Hey Mom! Guess what I did this weekend!
Sep. 27th, 2005 11:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bluegargantuaRight.
So as promised...the pictures:
This tattoo is on my right leg and the photos start in the back and move counter-clockwise around it (although I myself moved clockwise...weird).
The design is inspired by taotie motifs found on Shang Dynasty ritual bronzes. These designs were two stylized animal figures in profile, facing each other so that where their heads touched together, it formed a single animal mask. In this case, it's a pair of tigers. Viewed head-on it can be difficult to discern (a number of people thought it was a dragon head), but if you look at the side pictures on my leg, you can see each individual tiger.
Yeah, so this took 3 hours to do and passed over shin bones and Achilles tendon. I'm afraid I wasn't a very good canvas for this, but my artist was very patient and we had a couple people holding me down so in the end it came off really well. It's still a little sore and red, but seems to be healing up nicely.
The only downside is that it's not done yet. I've still got to fill it in with color. Luckily, when you do fill work, there are multiple needles so it goes faster and the discomfort is spread out over a (slightly) wider area. But that's a few months away still.
later
Tom
So as promised...the pictures:
This tattoo is on my right leg and the photos start in the back and move counter-clockwise around it (although I myself moved clockwise...weird).
The design is inspired by taotie motifs found on Shang Dynasty ritual bronzes. These designs were two stylized animal figures in profile, facing each other so that where their heads touched together, it formed a single animal mask. In this case, it's a pair of tigers. Viewed head-on it can be difficult to discern (a number of people thought it was a dragon head), but if you look at the side pictures on my leg, you can see each individual tiger.
Yeah, so this took 3 hours to do and passed over shin bones and Achilles tendon. I'm afraid I wasn't a very good canvas for this, but my artist was very patient and we had a couple people holding me down so in the end it came off really well. It's still a little sore and red, but seems to be healing up nicely.
The only downside is that it's not done yet. I've still got to fill it in with color. Luckily, when you do fill work, there are multiple needles so it goes faster and the discomfort is spread out over a (slightly) wider area. But that's a few months away still.
later
Tom
no subject
Date: 2005-09-27 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-09-27 03:43 pm (UTC)Good old rock.
[Blue can fill in the rest]
no subject
Date: 2005-09-27 03:45 pm (UTC)The mask being made up of two component pieces. Also, the full meaning of the symbols has pretty much been lost over the centuries so I don't feel like I'm completely trampling over a cultural motif for my own aesthetic enjoyment.
I also have a keen interest in the transition from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age. Most of my focus was on how that worked in the fertile crescent region but once I saw this design I knew it would be a better fit.
later
Tom