Guinea Pigs Part 2...or is it?

I guess technically its Part 3, or its my 3rd tattoo at least. Whatever the case, I did my 3rd tattoo today! I tattooed the tribal "S" logo from the band Sepultura on a friend's calve, and I attemped the 'engraved' approach again. Im pretty happy with how it turned out. This piece was EXCELLENT for learning. It was the kind of thing that taught me more than I could absorb at once. Im stunned at how much subtlety there is to this art. It seems that every time I learn a little bit more, I also realize there are mountains and mountains of things to get the hang of before I can consider myself even remotely skilled. My speed is ridiculously slow too, I feel like I need 3 days to really do what I want to do in a piece this big. I think Im gonna pull the reins back a bit and tackle some smaller designs.

Taking the Plunge! Guinea Pigs Part 1

Well, I went ahead and did it! On Saturday I tattooed my first human!! I did some small music notes on my girlfriends neck behind her ear. Holy crap what a tough spot to tattoo! Not a good place to start out, but I got through it. Getting my lines to be nice and clean is gonna take a while. I think it turned out pretty solid for my first tat ever!! However, in all the hustle and bustle of the big day, it completely slipped my mind to take a pic until after I wrapped it. Theres smudged ink and blood under the plastic and too many little reflections. I'll be sure to get a much bettter pic of it very soon. But for now, heres a peak.
And then yesterday I did my second tat! A friend wanted the symbol for gratitude on her wrist, but I decided to put a little twist on it by trying to make it look engraved into her. It accidentally ended up turning into an illusion of sorts, it can be engraved or embossed, depending on how you look at it. It turned out pretty solid too, despite my initial concerns. I am definitely looking forward to seeing these all healed up!!

2010

Finally! An update! I have a few portraits to show you, but there are a couple I cant post as well. There is one portrait that I delivered a bit late and didnt have the chance to scan it, so I'll have to get that one up at a later time when i manage to get a scan. But anyway, heres the rest.
First there is my friend Mark's daughter. She quite possibly has the cutest smile on the planet, in a hilarious kinda way. He had me do 3 pics of her at different ages. They were quite the challenge. However I was pretty happy with the results.
A toothless smile is pretty challenging, but I think it worked out ok.

I realize that I have a hard time with light hair. The lighter the hair, the harder it is for me to capture. A weakness I'll have to work on.

HAH HAH!! Look at that smile!! I love it!

I also did my friend Greg's grandparents. His grandpa has a gentle smile. I bet theyre really nice people.