That red heart. Yeah, that hurt. But the girl head is fully finished and it’s only the painful fleshy bits to go! I’m really pleased with how this is coming along, only a few more months to go!
Browsing Tag
Valerie Vargas
Continued the final piece of the tattoo I’ve been working on for 3 years. This is part of the top of my right arm, and only shows a small part of the rest of the whole outline we did in one session at Modern Classic. I’m sure there will be some more line work to do, once we see how it’s looking – blossom’s and flowers probably.
The piece consists of a beautiful girl head, an hour glass and this heart with a scroll, which is pretty much a direct copy of a tattoo my Dad had when he was 16. I can’t wait to see it all coloured, it’s going to look outrageously good. The only question is, do I conintue with my forearms, but for now there’s a bit of a wait until the next session.
Left arm finished 🙂
It took a lot of work and a lot of time, but I am over the moon with the final result. Just one more arm to go!
Oh man, what a week. Mostly consisting of pain.
A couple of weeks ago I started to get a nagging toothache. Well, more of a gum-ache really, which of course I ignored. I eventually found a dentist and made an appointment, and was told it was an abscess in the gum, and needed antibiotics to treat it. And what’s more, the antibiotics were strictly no alcohol, for five whole days. Five days. I can tell you, the one thing you want when you’ve got a gum abscess pulsating away in your mouth is a drink!
Anyway, I took the antibiotics, and the five days booze free, literally on the chin. The pain seemed to diminish a bit, but it, and the lump, were still there. So back off to the dentist I went, to be told that the tooth was too damaged to save and that the bugger would have to come out.
I’ve had teeth out before, and to be honest, other than the injection bit, it’s bearable. You just need to take an ipod with some loud music, wait for the anaesthetic to take hold and it’s usually over with pretty quickly. So while I knew it wasn’t going to be pleasant I was kind of OK with it. And i’d booked a late appointment so I could go straight home after.
Well. This tooth did not want to come out. It took a 40-minute struggle, some pretty horrible dentistry and a few tears to get it out of my head. I won’t go into details, for the squeamish, but just to say it wasn’t pleasant. Or quick. Or like any other tooth I’ve ever had out. And it’s left a bloody great big hole.
That was on Monday. On Tuesday I felt like I’d been hit by a truck, and should probably have worked from home. But I dosed up on ibuprofen and went it. I was pretty much rattling. Then on Wednesday I was booked in for a tattoo.
We’ve finally finished phase 1 – the backpiece. This is the cover-up and central piece to the tattoos that are going to go over the shoulder and down my arms (to elbow). It was a relief to get it finished, and I had some pretty strong painkillers to get me through – which pretty much stopped me thinking about the tooth thing for a couple of hours.
We finished the heart around the skull and just for good measure, went back over the cover-up (ouch) as Valerie wasn’t quite happy with the colour. There’s a few cherry blossom left to place but they will be done last.
So, now we move on to my arms, and I’m actually pretty excited. Roll on mid-August.
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!
I’m a little bit obsessed with both. Here are some of mine, featuring excellent shoes and obligatory cocktail 🙂
Nails by The Lanes Health and Beauty
Tattoos by Valerie Vargas and Into You
