John's tribute to New Orleans and Paris

John was raised in New Orleans, it's in his blood. Paris is the motherland, so it was only right that he pay homage to both. Both Fleur De Lis' are drawn from the same design, but the New Orleans tribute on his left wrist is smooth, and fairly new-looking. The Paris tribute on his right wrist is old, aged, and full of history. My initial pencil sketches were re-drawn in Charcoal medium to capture a more gritty, raw feel. My charcoal drawings were then used as reference for the tattoo. Enjoy!

New Orleans:




Paris: (disregard the leftover purple stencil lines)

Sarah's Sacred Cover-Up

Sarah came to me with a small sun on her lower back, stating bluntly that she wanted it gone, and had some ideas for it. She had found an image only once, and was unable to find it again, as if it was looking for her, and sent it to me - Hands holding a sacred light. Below are the stages of the cover-up:

The original piece:


The stencil is placed very specifically to utilize the sun shape as the ball of light:


The Finished Tattoo:

Mark living the dream...

THINGS OVERHEARD AT THE TATTOO SHOP.

"Hey, what do you call a guy that writes poems?"

"You shouldnt do that man, you should smoke crack instead. Its better for you."

Yikes.

Hello!

We are F U Tattoo. Thank you for checking out our new blog. Not much yet but we will try to update it on the reg. Until then keep on checkin' in here or at the shop.

RACHI TATTOOING NEW YORK / CALIFORNIA

WED 2ND JUNE - FRI 4TH JUNE @ NEW YORK ADORNED, NEW YORK

SAT 5TH JUNE - TUE 8TH JUNE @ BROOKLYN ADORNED, NEW YORK

FRI 11TH JUNE - SUN 13TH JUNE @ INK N IRON FESTIVAL, CALIFORNIA

TUE 15TH JUNE - SAT 19TH JUNE @ GOLD RUSH TATTOO, CALIFORNIA


For appointments, please email, blackthronetattoo@gmail.com

Lauren's Fibonacci Spiral

Lauren came to me with a pretty open-ended idea for a tattoo. I blogged about this design on Allégoria last autumn when I first drew it up:

"Today's a good day, and I'll tell you why: Most of the time, clients have something pretty specific in mind whether they know it or not, but I was basically given an open project on this one. The only structure was the starting point being a Fibonacci Spiral (geometric spiral that appears in nature i.e.- sea shells, hurricanes, galaxies). This design is a milestone for me. I've been cruising along, sticking to the mainstream "boundaries" of tattoo. The client wants a lion, they get a lion. They want a floral arrangement with names, they get just that. They are beautifully drawn, perfectly executed in tattoo, and the client is completely satisfied. However, starting primarily with this design, I'm venturing into a more open project where I have a lot of artistic license. This brings me to an unfamiliar and very enticing place. A place I feel stylistically terrified, without boundaries or guidelines, and completely free. Rarely do I travel into the realms of the not-easily-recognizable, and NEVER into the abstract... It's just not my thing... at least not until I dreamed of a design last night, woke up, and this poured out..."
-September 21st, 2009.

Here's the first sketch I came up with back in September:

Here's the revised sketch I reworked this Winter after reconnecting with Lauren:

To fit her right shoulder, the design was reversed and we started 2 weeks ago at Coil 12:



Session 2 complete. She'll likely need some zip-zap touch-ups and we might push the values in a few areas, but it's basically finished. After a total of 7 hours, today at the Coil 12 studio: