My New Tattoo

[d2creative]

Flew up to NY twice for this guy.
Once to do the b/w (end of March) and then again to do the color (end of May). 2 days of tattooing each trip, about 4-5 hours per day. I think I ended up with about 16 hours total. So about 7 weeks later, here it is all healed and purdy.

But now I'm trying to take a few pics and what a pain in the butt trying to shoot your own arm! LOL! I'm lighting it with one strip light with a grid, black background and I'm wearing a black shirt. I'll try again tomorrow, see if I can get any other decent ones...

[porkchop2785]

Wow, that is some absolutely great looking ink

[janikphoto]

I'd rather spend my money on camera gear... but, it does look pretty cool.

[Cajungaltx]

Gorgeous.... I can admire something like that... but I have a cousin who went off the deepend with tatoos... and she's got enough for both of us... and a couple more folks too...

[BigC]

Impressive. I have always wantes a tatoo that reads "Best if used by 3-7-2025."

[iinastynateii]

Both the ink and the photo are stand-up. Kudos!

[angiem357]

I'm sure the photo doesn't do it justice, which is really saying something, because that pic is gorgeous! Who did the work, and what shop?

[corralup]

I like everything about it and I'm not a tattoo person. But if I were I'd get one done just like yours!

[Jusselin]

nasty cool

[MarcoFromHouston]

looks awesome! what type of flowers/leaves are those?!

[d2creative]

Thanks!
I added a second photo in my original post.

Kings Avenue Tattoo in Massapequa, NY did the work. Matt Beckerich is the artist.
www.kingsavenuetattoo.com

There was a lot of time and money involved, but it's something I've wanted to do for a while, it just took me forever to decide what I wanted and to find an artist that I was impressed with enough. I also knew I wanted traditional Japanese art but I didn't want a full sleeve and I don't like when tattoos end sharpely. So I told the artist that I wanted a Koi, full color but b/w water, and I wanted it to start at the top of my shoulder and spiral down my arm, across my inner elbow and end near the inside of the wrist, and somehow blend it into the skin more graphically, no hard cut-offs. So he did it, and i never saw a sketch until the day I arrived to have it done. It was perfect and we went for it.

I do make it a point not to spend my personal money on camera equipment so there was no inner battle going on there. And coincidentally, we're from NY and my in-laws are only 20 minutes from that shop. So my wife got to hang out with her family while i got inked up. It worked out nicely.

It does look better in person in the sense that you can kinda see the whole thing at once. It's hard to capture the wrap in a still shot. But the lighting really brought out the colors and contrast.

The second shot i had to do some airbrushing of shadows. I would have used a big flag or something to block some light, but I couldn't see what I was doing! lol Oh well.

d2creative added 0 Minutes and 50 Seconds later...Double Post Merged Below

Originally Posted by MarcoFromHouston

looks awesome! what type of flowers/leaves are those?!

Those are Maple leaves with fall colors.

[mmuhlenkamp]

Very cool! I've always like the look of tattoos, but will probably never get one myself. BUT, if I did I would be researching the heck out of tattoo artists and spend the money on something awesome like you did.

Congrats to the tattoo artist and nice photos.

[PhotoByLeal]

Nice and beautiful ink!
By the way nice lighting and PP!

SO, what happens to the ink if you start working out and pumping IRON and get BIGGER muscles?

later,
angel m. leal jr.

[Concisus Cognatus]

Thought this was a posting from a vertically challenged lady talking about a change in her boyfriends' personality.

[L Stegall]

I am not a tattoo fan at all, but I gotta say, that is beautiful art and the most vivid colors I think I've ever seen in a tattoo. Clearly the creator is a talented artist.

I can't imagine sitting still to have it done - I'm a big baby when it comes to any needle coming close to me.