otisc

Next stage of my Japanese dragon sleeve was completed today. 5.25 hours of black and shading for the background. Artist: Scott Ellis, Triple Crown Tattoo, Austin Texas.



 

Next stage of my Japanese dragon sleeve was completed today. 5.25 hours of black and shading for the background. Artist: Scott Ellis, Triple Crown Tattoo, Austin Texas.



 

Next stage of my Japanese dragon sleeve was completed today. 5.25 hours of black and shading for the background. Artist: Scott Ellis, Triple Crown Tattoo, Austin Texas.



 

Next stage of my Japanese dragon sleeve was completed today. 5.25 hours of black and shading for the background. Artist: Scott Ellis, Triple Crown Tattoo, Austin Texas.



 

Next stage of my Japanese dragon sleeve was completed today. 5.25 hours of black and shading for the background. Artist: Scott Ellis, Triple Crown Tattoo, Austin Texas.



 

Next stage of my Japanese dragon sleeve was completed today. 5.25 hours of black and shading for the background. Artist: Scott Ellis, Triple Crown Tattoo, Austin Texas.



 

Next stage of my Japanese dragon sleeve was completed today. 5.25 hours of black and shading for the background. Artist: Scott Ellis, Triple Crown Tattoo, Austin Texas.



 

Next stage of my Japanese dragon sleeve was completed today. 5.25 hours of black and shading for the background. Artist: Scott Ellis, Triple Crown Tattoo, Austin Texas.



 

Next stage of my Japanese dragon sleeve was completed today. 5.25 hours of black and shading for the background. Artist: Scott Ellis, Triple Crown Tattoo, Austin Texas.



 

Next stage of my Japanese dragon sleeve was completed today. 5.25 hours of black and shading for the background. Artist: Scott Ellis, Triple Crown Tattoo, Austin Texas.



 

Next stage of my Japanese dragon sleeve was completed today. 5.25 hours of black and shading for the background. Artist: Scott Ellis, Triple Crown Tattoo, Austin Texas.



 

Next stage of my Japanese dragon sleeve was completed today. 5.25 hours of black and shading for the background. Artist: Scott Ellis, Triple Crown Tattoo, Austin Texas.



 

Next stage of my Japanese dragon sleeve was completed today. 5.25 hours of black and shading for the background. Artist: Scott Ellis, Triple Crown Tattoo, Austin Texas.



 

Next stage of my Japanese dragon sleeve was completed today. 5.25 hours of black and shading for the background. Artist: Scott Ellis, Triple Crown Tattoo, Austin Texas.



 

I sit here, sore, swollen, in a daze... but I have to share my story. I am an apprentice tattooer and have been in my apprenticeship since September of 2014. I have always had a deep respect for tattooing, but it has now been solidified even deeper. Last year at the Lady Luck Tattoo Convention, my teacher was asked to receive a traditional Samoan tatau by Sulu'ape Si'i Liufau of A-Town Tattoo. My teacher has known Si'i for about 10 years through the convention circle. We were sharing a booth with A-Town, so I was preparing for a pretty close view of the event. As they were preparing, Si'i came to me and told me that he only had his apprentice, Genesis, available to stretch skin for the tatau and they would need my help. I have a previous post describing the experience, so I won't elaborate further on it here, but it became one of the biggest honors of my life to be involved in that tatau on my teacher.
Fast forward to this past weekend: We were working the Lady Luck Convention again and had a pretty slow schedule of clients. My teacher intentionally did so, because he wanted to hopefully help stretch on a tatau. It is a huge honor to receive a tatau, but it is an equal honor to assist in one. Saturday night, we are all in the bar, relaxing and having a good time. It was a group of about 20 tattooers from all over the country. Talk of the process of tatau began and I took the opportunity to interject and publicly thank Si'i for asking me to assist on my teacher's tatau. I told him it was one of the biggest honors of my life and I would never forget it. He nodded to me and said, "What are you doing tomorrow?" I said, "No tattoos, just working our booth." He said, "I should give you tatau tomorrow." Without hesitation, I stuck my hand out and said yes. We shook on it and he went over to discuss it with his apprentice. They were making gestures around the lower thigh area and kinda laughing a little. I jokingly said, "You guys are laughing too much! You gonna fuck me up tomorrow?!" Si'i responded, "We're gonna try something new on you, Nate. You're not gonna like it... but you're gonna like it."
The next morning, I went over to the A-Town booth and Si'i had me remove my shoes and put on a sarong. Without discussion, he started shaving my knee area, all the way around. He drew on a couple reference lines, where he then called over my teacher and told him he would be assisting his apprentice with stretching of the skin. I've already written a lot, so I will skip along. It took 3 hours of, by far, hands down, the most painful tattooing I've ever received. Almost my entire knee, and all the way around back, through the ditch. At the end, I was congratulated. I didn't move. I didn't squirm. I made no sounds. Inside my head, it felt as though they were cutting my leg off, but I knew I had to show my respect and gratitude by being silent. It was incredible. To be a part of my teacher's tatau and for him to be a part of mine has bonded us even closer. We are both so humbled and blown away by it all. As he did a final cleaning of my leg, I asked Sulu'ape Si'i what I needed to pay him for this (I was actually kind of worried, because I'm a broke apprentice). He said, "Meaalofa. It's a gift for you. You earned my respect when you sat for hours and stretched for your teacher last year." He also said, "Now Nate, this tatau has the ending placement of a traditional Pe'a, so when a Samoan sees it coming out of your shorts, they are going to question you. When they do, you tell them it was a gift from Sulu'ape and if they have any more questions, they can come talk to me." I'm still in awe. I look at my leg now and it is so much more than a tattoo. It is history. It is honor. It is respect. I just wanted to share my story. Thanks to all that read it. Here are some pictures of the whole thing.
Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

