they are doing.
What makes a good cover up? The cover up should effectively get rid of the old tattoo so it can be barely seen to the untrained eye, or be dynamic and distracting enough that it doesn’t really matter if the old tattoo shows through a bit. It should be in a style that lasts forever, and most importantly it should be something that the wearer is happy to wear. Often the best cover ups are traditional tattoos with a lot of black, but also plenty of colour to distract from the old tattoo and to balance out the amount of black needed for covering the old tatto. Sometimes getting a cover up means the wearer might be limited in choices (for example its often best to go with western traditional or Japanese styles, and often the subject matter is limited to what will work as a cover up), but its still super important that they would be happy with the necessary image regardless of the fact that it is a cover up.
The worst thing we see in the tattoo industry is when people make a mistake the first time, usually due to rushing, trying to get cheap work, or just making poor decisions as a young person, and then hate their tattoo, but then also end up unhappy with their attempt at a solutio. When the first bad tattoo happens, people often then rush to backtrack and fix their tattoo. Often, if people aren’t properly educated on how to get an effective cover up or fix up, and try to fix their old tattoo in a way that doesn’t work, or use an artist who isn’t really able to or experienced enough to fix or cover the work, and the problem becomes even worse. So the new cover up needs to both work, and be an image and style that the wearer would actually be happy with.
Reese had been following my work for a while and liked my style, so that was the first box ticked, but usually I can give people my best work when I have a lot of freedom and free skin, so we needed to agree on a subject matter to achieve a good result on some really large, difficult to cover old tattoos.
Often the best go to’s for coverups are Japanese flowers, Koi, Snakes, Dragons, Fu dogs, and so on. Creatures that can have a lot of black in them, organic shapes, and plenty of room for colour in the right areas. I really like to insert good amounts of colour in to any areas of the project that still have some free skin, to draw the eye away from the messier areas where the old tattoos are. Things that aren’t as good for coverups are human figures and faces, masks and so on as they rely on a lot of clear space where the skin should be,
We agreed on a Snake as the main theme for this cover up, as due to the extensive amount of difficult to cover old work on his arm, it would be the best type of image to manipulate to cover the old stuff. We chose Sakura for the flower to compliment the snake, because they are small so easy to fit in tight spaces of clear skin. For background I chose cloud and rock rather than water because they are more simple. I adjusted my background style to be a bit bigger and bolder, so I could inject a lot of large areas of black in the the tattoo, I explained that the first session would be the toughest session, as there would be a lot of standing around and waiting for me to draw everything on. Below is a video of our first session, can’t wait to do more!
My awesome client, Kurt, brought in a bunch of reference images of dragon sleeves with limited colour pallets. He loved the strength of a mostly Black, grey, red colour tattoo. I think it gets a slightly more traditional Japanese look by having green in the leaves of the cherry blossoms and yellow in the pollen of the blossoms, plus a bit of brown in the dragon horns and dorsal scales.
This tiger sleeve for Ben, who has been travelling up from Tauranga, is one of my favourite tattoos of the year so far.
It took a total of 5 sessions each between 5.5-6 hours so I think a total of around 29 hours.
Ben came in pretty much every two weeks. Started in Feb, Finished in May.
The first session is drawing the design on the arm, and lining it up,
The second and third session are both mostly taken up doing the black and grey shading.
Session 4 and five is when everything comes to life with colour.
Curtis is an awesome return client of mine who I really enjoy working with. Good banter every time he comes in! He has Carrribean/English roots and so has a darker skin tone which I love working with. We quite often get people enquiring about if Japanese snd western traditional style tattoos work in darker complexions, and I think the answer is definitely yes. Black and grey works super well, but there is definitely room for colour too, and I like the challenge of making an effective colour tattoo in any skin tone. Often I’ll go for a design that is bold and contrasting, and limit the colour pallet. A tattoo will of course look different in every different tone of skin, and there will be different levels of tone and brightness, but in my opinion a real tattoo should work for every body. A lot of modern styles won’t hold up in darker skin tones, and the artists who tattoo like this have to turn people away if their style won’t work on their skin. Honestly if I had to turn people away based on that I would hate it.
Now that we have finished his sleeve/ chest plate, we have lined up a leg sleeve with a Tiger, rocks, cloud, bamboo, and sakura.I lined up the sleeve and did some background today, and will be adding colour to the Tiger, and floral elements at the end.
Daine travelled down from Puhoi to get this Octopus/water/lightining three quarter sleeve chest plate. The colours in this photo have just been touched up a bit, so I’m looking forward to getting a fully healed shot, which will help with being able to see the detail and contrast in the octopus.
Rick travelled up from Tauranga for this piece, a Dragon and Chrysanthemum tattoo. Took about 5 sessions to complete.
Nigel wants a sleeve, but has never had a tattoo and lives a couple of hours out of Auckland, so he wanted to start with one section of the sleeve. We know we will be including Sakura in the overall sleeve so we added a few sakura to complement the stand alone Hannya for now.
James came up all the way from Christchurch over 5 sessions to get this half sleeve chestplate done. He wanted Fantails and pohutkawa done in a Japanese style. I love doing jobs like this as they are a unique way to represent our part of the world, but have all the elements of a Japanese Tattoo that help make the tattoo be built to last and have stylistic longevity.
The New Zealand fantail, also known as Piwakawaka in Maori, has a cool tie-in with Maori myths, especially with the underworld, Rarohenga, where Ta Moko tattoos are said to have originated.
According to Maori legends, the Piwakawaka acts as a messenger, delivering news of death from the gods to people. Its quirky behavior and big eyes are because Maui, the legendary demigod, squeezed it tight for not spilling the beans about Mahuika, the fire deity and Maui's ancestor.
This myth adds a neat layer to how Maori see the Piwakawaka, as a bridge between the divine and mortal realms in their stories.
I've just completed a full sleeve and chest plate tattoo featuring Foo Dogs, rocks, and peonies. In Buddhism, Foo Dogs are revered as the "lion of Buddha," while in Japan they're known as "Komainu.", or “Karashishi” Traditionally, they stand guard at the entrances of Buddhist temples, shrines, and palaces.
In Chinese folklore, Foo Dogs are believed to possess the ability to repel evil spirits and safeguard against misfortune. They're also associated with bringing good luck and prosperity, often placed at the entrances of homes and businesses for protection.
These majestic creatures symbolize protection and fortune, serving as a constant reminder of our inherent safeguarding and the potential for prosperity in our lives. Paired with peonies, according to Japanese tradition, the combination creates karashishi-botan, a motif commonly depicted in Japanese tattoo art, as well as in engravings and paintings across various Asian countries and historical periods.
Nothing beats a strong, simple idea for a for back piece, Andrew came in and asked for his whole back to be done with just Dragon, Sakura, and cloud. I have always wanted to do a full dragon back with the face of the dragon looking forward for extra impact, and I was stoked he was keen on the idea! Can’t wait to continue working on this one!
First session, completed the main parts of the dragon body
Second session, adding background clouds, Sakura, and scales to the dragon
Warrior vs Snake sleeve!
Read MoreNearly finished on this double snake and cherry blossom sleeve recently
Traditional Japanese sleeve tattoo finished recently by Tomtom
