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Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like?"

Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

ArmyWife - thank you, and, man, do I know what you mean! But I figure ... carpe diem, right? :rodent:

Mike, awesome! Rading your comments, I feel almost like I'm seeing through your eyes: it's literally giving me a new perspective through which to view my research.

Like, for example ... I went back and looked uo LGK's tattoo artist, Benjamin Moss of Apocalypse Tattoo in Seattle. Here's his up-close sample pic of her tatto, which I only admire more after seeing it in detail: he even managed to get the play of light on the main opals right! http://www.apocalypsetattoo.com/gal...-moss/Dragonfly.jpg.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

But if it hadn't been for knowing he did that tat, and searching for it specifically, I think I would have looked at his portfolio, giggled appreciatively at the portrait of Crowley (http://www.apocalypsetattoo.com/gal...-moss/Dragonfly.jpg.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1), and moved on, 'cause ... that's not Art Nouveau! That's not delicate color shading! (Well, it is, but not the sort I have in mind.) But now I think I'm realizing that what I need to look for is stuff like this: http://www.apocalypsetattoo.com/galleries/tattoos/benjamin-moss/hopps.jpg.html. The subject matter might not be my cup of tea, but, man, is it hyper-realistic and 3D!

Whereas before, I'd been searching for themes in common with what I want, now I'm realizing it's pure technique that I need to hunt down. Which, geez ... now I have to look through all 20-some-odd local tattoo studios again! Back to the drawing board (or to Todd's FB page, as it were.) But in the meantime, thank you SO MUCH for the guidance and tips you're providing. I took a rendering course, oh, 15 years ago, but I haven't used any of the skills in almost that long - a quick refresher should do wonders for being able to explain what I want to an artist!

Thing - that's it exactly! I remember LGK saying her tattoo took a year total to complete. Now, I dunno how many sessions it took ... but on average, I know you need to let the skin heal about two weeks between sittings. So we're talking A LOT of cross-country flights, potentially - it's why I'm even a little leery to go to Ms. Azzarra, unless I'm absolutely positive she's the best woman for the job. And while she well might be ... first I want to exhaust all the local possibilities! I mean, hell, even the 4 hours or so a session will take with no travel time is a Big Deal with the kiddo around. So y'all will probably be seeing a lot of me going - what about this guy? Whadda you guys think about THIS?

In other news, yesterday I was babbling about this to my husband, and he squinted across the room and said, "What's that - a chicken? Why do you want a tattoo of a chicken?" Now, a) he was kidding, and, b) is nearsighted, and, c) I have told him that just doubled the tattoo budget, but, MAN, talk about your motivation to get this thing RIGHT. There is no way I want people thinking I have a tattoo of a chicken, not unless we're talking about Beyonce the Metal Chicken.

And even then, no.
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

Ooooh, LGK is on the opposite coast. That explains so much. I kept getting confused because I thought she was in NYC.

I think the tattoo is going to be amazing, Circe.
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

Wow, Boris's work is amazing!
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

Circe|1326290876|3100264 said:
Mike, awesome! Rading your comments, I feel almost like I'm seeing through your eyes: it's literally giving me a new perspective through which to view my research.

Like, for example ... I went back and looked uo LGK's tattoo artist, Benjamin Moss of Apocalypse Tattoo in Seattle. Here's his up-close sample pic of her tatto, which I only admire more after seeing it in detail: he even managed to get the play of light on the main opals right! http://www.apocalypsetattoo.com/gal...-moss/Dragonfly.jpg.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1

But if it hadn't been for knowing he did that tat, and searching for it specifically, I think I would have looked at his portfolio, giggled appreciatively at the portrait of Crowley (http://www.apocalypsetattoo.com/gal...-moss/Dragonfly.jpg.html?g2_imageViewsIndex=1), and moved on, 'cause ... that's not Art Nouveau! That's not delicate color shading! (Well, it is, but not the sort I have in mind.) But now I think I'm realizing that what I need to look for is stuff like this: http://www.apocalypsetattoo.com/galleries/tattoos/benjamin-moss/hopps.jpg.html. The subject matter might not be my cup of tea, but, man, is it hyper-realistic and 3D!

Whereas before, I'd been searching for themes in common with what I want, now I'm realizing it's pure technique that I need to hunt down. Which, geez ... now I have to look through all 20-some-odd local tattoo studios again! Back to the drawing board (or to Todd's FB page, as it were.) But in the meantime, thank you SO MUCH for the guidance and tips you're providing. I took a rendering course, oh, 15 years ago, but I haven't used any of the skills in almost that long - a quick refresher should do wonders for being able to explain what I want to an artist!

