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Yet another tattoo question...
Lindsay Lohan
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Seems like a fair number of these crop up, but here's my current tattoo question. I've been waiting to get one for a long time, and had a design in mind for ages. I'm going full-out geek - I'm 35 and my geek hobbies and activities are what made me who I am and I want to show pride in the things I used to be embarrassed by. It's a good lesson for my son too - the pride part of it.
I'm doing a shield design with some nerdy symbols. I'm drawing it myself and I'm super-happy with my sketches so far with the exception of a pattern/swirl around the shield. Here's a "I drew this at my desk during 5 minutes of lunch" overview of what I'm doing.
Spoilered because it seems photobucket doesn't want to resize my pics today.
It's hard to tell - upper left will be 2/3 view of the Tardis, upper right red/white mushroom from Mario, lower right d20, lower left is still being decided - either the green planet from the Hitchhiker's books, thumb logo from the Hitchhiker's movie, or an Atari joystick. I'm debating because I think I may do a full tattoo of Don't Panic later, so I may go Atari just to leave that theme for another day.
Top has a triforce, bottom has crossed lightsabers (red & green or blue, haven't decided - worried red & green may look chrismas-y)
It's going on my upper arm, hoping to go about 3"x4" ish - to be able to color it and keep it within budget. Plus, I work in a professional office and may go back to teaching sometime, so I'd to keep it smallish. Artist has already seen an initial sketch and said it looks good and do-able.
The issue I'm having is I really want some swirl design around the top and sides of the shield like a lot of family crests have. I had one design that swirled into Pac Man on one side, Ms Pac on the other, but it just looked too black in the end and was a bit overpowering so I'm thinking maybe I need a nice light design. Alternatively, maybe I just put a shadow under it and call it a day. Any artistic folks here have ideas on a subtle pattern that would fit the design or pics with ideas?
Edit: Just to add, I'm a guy despite my screenname if that influences people's design suggestions.
I'm doing a shield design with some nerdy symbols. I'm drawing it myself and I'm super-happy with my sketches so far with the exception of a pattern/swirl around the shield. Here's a "I drew this at my desk during 5 minutes of lunch" overview of what I'm doing.
Spoilered because it seems photobucket doesn't want to resize my pics today.
It's hard to tell - upper left will be 2/3 view of the Tardis, upper right red/white mushroom from Mario, lower right d20, lower left is still being decided - either the green planet from the Hitchhiker's books, thumb logo from the Hitchhiker's movie, or an Atari joystick. I'm debating because I think I may do a full tattoo of Don't Panic later, so I may go Atari just to leave that theme for another day.
Top has a triforce, bottom has crossed lightsabers (red & green or blue, haven't decided - worried red & green may look chrismas-y)
It's going on my upper arm, hoping to go about 3"x4" ish - to be able to color it and keep it within budget. Plus, I work in a professional office and may go back to teaching sometime, so I'd to keep it smallish. Artist has already seen an initial sketch and said it looks good and do-able.
The issue I'm having is I really want some swirl design around the top and sides of the shield like a lot of family crests have. I had one design that swirled into Pac Man on one side, Ms Pac on the other, but it just looked too black in the end and was a bit overpowering so I'm thinking maybe I need a nice light design. Alternatively, maybe I just put a shadow under it and call it a day. Any artistic folks here have ideas on a subtle pattern that would fit the design or pics with ideas?
Edit: Just to add, I'm a guy despite my screenname if that influences people's design suggestions.
Lindsay Lohan on
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3" x 4"? That's tiny. With that much detail it's going to look terrible. You should really go bigger and I'm very surprised your artist didn't suggest that, which leaves me a little dubious about him.
If it's a money issue, WAIT and get it done when you have the cash to go larger.
A little while ago, someone came on here with a work-in-progress tattoo with a bunch of random video-game related symbols and characters all over his entire arm. He wanted a good way to bring it all together. In my opinion, there wasn't one. It wasn't a well planned tattoo, and he was sort of fucked as far as fixing it. Make sure all the elements your design go well together. You want to design it yourself, but you don't necessarily want it to look like you did.
For example, is the background of the crest going to be coloured? Some of the quadrants are simply a symbol, where the top left is a full scene.
Anyway, here's something I sketched up quickly to illustrate what I meant by the lions and scrolls.
The Latin translates to "It's dangerous to go alone." At least, that's based on a quick Google search. Apparently it's a common question to translate that phrase.
Figgy just made your tattoo awesomer.
You should thank him.
Again spoilered because photobucket seems to resize my stuff at random.
As time goes by, those delicate little lines in that tiny little shield and its even tinier little details are going to start bleeding and you're going to have a mess.
But you either need to lower the level of detail or make the shield larger. You'll have a lot if bleeding if the colors in a few years if you ask for too fine a detail.