UPDATE: Well, today was the day!
What a long, but great day! It began a little before 11:00am. I was the first one in the shop with Scott (most of the day, there were 10-15 people there, and at one point six artists were tattooing simultaneously). He had been working on a few designs based on the sleeve length I wanted. Over the week between today and our consultation, I had decided to ask him to put the dragon's head somewhere on my arm instead of with the head in the more traditional chest area. I was a little worried to be asking for this, as Scott has a relatively new sleeve with the head in the center, and the last thing I wanted was for him to think I was trying to copy his own tattoo. Luckily, when I got there, he informed me that the last several dragons he had done had the head on the chest, and he was dying to do something new. Perfect! His sketches had just what I wanted. It was a really good sign.
However, getting it right took some time. Using thin paint brushes, he created the design over four separate layers. The dragon's head had to be moved several times, and the unique swirl of the dragon we decided on what difficult to get right without looking like the head was plopped onto the center of the body... but Scott is a perfectionist, and after a lot of erasing and revising, and then relining, and revising, etc... we were finally done with a design ready to be inked at 2:40. With only a few short breaks, it took a lot longer than I expected. But the result is something that works specifically with my body as opposed to just slapping a template onto my arm. I love it.
Here is a quick snap of Scott somewhere between layer 2 and 3 of sketching on me:

I haven't had a tattoo in nearly 20 years, so I had no idea what to expect from the pain, especially over so many areas. Tattooing in the ditch was no treat, but not as bad as I had come to expect from reading. The outside of the elbow lived up to expectations. But the worst was around my collarbone, where any wincing or tightening of my face would risk pulling the skin under his needle. And there was one spot on my chest where I could clearly feel the vibration on my pec, but the pain was in my neck. I could have sworn at the time he was tattooing my upper-middle neck.
Long story short (yeah, right), we finished up the linework a little after 5:00pm. I am absolutely thrilled with the result... and was getting tons of compliments on it by the many artists and clients in the shop throughout the day. Here is a front shot:

It is a little difficult to see from this angle and with only linework, but the dragon's body actually goes out the back of the head and swirls up and around the shoulders through the clouds and comes out belly showing under his head before turning again towards the end of the sleeve. It makes a little more sense visually if you can see the back. I also have the dragon clutching a pearl with his talons on the back on the sleeve and will actually be filling the pearl with a significant flower logo in the next session.
Overall, a fantastic day. I couldn't be happier that Scott got all the elements I wanted into the design, was able to keep it very traditional, but also with a great deal of uniqueness built just for me. If any readers are in Austin, Triple Crown Tattoo on Chicon Street (right around the corner from Franklin's BBQ!) is a must-visit.

Wow!  It looks fantastic!

Update May 20....
Today was Session #2 with Scott Ellis at Triple Crown Tattoo. 5.25 hours in the chair with only a few short breaks. Some of these sections are pretty swollen, and I have one area behind my arm that is super red and angry... but other than that, it looks great. Gonna be a long weekend of feeling sunburnt and frequent washing, and hopefully it will heal as quickly as the line-work. Tomorrow I'm going to the movies, so no need to move it all day.
Before:

After:

The product is definitely use-specific. Their webpage shows nurses in short-sleeved scrubs, a cop in short-sleeved uniform, and a UPS driver wearing them on his legs. There are a million ways to hide your ink, but I found this really useful for golf (and will probably continue to wear it golfing in the Texas sun even after fully healed). Luckily, I own a business in an industry that is tattoo-friendly, so I don't have the restrictions of the people in the photos:
http://www.tat2x.com/ink-armor-customer-pics_a/262.htm

This ONLY works as a start-up, because there are no photos of what it looks like when it works.
Because it's not like you get to have your tattoo for three years and then one day it is gone. No, you get to have your tattoo for a short period of time and it takes three years until you can't see it anymore. Which means halfway through, when it is 50% faded, it's going to look like garbage and the last year and a half, you'll be counting the days until it's gone.

The product is definitely use-specific. Their webpage shows nurses in short-sleeved scrubs, a cop in short-sleeved uniform, and a UPS driver wearing them on his legs. There are a million ways to hide your ink, but I found this really useful for golf (and will probably continue to wear it golfing in the Texas sun even after fully healed). Luckily, I own a business in an industry that is tattoo-friendly, so I don't have the restrictions of the people in the photos:
http://www.tat2x.com/ink-armor-customer-pics_a/262.htm

The product is definitely use-specific. Their webpage shows nurses in short-sleeved scrubs, a cop in short-sleeved uniform, and a UPS driver wearing them on his legs. There are a million ways to hide your ink, but I found this really useful for golf (and will probably continue to wear it golfing in the Texas sun even after fully healed). Luckily, I own a business in an industry that is tattoo-friendly, so I don't have the restrictions of the people in the photos:
http://www.tat2x.com/ink-armor-customer-pics_a/262.htm

Walking around with linework only on my arm. The one I got today was, "Hmmmn, is that even going to look good finished? I kinda think you should just leave the lines."

Don't worry, the line work will still be there!
 
 
[This is a super rad intro thread, welcome to LST @otisc!]

Snake sleeve in progress by Yoni Zilber @ NY Adorned