This is Red. He is one of the tattoo artists at Celtic Crow. He has a lot of black and grey tattoos, but they are spaced out around his arms. He has decided he would rather have the appearance of a sleeve rather than separate pieces. It was decided that filler work to start connecting them all together was another good practice project for an apprentice. I was thrilled to get to do it because I really need lots of shading practice.
We looked at HR Giger’s work for inspiration and then rather than try to create a stencil that would fit between the existing work on his arm I drew the designs right on his arm in sharpie. Scott gave me a new 8 hollow round needle to try for the line work, which went pretty fast. The majority of the time was spent trying to get the shading into the shapes. It turned out to be pretty fun. Red just sat there and played on his phone while I experimented with the different mixes of ink and water as well as the speed and direction of the strokes. It is incredibly important that I learn to create consistently smooth gradations of grey. Of course I still need practice but I think I have made some good progress. Red admitted that he was skeptical at first (he says just of my design, but I think also of my skill) but I think he was genuinely pleased with the results. He says he would like me to continue to fill the other spaces around his arm which I am excited to do.