In other news, yesterday I was babbling about this to my husband, and he squinted across the room and said, "What's that - a chicken? Why do you want a tattoo of a chicken?" Now, a) he was kidding, and, b) is nearsighted, and, c) I have told him that just doubled the tattoo budget, but, MAN, talk about your motivation to get this thing RIGHT. There is no way I want people thinking I have a tattoo of a chicken, not unless we're talking about Beyonce the Metal Chicken.

And even then, no.
Click to expand...

That's a great way to think about it, it's really all about technique. Find an artist with the skills you want and those skills can then produce the design you want.

Looking for the artist to have a good understanding of how light affects the design is really important. I think the new link you just put up of Borris's work is probably the best you have found so far I'm sure he would do an amazing job.
Looking at the picture of the ivy leaves in his portfolio you can see what I was saying about how important shadows are to a realistic look! It takes the design from looking like a sticker on your body to looking like the piece is actually 3D.

I also meant to say in one of my past posts that an artist that is good at portraits would be a good at giving you a realistic look. Looking at portraits you can tell pretty quickly who's just ok and who is really amazing. It's all about proportions.

Tattoos can take a few sittings, it really depends on how long you can sit for and also how long an artist is prepared to work in one sitting (you should talk to them about this) I'm pretty sure you would only need three weeks max in between each appointment.
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

Circe|1326290876|3100264 said:
In other news, yesterday I was babbling about this to my husband, and he squinted across the room and said, "What's that - a chicken? Why do you want a tattoo of a chicken?" Now, a) he was kidding, and, b) is nearsighted, and, c) I have told him that just doubled the tattoo budget, but, MAN, talk about your motivation to get this thing RIGHT. There is no way I want people thinking I have a tattoo of a chicken, not unless we're talking about Beyonce the Metal Chicken.

And even then, no.
Click to expand...


:bigsmile:
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

i am following this thread with great interest....for years i've wanted a tattoo but didn't get one because i donated blood regularly. i no longer do so and at my grand age am finally going to do it.....upper part of foot. love looking at the ideas and the links provided re artists. while i am on the west coast, you ladies are giving me lots of ideas.

i really like the open peacock design that will cover your existing tattoo, Circe. personal opinion is that its a bit large but hey if its what you want its what you want. it will be very elegant and in my eye timeless. i do hope you post an "after" picture!
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

better?

circe12.png
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

Circe|1326294603|3100297 said:
Hm ... what do you guys think of these gentlemen?

http://www.sacredtattoo.com/artists/guest-boris and http://www.sacredtattoo.com/artists/lalo?
Click to expand...

Whoa, Boris' stuff is crazy good!

Okay, a couple of suggestions you may have already considered:
Call/email LGK's tattoo artist and ask for a recommendation for an East Coast/NYC tattoo artist who does similar style and quality work. She probably knows better than anyone, right?

You could also ask if LGK's tattoo artist will be at any conventions on the East Coast that you could book time at.
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

Yssie|1326303501|3100437 said:
better?

circe12.png
Click to expand...

Yes! Maybe a scooch (technical jewellers term) bigger, but the placement looks great to me, not that it's really any of my business. ;)

Hi Circe, I looked at all my Lalique books (4 of them) and about five others that had some Lalique pieces in them but none of them had any different photos to add. In fact this piece was only in one of my books and it was the photo on the black background that you already have. Sorry I couldn't help.

I'll upload the images that I think will really help your artist get the diamonds and opals looking great next week when I'm back at work.

Take care, Mike.
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

I thought I'd post this image that shows the shadows and contrast well on a Fouquet piece. Maybe you can use this as inspiration for your artist?

lalique_Fouquet.jpg
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

that would be a lovely tattoo!
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

Sorry for the hiatus, guys - baby has a cold. ;(

Princess - thank you! And, yeah, Seattle is lucky to have 'er. It may be NY's only drawback! I juat got word back from Sacred Tattoo: Boris is due to be in town for three days. Given that LGK's tat took a year, I'm a little dubious on whether that will be long enough to do anything approaching what I have in mind ... but I've reached out, and I'll see what the maestro has to say. Maybe there's an intensive course? :Up_to_something:

Davi - a) thanks for the recommendation! and, b) that is an awesome tattoo. I love Sendak!

