Day 314 ~ Design a tattoo.

This is a tattoo I designed for my friend Kim, at his request. He wanted a blue-tailed skink, a toad, a bracken fern, a Carolina wren and a damsel fly. These are images indigenous to his home in West Virginia.

We began by draping a piece of fabric around his forearm to measure exactly where the tattoo would go. He was interested in having the design conform to the structure of his arm, following the muscles and bones. The blue tail of the skink will wrap around his wrist bone and the rest will decorate the top of his forearm up to his elbow.

I did a number of sketches (happily, I might add) until we had it just the way he wanted it, then I did the final art in pen (because the tattoo artist will start with a black outline) and watercolor. I trust the artist will enhance my colors a bit. I feel this painting came out rather bland and without enough contrast.

Kim seems happy with it, though. It was my gift to him for his 60th birthday. He's going to take it to his tattoo guy for an estimate. I'll try to remember to show you the actual tattoo when it is completed on Kim's arm.