A Hummingbird Love Story

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Created: Sunday, 01 September 2019 08:00

Spring contacted me about covering up an old tattoo on her left arm. She says, "On June 27, 2018, I lost my soul mate after a difficult battle with brain cancer. Shortly after he passed, on a particularly difficult day I was visited by a humming bird that came and hovered in front of me, looking right at me for almost a minute, then flew away. I believe my soul mate was there in that moment.

"I came to Victoria with a rather vague idea of a cover up tattoo with a hummingbird and my love's initials. She was able to turn a couple of Googled images I provided into a truly original piece of art that is a perfect memorial. I really couldn’t be happier with it, and it is an original design belonging only to me. I am so grateful for the amazing job she did, it turned out better than I ever imagined it could."

Click on the Read more link to see the drawing, before, outline and gray shading and the final color photos.

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Three Wise Monkeys

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Created: Thursday, 01 August 2019 08:00

Kyle had been living in Portland for a little bit, having come up from Los Angeles. He came in to see me about covering up some old tattoos that he had on his lower right leg.

He wanted to feature the Four Wise Monkeys of Buddhist thought in the cover up. Many of us are familiar with the Three Wise Monkeys, representing Buddhist principles-- in particular, “see no evil”, “hear no evil”, and “speak no evil”. The monkeys “hide” from evil, closing the mouth, eyes and ears. However, they also have a fourth friend, whose image is not seen as often--embodying the principle of "commit no evil,” with the arms covering the belly or crotch area. Since the Japanese consider the number four unlucky though, the fourth monkey is mentioned very rarely. Kyle wanted his wise monkeys to be Proboscis monkeys, because of their lively expressions.

He also wanted to add Bird of Paradise flowers, while still keeping his previously done Hotei tattoo. I couldn't fit four monkeys into the design but got the three main ones, which he was very happy to have incorporated into the tattoo.

Click on the Read more link to see the drawing, outline, gray shading and partial color photos.

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A Signature Tattoo

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Created: Monday, 01 July 2019 08:00

A fan of Amanda Palmer's, Laszlo came in to see me with a great story about why he wanted his first tattoo. He says, "I've been thinking about getting a tattoo for quite some time. I had a few ideas, but none of them felt completely right. I'm also a fan of Amanda Palmer. Her last album, "There will be no intermission" deals with a lot of difficult things - abortion, abuse, death, grief.

When she came to Portland at the end of her US tour, I went to the pre-show meeting at Music Millennium. At the end, Amanda did a quick signing, but I had nothing to get signed at that moment, so I asked her to sign my arm, which she did. Later that night, her show was deep and raw. She talked about the difficult things I mentioned before, and also about the idea of radical compassion. How we should forgive people who did us wrong, if we can. How is it possible to understand people who think very differently from us, or at least come closer to understanding. I wanted to remember this message, because I struggle with this kind of forgiveness. I also wanted to remember how difficult it can be to stand out and pour your heart and your deepest thoughts and be rejected by some.

So the next day I decided to have Amanda's signature tattooed on my arm, to help me to remember these things. As it was to be my first one, I was a bit nervous, but luckily Victoria was very professional. She did an awesome job of turning the picture I took of the drawing into a design that gives back the look of being drawn by a Sharpie. I like to look at it, and remember the things that made me get it. I'm very happy with the way it turned out!"

Click on the Read more link to see the drawing and final photo.

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