Mike - three weeks? I might have three days, total (and that's sounding sort of like, if he agrees to spend the whole damn time with me alone). So perhaps it's back to the drawing board on finding an artist: drat. Just out of curiousity ... how many sessions do you think a piece like this might take? LGK's took a year, though I don't know how much of a gap she left between sessions: the first lady whose work I posted said she could do it in three sessions of 3-4 hours. I figure it's probably somewhere in between there, but that is a LARGE gap ....

Movie Zombie, thank you! What are you planning to get at your "grand age?" :naughty: I'll admit, I know what you mean - I keep seeing all these people elsewhere on the internet saying, somewhat condescendingly, "Oh, I have a tattoo: got it as a rebellious teen, regret it now, etc." But, well ... I was a Good Girl as a teen, and as a Ph.D. student, and so on and so forth, and I still want one, perhaps more now than before, because as I become a tad less vivid and luscious with age - my tattoo won't! Nice to know I'll always have something colorful and gleaming on my person. Literally.

Yssie, awesome, thank you! That's just about right. My husband had an interesting though, as he was making up for his chicken crack: he said that if I was worried about my hips expanding/contracting with further pregnancy and distorting the tattoo, why not just get the central portion for now. It's an intriguing thought - given the apparent time commitment, it might be easier to do this in stages, it reduces the risk of having to do a massive overhaul down the line, and, happily, there's a natural break in the design - if you look at it carefully, you can see it's actually three panels.

What do y'all think - would just the central panel look okay? With the "wings" (by which I mean, additional swooping tail-feathers) to be added later? I WOULD need a good artist to untangle all those lines, for starters.

Thing, you're a genius - that never occurred to me! I shot him an e-mail as soon as I read it: now I wait with baited breath for my various responses.

Pregcurious - that's just gorgeous! Fouquet is my second favorite Art Nouveau jeweler. Such a talented man!

It's a pity one can't add polls midway through a thread, so I'll just reiterate in bold: would it look good to start with just the central portion, and wait on the outer feathers until after my shape settles into a more-or-less permanent state? Or should I just go for broke and do it all at once, devil take the hindmost?
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

Hmmm, not sure if it would work to do it in panels just because the colors could be different. But maybe people with tattoos would know better than I would! I vote do it all at once! Also-can your hips really expand more the next time around? I did not know that!
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

I don't think I'd do part now and part later..if it was a soon-later, like a few months or something, I doubt it would be a big deal but if you're talking a couple years or something, I wouldn't do that. My cousin is a tattoo artist, I can ask him. Just my own experiences w/tattoos, I wouldn't recommend it. Skin changes, even w/out pregnancy, and if the texture of your skin is different when you go back, the tattoo is going to look different. When JD gets his back redone, it'd been talked about doing it in sessions..letting one session heal and then go back again, let that heal and go back again..that's done often on big pieces, if the person doesn't want to sit for hours.
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

Argh, you guys raise an excellent point - okay, let's scratch that idea!

Soooooooooooo ... whadda you think of this gal?

http://www.1228tattoo.com/tattoos/?album=1&gallery=1

I must say, I'm quite impressed by the hummingbird, the mask, and the underwater scene ....
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

not bad but as good work as some of the others, imo.

herein lies my problem also: everything has already fallen and the wrinkles are in place. no worries there! but to answer your quesiton, Circe, i can't decide what i want! nothing big, though.....

perhaps tattoos are like color stones and difficult to photograph?
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

That is a REALLY interesting theory, MZ. I wish there *were* a PS for tattoos where we could check the veracity of the notion ....

My own observation is that almost all the photos out there are shot by the artists hastily after the work is done ... so many of them are red and swollen and probably not nearly as pretty as they would be in a week or two, once they'd healed. I guess it's hard to get people back in the studio, and I get that ... but I'm puzzled that people spend this much on them, and then don't have a PS equivalent on which to enjoy them?

The artists I've posted run, on average, between $125 an hour and $350 an hour. A tattoo like the one I want appears to require a minimum of 12 hours, and probably considerably more than that. So we're talking somewhere between, say, a Bev K eternity and ... like, a piece from MC2. How the heck can you be this into a thing and NOT want to chat about it and show it off and obsess about it? Either they all have a hell of a lot more disposable income than I do, or ... I don't even know.

Do not grok.

But, getting back on topic ... if you just want something beautiful to adorn your tootsies, have you thought of mhendi tattooing? Like the magnificent arabesques of Indian culture, but permanent ....
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

I have 7 tattoos...none of which would be any inspiration for you in this case. But I can't wait to see what you end up with!

