At the back end of last year I started on a new tattoo. I’ve gone back to see Valerie Vargas again, as the leg piece she did was so stunning, so she was obviously my first choice. Since I had my leg done, she has moved from Frith Street Tattoo to set up her own shop called Modern Classic, in Fulham.
I went with the intention to get two arm pieces, top of bicep only, and was looking for ideas based on a mood board I’d put together. When we chatted it through we agreed that it would be really nice if we actually started in the middle of my back and brought the piece out from there. The arms won’t be symmetrical in content, but starting in the centre of the back will give them balance, and obviously allow for a much larger piece. We had the small matter of a cover-up to do on a butterfly I’d had tattooed on my honeymoon in LA, but luckily it wasn’t a big piece.
We agreed on a base design for the back, and agreed how to deal with the cover up, though what I love most about working with Valerie is that we always let the piece come alive and take on its own feel as the work starts. For instance with my leg, we ‘grew’ the design over time, adding more elements to really bring it to life. People often find it strange that I don’t go into the tattoo with a clear idea of what I want – but that’s the point of working with an artist like Valerie – I want her to guide the piece and recommend what will look good – she’s the expert and it’s really important to me that the tattooer likes the piece too. Although it’s going on my body, it feels like a partnership to get to the best design ideas. Much as in my day job I know that the best design often comes from collaboration and feedback.
The work on this piece started with one 4-hour session in November, to get the outline down.
Even after the first session I knew it was going to be stunning, but I’m not going to lie, I was really shocked how much the back hurts! I don’t know if I am particularly sensitive but I’m really struggling with this piece, particularly the area right down the centre of my spine. Weirdly too, my right hand side reacts very differently to my left in terms of pain. The right is much worse – I wonder if it’s the nerve damage from the Shingles I had in the winter?
Other than doing my wedding ring, all of my tattoos have been painful, but the back really does feel like a battle. Poor Valerie is literally having to pin me down and we’ve cut the rest of the back sessions down to 2 hours. When we get on to the arms we’ll go back up to 3. I’m not expecting them to be easy, but I’m really hoping they’ll be less painful than the back piece!
We did the second session at The Brighton Tattoo Convention – which was interesting.
Bit weird being tattooed with people taking photo’s of you, but it was a good experience and I got to see lots of different work being done too. The last session was 2 weeks ago and that’s pretty much healed now. I’ve currently got another 10 hours booked through to August, and we should get to my arms in July I hope – it would be good to have one finished while it’s still Summer. Just the pesky painful back to get through first!
