overview of past tattoos I have been in love with

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

overview of past tattoos I have been in love with

oook so clearly Im just starting this now. so there are many tattoos I have done already that have made an impact on me... from my first tattoo ever, to first big pieces, first portraits, first anything really!
When it comes time for me to do something new when a lot of people would stress I see it as a huge opportunity to learn. so for that I am thankful to every person who allowed me a first.
Im going to go over some past tattoos that have impacted me or that I just loved doing or the outcome.

I guess the best place to start would be the beginning. which beginning though!! When I was a young one prolly about 10 my dad let me test out a patch of color on his hand just so he could see what it would look like, knowing it wouldnt stay forever. In that moment is when I fell in love with tattoos and tattooing. I loved the feeling of the machine in my hand, and just the power! yea, a 10 year old on a power trip! When it came time for me to learn to tattoo for REAL I put everything I had into it. I WANTED to do it right so I worked so hard at it. When it was time for me to do my first real tattoo my dad volunteered again. he has always been so amazing for me. so much support and understanding and my biggest critic. I was so nervous during that first tattoo I could have cried. I put on my tough face and went at it! He got a katakana which basicly means Japanese they do it by pronunciation, generally names. He got my name! here it is!


And now Im looking through my portfolio online at what tattoos really stick out for me.

this is a recent one, a cheshire cat. its the second time I have tattooed this man, he is great! fun to talk to also! the first time I came to me he was in alot of turmoil going through devorce so he wanted a tattoo representing the two sides of a woman and I did two jasmines. a good one and an evil one! I will share pics of that one. but then he came back and got a cheshire cat and again gave me full artistic freedom which is really rare in my area so I took it and ran!! the cat he showed me was in blues, a typical American McGee Cheshire cat... but I put my own twist on it and did it with reds and oranges. some yellow highlights. I fell in love with this tattoo half way though!!!
first heres the jasmines.

and here is the cat!

they are two tattoos that I am extremely proud of! and Im truly glad that he really loves and appreciates everything I do for him and sends so many people to me for more work!

next in my mind looking through my pics, my first color portrait of a HUMAN! and I was sooo happy with this one too.. it was for a friend that works with my mom so the pressure is on to make sure he loves it! he wanted a cute old school style pin up in military clothes. the first thing that came to my mind was the Bettie Paige painting done by Olivia. I LOOVE that piece and I have seen it done as a tattoo so I had faith that I could do it! now I will admit there was a brief moment of panic while I was doing that tattoo but for some reason I get that a lot but I always ignore it and work through it and it always turns out for the best! this tattoo is in the front of my book and my online port because I just love how it turned out! and he seems to be really happy with it! I will have to swing by and peak at it tomorrow while Im in his area!


next I would probably have to say would be the first time I did ANY thing like a portrait and it was on a shop friend at the time.. now employee he was talking about if he ever had to get one he wasnt quite sure where to go. so I was like dude... I could do it! let me try it on ya... he is always a willing candidate! soo then we were trying to figure out what we should put on him so me and my sister brit just looked at each other and grinned! We told him he should get us! soo... hes like yeaa what the hell lets do it! we did it!! and I learned soo much while doing that tattoo! I did shade it really light the first time around but its better to be to light than to dark! but I have since gone back in and darkened it up and now I love them! they arent by any means perfect but it was the first time I had done anything like that in skin!


at the moment I will leave you with those but I think I would like to go through and talk to you more about some of the other pieces I have done. that is, if you are interested!
this blog so far has really been helpful for me to show how I feel about the work I do and how the people effect me... there is a piece that I really want to talk about but it really needs its own spot. the tattoo itself isnt where all the meaning is... its more the person but it really deserves its own blog!

well in the mean time if you would like to look at some of my other work... its here
check it out.
if you have any questions, feel free to ask!
<3 Chelsea