Today, I added this beautiful mermaid as a companion for the other card I have on me, which, would have been second were it not so cool. Anyway, here's the deal.
Initially, Sirena was the tattoo I wanted first. When I was a kid, I was fascinated by all the tattoos my Dad had on himself. There was a full Clipper ship on his chest, and various words and drawings all over his arms but one that always drew my attention was this topless Hawaiian grass dancer that was frozen forever with her hips to the side. As much as a small kid can respond to the notion of "hot!" I did and I tried to steal as many looks as I could and was always embarrassed if I caught my Dad catching me (I tended to fly into dreams much easier then and would sometimes be yelled back onto the planet. "What?" was my casual response, unaware how unaware I had been.
I have to say I like the connection of the two but it was never my motivation. I just think it's an amazing image. Pop Art BrainBoy for a day.
OK, story done.
---- ALANNA ALARM ----
The following depict scenes of ink being carved into the flesh of a living human being and, as such, may be offensive to some, if not all.
Here she is right after Charlie, the artist who makes this happen, finished the initial outline. Charlie also did El Diablito for me as well. Really, really talented guy.
Here's a really awesome closeup Kelly took where, for the first time, you can see how precise he is. Keep your eyes on the hair. I'm looking at it right now and I'm still amazed how great the hair looks and I guarantee that's what you'll say if you see it.
Here she is, La Sirena. Literally just finished and thoroughly cleaned.
Have to share a little side story here. I didn't intend these to reflect the obvious opposites such as Fire and Water, male, female, etc. I honestly really just like the design of these particular Loteria cards the best.
Here's a little detail of the hair of a pic I just took and ran through the mobile version of Photoshop. As cool as it looks, it looks almost three dimensional in person.
Believe me, there are other cards I wouldn't mind having but I think my inking is over for a while, at least. Having them now for over a day they have me thinking about various things and I think they look great on my arms but a couple things I will say, once again, is that Charlie did an amazing job and like I said on my Diablito post, if you are ever looking for a tattoo his shop is Read St. Tattoos and it's in downtown Baltimore.
It's a pretty awesome tattoo, if I do say so myself. I can't wait to see it fully healed (and it will be nice when I can't fry an egg on my forearm cause it's so red and swollen). :)