Black Work Tattoos

Hey Steemians! Here are some tattoos that I’ve done of their past couple of weeks. I like to group tattoos into sort of a theme when I post them here. I feel like it shows off their similar characteristics, much like a collection of paintings in an art gallery. All of these tattoos are simple, black-only designs.

These mountains were one of my favorites from the past couple of months. Just a really fun design. The client had a picture from the internet and really wanted it exactly the way it was pictured, but I drew this and showed him and luckily he let go of his original idea. Why did I change his design? Well, because the picture he showed me was a custom piece done on another person. It was already their tattoo. It wouldn’t be right to steal their custom work and re-create it. So I changed it up and he was flexible enough to go with it. For the subject of the tattoo, I actually used the mountain line of the Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho. I was lucky enough to camp in the SawTooth Mountains last year and it is a breathtaking environment.

This next tattoo is in a similar theme as the first. I do A LOT of pine tree or evergreen silhouettes. It is a very common theme here in the Pacific Northwest. For the owner of the tattoo it can represent their ties to nature, their ties to this area specifically, or the tree can sometimes represent their family, or personal strength. It just depends on the person that owns the tattoo.

You thought barbed wire tattoos died out in the 90’s? Think again! Ok, I love doing barbed wire tattoos. They are an easy design, and I just think they look damned cool. This one is hand drawn on. No Stencil. Some people refer to that as free hand. Common misconception: free hand does not mean that we just start tattooing with no outline! It just means we draw the tattoo on with a pen or marker then we tattoo the design on. The woman, yes woman, wearing this has a lot of simple, graphic, black only work. She likes to keep the designs bold and classic. I gotta say I like the look too!

This last one is a departure from my normal style of tattoooing. Why? Despite the nice black outline, this is about as close as I have gotten to photo-realism. I don’t do photo realism, I am a traditional tattooed. My roses are usually much more stylized and simplistic. But this was a fun one to do. It taught me to pay more attention to lighting and texture.

Thank you for stopping and taking a look. Tattooing is a very personal choice. My only goal is to make sure the client goes home happy. I hope you all find inspiration for tattoos you want to get, and I do not mind you using my work as a source of inspiration. But remember, it’s not cool to rip of custom ideas!!! Don’t do it!

Take care folks!