Satans..... hints.....
Neither does yellow. Trust the guy that decided to get the Watchmen logo as a tat on this.
This. This. This.
I know you said you had someone, but by the fact that they nonchalantly looked at the mess (sorry, it is) that you drew and said it'll work...I'd find someone else. Who is this guy anyway?
Also, your color combination (besides the issues with the white/yellow) is pretty bad. I mean, I know it's on you, but I'd strongly encourage you to reconsider. Where are you located and what's the name of the shop your guy works at?
With that said: I'm probably going to wait on the shield design until I have the cash to really do it well. I suppose that's why we have 2 arms. I think I'm going to go back to just a Hitchhiker's Guide tattoo by itself and do something gaming related next time. I'm either going with the green planet from the front of the books or the thumb logo from the movie/book reprints - with Don't Panic underneath whichever I go with. Wifey doesn't like the green one as much because she doesn't really know the books and she likes the more symmetrical/structured look of the logo - I like the green one better because it would be bright and green and fun. My concern (which I'm going to send to the tattoo place) is how large would it need to be to get fingers to come out cleanly. Any ideas on that? I'm also having a tough time finding a nice, clean source image for Don't Panic text.
I'm not going to link to the place I'm going to simply because I've read just about every H/A thread on tattoos and they immediately degrade from picking a theme to ripping about portfolios of every local tattoo parlor and end up frustrating to read. Let's just say my wife got her's there and is happy and it came recommended from a few folks we know with multiple tattoos each who have been to several area shops. If I go with either design I have complete confidence that they can do it well.
Again, all these questions you're asking us (size, placement, color issues) are questions you should be asking your tattoo artist.
What do you mean by a clean source image? Your artist should be able to eyeball the font you want and copy it from that.
It's finding the font type that I like in color that I was struggling with (that wasn't a tiny thumbnail) - I found one though.
3DS FC: 4699-5714-8940 Playing Pokemon, add me! Ho, SATAN!
Okay so anyways, here's how my adventure-in-choosing-an-artist went: we have three reputable places in town (and a few shady ones, I just avoided those all together). I went in to each one just to chat, get a feel for their place of business, let them know what I was interested in, and most importantly ask questions. You're the customer, they should be trying to get your business. Not bending over backwards to please you, mind you, but considerate of what you're asking of them. I asked about availability, how much time they think the piece would take, rates, etc. This is the very-quick sketch I took in to each place (and had a copy ready to give to any who wanted it):
First studio we went to is actually a pretty good one on the west coast, Jeff Gogue's. Guy's gotten himself a reputation and he's in my small town! He's also not accepting any new clients, but does have other artists on staff, so the guy I talked to was Shawn Herbank. Very chill guy, was giving me his total attention, heard me out, was enthusiastic; basically everything I was hoping to find in an artist. He had an appointment come in at that time, so he asked if I would leave my sketch and he'd draw something based off it, and if I could come back in a few hours. Awesome!
Second guy wanted a deposit before he even looked at the sketch. And then he gave some ramble about how he does his own thing, and he's never really had any complaints, and the whole time I get this feeling that he's not even listening to me. Scratch off the list.
Third guy was much more accommodating, heard me out, also wanted a small deposit before he would draw something out, so I left the place feeling like the Shawn was going to be my best bet for a happy experience.
Went back, discussed placement, size, other possibilities, expansion later on, color, rates, timeframe, basically everything. This is what he had come up with:
I was pretty much enamored with the design right off the back. He mentioned how much more organic the bones were compared to the garden tools, but still kept the feeling of the pirate skull and crossbones. This was a guy who listened and was making a tattoo for ME, not for his portfolio. Then he said he'd email me a final inked version, and for me to think it over and write back before the appointment if I had any other changes I'd like. He only asked for a $50 deposit when we wanted to make an appointment. This is the final version that came today:
Other than the leaf, which I like but not the placement, I'm set on the tattoo. This has so far been a great experience.
My advice to you, even though this is my first tat, is don't settle. At all. You have the possibility of traveling a bit to get a better one, because it's going to be what 1, 2 visits? Worth it for something you want done right on your body. Keep up the search until you find something and someone you trust. Also good luck, can't wait to see how things turn out down the road!
-Jordan
3DS FC: 4699-5714-8940 Playing Pokemon, add me! Ho, SATAN!
Spoilered to save space, but this should all be stickied.
Here's what I ended up with:
It actually is symmetrical in real life - the pic was just taken at a slight angle and I can't retake it at the moment as it's in that sort of flaky state. I had it done Wednesday.
Thanks all for the advice, I didn't want to hear some of it as looking for a new shop was a lot of work, but I'm really glad I did as I know I'll be back next year for more work.
10 thumbs up.
3DS FC: 4699-5714-8940 Playing Pokemon, add me! Ho, SATAN!