If you're still looking for inspiration, etc. check out BMEzine.com. There are various user galleries and artist portfolios and the like. You may find some of it useful!

Movie Zombie, be prepared to stay off your feet for a couple days and not wear shoes and socks if you get a tattoo on the top of your foot! I got one on my foot over the summer and stupidly walked around a lot the next day...I had to buy sandals that didn't rub the tattoo, but also it was swollen for days! Ugh. I'll know better next time.

ETA: I just skimmed through BMEzine.com and they have changed the format a lot since the last time I frequented that site. The galleries are not as easy to navigate. It would take a lot of digging to find anything good!
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

Thanks, Circe. I was actually thinking that the picture of the piece did a good job of showing all the highlights and shadows of a piece, and that could translate to the peacock pattern you've already chosen. All the "wires" in your peacock piece could be made to look like metal (like the gold in the Fouquet piece, or platinum if you like white metal), and the rest could be made to look like different gems.
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

I was online looking at tattoos one day after I'd had my feet done, feeling like they just weren't "right" and came across some gorgeous henna designs and ohhhh that is SO what I should've done on my feet! I was so ticked at myself!

MZ, if you do your feet, if do it when it's nice outside so you can go barefoot or wear sandals that go around the area. I did part of mine in the winter and just wore ballet type slippers at home.
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

thanks ladies re the tattoo top of foot advice!

it would be a "for me" tattoo as i do wear open top sandals around the house but when out during the summer i'm usually in keens which cover the top of my feet.......perhaps a waste to do it there? ankle was another consideration...inner ankle. and i'm guessing these locations are going to be more painful?

i'm so loving the re-do, Circe! "color"........its going to be great!
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

Nah, not a waste to put it there. My frog is on the back of my shoulder and I never see it but I still love him. Plans to do more on my back too. Think about it and put it where you want it, not necessarily where it's less painful b/c then you'll probably wish you'd put it where you wanted it. They all hurt..but places where it's thin skin like underarms and ribs hurt a lot worse..I can speak to the pain of the underarm but not the ribs. Tho my feet were the least painful of all of them-I don't think there's a lot of nerves on the top of the feet even tho the skin is thin-towards the sides, curving down to the inner foot, that stung a lot more. The only thing I noticed was that it makes the muscles in your leg twitchy which I thought was funny.
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

thanks for the encouragement!
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

Hi, I have those couple of images ready to post but I can't figure out how to do it, is there a step by step guide for PS picture posting somewhere ?
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

Mike R|1326792428|3104964 said:
Hi, I have those couple of images ready to post but I can't figure out how to do it, is there a step by step guide for PS picture posting somewhere ?
Click to expand...

Mike, if you hit "post reply" and then scroll down to the bottom of the page, you'll see a tab that says upload attachment. Click "choose file" and then select the image you want to upload from your computer. I make sure mine are saved as jpgs before uploading. Click "add file" and that should be it. HTH!

Circe, I'm not into tattoos for myself but I've seen some cool ones on friends. They're not the same quality you're looking for though. Good luck on your search!
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

ah, "quality".....the search whether for diamonds, color stones or TATTOO'S....seems to be real "pricescoper" thing!
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

Zoe|1326798846|3104984 said:
Mike R|1326792428|3104964 said:
Hi, I have those couple of images ready to post but I can't figure out how to do it, is there a step by step guide for PS picture posting somewhere ?
Click to expand...

Mike, if you hit "post reply" and then scroll down to the bottom of the page, you'll see a tab that says upload attachment. Click "choose file" and then select the image you want to upload from your computer. I make sure mine are saved as jpgs before uploading. Click "add file" and that should be it. HTH!

Circe, I'm not into tattoos for myself but I've seen some cool ones on friends. They're not the same quality you're looking for though. Good luck on your search!
Click to expand...

Thanks Zoe for the help!

I think these will really help.

Drawing2.jpg

Drawing3.jpg

Drawing1.jpg
 
Re: Tattoo aficionados - tips on making a tattoo "jewel-like

Oh, those are amazing - Mike, thank you, both for the great examples, and for going to the trouble of hunting them down and putting them up!

Just a drive-by post from me (baby's had his first cold these last few days, and I'm back at work tomorrow, eep), but thanks to all of you for the advice and support - progress is being made, more substantive post tomorrow!
 
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