All of us at Chapel Tattoo were recently asked to paint a sheet of flash for a shop set, which I thought was an excellent idea. I’m really glad we were made to do it because I’ve always meant to try painting flash, but never did for some unknown reason. I’m not sure my style of painting is very suitable for it, and I definitely added some embellishments here and there that you wouldn’t bother trying to put in a tattoo, but I think the designs could easily be modified or adapted to be tattoo-able, which I guess is the idea anyway. Whether they end up being used or not, I had fun painting this sheet and might even try doing some more one day.
I’d been playing with some small sketches of magic and witchcraft inspired images for some time, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to flesh them out.
The full page: (click for bigger res images)
Mandragora, or mandrake. I am super fascinated by the folklore and mythology surrounding this plant, so will probably paint more of them in time.
The spider lady was an excuse to paint a lady face with some creepy extra eyes and legs; I like images of animals crossed with humans, or humans wearing animal pelts, because to me it suggests the transformation of a witch or shaman into their animal form.
Hissing kitty. Included because it’s a popular image for tattooing, and because cats are common familiar animals. And because, well, it’s a cat.
Ritual objects. Once again, skulls are such a timeless tattoo image that you can’t really go wrong with them; I included the other objects to resemble a ritual alter setting.
Hand of Glory. This is an intensely strange and grim piece of folklore that you can read about here.
Voodoo doll or poppet. This was inspired by a protective doll that a friend made for Shaun, and that has always fascinated me. I feel like the creation of dolls for magical purposes is a really powerful and intuitive way of working that I’d like to try some day.
This sheet was mostly painted with Indian and Sepia inks on Arches watercolour paper, with a few touches of white gouache which was originally there to cover some boo-boos, but that I included more of because I like the blue-ish colour it created. The background was painted with good old black coffee dregs from my stovetop coffee maker. I’m not sure what’s happening with the prints of this set, but when I do know I’ll be sure to post the details up. I saw all the finished sheets the other day and it’s really nice seeing all the contrasting styles and personalities in our shop reflected in the designs.
I had the pleasure of tattooing a lovely couple named Anna and Matthias recently who both got quite personal and unusual custom pieces done. I haven’t got pics of the finished pieces yet, but I do have one of Anna’s gramophone which I’m rather proud of. This took longer to colour than I’d care to admit, but I think it was worth it. Thanks Anna.
Having lots of fun with this new sleeve I’ve been working on, consisting of beautiful ladies with jewelled insects and snakes. Finished this first lady a few weeks ago:
and started on another:
…more progress photos to come.
Speaking of animal friends, I’ve just been reminded of these matching ravens I did a while back on my lovely fellow tribal belly dancer Cassandra, who totally has a thing for birds. I also recently completed a large owl in a similar style on her leg, which I am yet to photograph but hope to soon. Thanks Cass, it’s always a pleasure.
Got some nice healed photos the other day of these two fun pieces that I did on fellow tattooer and all-round good lass Leonie from Voodoo Ink in St Kilda. A botanical-style pineapple, taken from the fabulous Taschen book Garden of Eden:
And a harpie on a seashell, which you’ll have to enlarge to see properly dude to my poorly attempted stitch-job on these photos. Photographing these kinds of tattoos is always a pest but I think you get the idea anyway.
Thanks Leonie, and come get more soon!
I’ve had the pleasure of tattooing some stellar individuals recently, and they’ve been getting some really fun designs to boot. For some reason I seem to be doing a lot of animal designs, many of them totem or special animals to the wearer, which always makes them more enjoyable for me. Yesterday I started this cute robin and olive branch on the very lovely Kat, who works across the river at Fox Body Art in Collingwood.
Got to test out my new camera on this one too, which takes way better photos than my phone does. Hand-me-down cameras are just one of the perks of having a photographer husband!
Another totem bird, from a few months back now…a little swallow for an awesome fellow named Drew, who I had great fun tattooing and talking shit to for a few hours.
A tiny lizard on Ainsley as part of her Celtic shamanism-inspired piece; this is just one of many animals I’m doing on her leg, including a stag, a fox, a hedgehog and an otter…but no decent photos of any of them yet.
Also fun recently was this zebra on beautiful Kate from Dukes, my beloved local coffee shop. Soon we’ll be adding poppies to this for some extra colour, and I shall get a less gross-looking photo as well.
More Louis Wain kitties on Sally…I’m gonna be so bummed when we fill this arm up, which will be happening rather soon. Hopefully she’ll let me start filling the other arm after that though.
Perhaps the most unusual request I had these past few weeks: a lynx and a pine martin running alongside eachother. There was an awesome story attached to this tattoo that I have sadly forgotten, along with the cool Polish name of the nice chap I did it on… but I know it was inspired by a sci-fi or fantasy novel.
And last but not least, a bordering-on-silly kitten playing with yarn tattoo for my darling sister Kate. The first of many cat tattoos I’ll be doing on her, I imagine.
Snake with poisonous herbs on my lovely Adelaide client Amy, who is studying to be a naturopath. Way too much fun. Anyone who can name the three plants gets a gold star.
An octopus for Adam’s head. WHY THE HELL NOT?
Gypsy lady for Michael, soon to become a full sleeve. Fun fun fun.
A portrait of Pauline’s Grandma, with licorice and candy. Actually finished this today but didn’t get a photo...real happy with how it turned out. Grandpa to come next, with cards, dice and dominoes.
Super-fun jellyfish on beautiful Anneke, almost finished but didn’t get time to colour the bubbles.
Also outlined a collection of totem animals from the tradition of Celtic Shamanism on Ainsley the other week, which I enjoyed immensely. Pictures of that as soon as I have some worth showing.
Some stuff I’ve done this week; a coffee branch on Ashleigh who is a passionate coffee roaster:
A peony on Kate to extend her peacock/lady tattoo as seen earlier in this post. Still have to do the green in the leaves on both these.
And a Russian doll on Bryony, into which I managed to sneak a red scarf with white dots. To be fair, the actual photo reference she brought in had a similar scarf on anyway.
I did some other fun stuff this week but I still forget to take photos half the time. Should have some nice photos of finished pieces to show soon though.
I just rediscovered this photo of a tattoo I did last year on one of my old faithful clients Tra-ill and thought I’d share it, if for no other reason than to let everyone know I will NEVER be doing anything like it again!
While I wholeheartedly approve of the sentiment behind getting the introduction of The Antichrist of Nietzsche tattooed on your forearm, any tattoo artist will tell you that all those letters with all those serifs are pretty much the biggest nightmare in the world. It took 7 straight hours to complete this tattoo, and afterwards I thought my hand was gonna fall off. Still, I do kinda like it.
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