Sword Geisha and Persephone Sleeve Tattoos

Been away on a short break to Cornwall which was fantastic - beautiful scenery, great folks, and pastys, Cornish ice cream and cream teas. Local beers were pretty good too. But now am back to the tattooing with a vengeance - above is the first sitting of Joe's Art Deco style Persephone sleeve, based on the Rosetti painting. Soon she will be surrounded by summer flowers and wintery trees.
Also shown is Valerie's sword geisha sleeve - with the owl and horse - shoe on the inside of her arm. Latest additions include butterflies and more cherry blossom on the back of her shoulder.

Geisha Backpiece Tattoo in Progress

This is the tattoo from 'Saturday - Part Two'.
This tattoo was originally designed to go on the right hand side of Alastair's back... but once the right hand side was complete he decided to go ahead and make it a complete backpiece.
There's still some way to go - patterns on her kimono fabric, the wisteria (top left) is to be coloured, and the screen has maple leaves on it... ...but she's starting to come together well now.

Lotus Tattoo with Ampersand, Orchids and Cherry Blossom

Just finished this very pretty tattoo on the inner forearm of Naomi,who also happens to be the daughter of my shop manager! It's kind of strange tattooing someone you've known since they were born (!)- but she sat great and the tattoo turned out lovely. Will get a pic once it's healed to better show all the colour gradations.

Koi Carp tattoo with Cherry Blossom

Just finished this very pretty little koi and sakura tattoo on Kerry's ankle. Whilst colour tattoos will always be my first love, the longer I tattoo the more I appreciate black and grey work. As with a lot of things in tattooing - it's really pretty easy to do up a a certain level of proficiency - and insanely difficult to do well!! I'm becoming obsessed with how dark backgrounds should be relative to foregrounds (or vice versa!) - and how to contrast areas of great detail with very simple areas or negative spaces. Fascinating stuff. The tattooing voyage continues....

Japanese Style Tattoos - Photos from Australia

Just went into my email to find a whole load of photos from Jamie, a long-distance customer from Australia. He'd promised to send me some pics of the tattoo work I'd done on him, and here they are -
complete with added sunshine.

The first piece I did on Jamie was a fox (Inari) and rabbits against a traditional grey background. The upper half of his arm was already tattooed - so I drew the fox design to match his existing work and not create a 'join' halfway down his arm. The cherry blossom and the background are not drawn the way I would normally do - but in this piece continuity was obviously important so I adapted them to suit. I think this result works much better than a 'tattoo of two halves' would ever have done.

When he came to get his next tattoo from me, Jamie pretty much gave me free rein - he said he wanted a rabbit sitting at the waters edge looking down at a turtle which was swimming up towards it, and cherry blossom (always a good thing to add in my book!) The tattoo is to celebrate the birth of his beautiful baby daughter, Darcy.We did the tattoo in two longish sessions and one finishing session - because he was travelling halfway round the planet time was of the essence! I liked the way the 'underwater' effect worked out so much it's appeared a few times since in other pieces I'm drawing up.

Geisha Rockabilly Pinup with Cherry Blossom

Spent most of today waiting in for workmen... ...but not to be deterred I drew up the design for some red cherry blossom which I'm starting on Monday - they'll eventually trail from mid back over shoulder and down her arm - but they're pretty detailed so outlines on shoulder blade should keep us occupied day 1!

Once I'm done writing this, I'm gonna get on with making tiny paper chrysanthemums and origami insects for a headdress to be worn by one of my backpiece customers for her photoshoot.

So why the 'rockabilly' geisha photo? - Because after tattooing lotus flower and cherry blossom) tomorrow I'm running home to get changed and go round to Elvis Shakespeare bookshop on Leith Walk here in Edinburgh - where my lovely husband Paul (Paul Paterson) is playing a live set of blues,surf and rockabilly for their 5th birthday party around 6pm... ...Rock'n'Roooollll!

Geisha Art:Sakura Geisha Painting No1

At some point last year I featured a picture in my blog of some cherry blossom flowers I was making from modelling clay - they looked more like 'Skips' than cherry blossom at that point...

Well, here they are now 'in situ' as it were... ...on the frame of the Sakura Geisha painting I have been trying to finish for the longest time. And now she's done!

Now all I need to do is sand, prime and paint the wooden frames I've cut for some of my smaller pieces, and they can all be framed and hung on the studio wall too...

Seriously wish I had more time to spend on my painting, It's a great way to relax from tattooing...

But then being busy is THE best kind of complaint to have I guess!

Sakura Geisha tattoo design in monochrome

Today was a day for red and grey tattoos - using sumi (charcoal) grey Japanese ink which settles down over time to become a beautiful silvery grey...

First up was a phoenix design - running from waist down to thigh. The softer plumage and the tail feathers are monchrome - the wings and body deep red.

Then came a Japanese style koi design - a pale speckled fish against a traditional looking dark background of water/wind - this time the red was in the form of mottled red maple (momiji) leaves overhanging and floating on the water.

As much as I love working in colour, I'll never get tired of working in monochrome too - I especially love the way these tattoos age and actually improve with time...

Art Deco Cherry Blossom Geisha Tattoo in Teal and Pink

Saturday morning was spent putting the finishing touches to the cherry blossom geisha tattoo pictured here. This is what you might call one of my 'signature geisha'. All of the geisha tattoos I do have an Art Deco stylised look to them - some more than others, this one very much so - which is enhanced even more by the teal/pink/black colour.

Japanese Dragon,Cobra Geisha and Jigsaw...

Last few days have been spent slaving over a combination of hot drawing board and overheating tattoo machines... ...last night had takeout Japanese food (life is hell) and worked on LATE in the studio.
So - stopping earlier tonight to meet my friend Ev (or Aussie Cookie as we know her - pictured above with the cherry blossom/sakura/peony tattoo I did for her) cos she wants to see Quiffy (my hubby - Paul Paterson - www.paulpaterson.com ) playing his geetar in 'Be Bop a Lula' so he got us comps for tonight.

Been neglecting my photo duties a bit too- yesterday I took a snap of the chrysanthemum tattoo above -it's part of a piece that stretches from left knee to right shoulder and incorporates some old tattoo work into the design as well.

This is the Japanese dragon thigh piece I started a couple of weeks back - today I tidied up the upper lines, added black background and some sumi grey shading work.

The beautiful and talented young lady pictured here is Kirsteen A.K.A. Boobie Trap Corsets. (http://www.boobietrapcorsets.com/) The first tattoo I did on Kirsteen was a geisha pinup on her calf - then she travelled up from Norwich a few times to get the green cobra geisha and skull roses you see in the pic.

We're now working on turning the cobra geisha arm into a full sleeve - so while she was up in Edinburgh today we did some planning and measuring - and I'm going to come up with something suitably bright yet Japanese influenced featuring flowers and fans - with possibly the odd skull thrown in for good measure!

Have ordered a jigsaw to start cutting out frames for some of my bigger paintings - ha - should be suitably dangerous!

Am also currently drawing up a large design with a chrysanthemum on a fan, a samurai sword and LOTS of cherry blossom. For a change. Gorgeous.

Anyway - gotta look a bit less 'work-like' for Pauls show - so Bye!!

Flame Geisha with Sakura

This is another Japanese style sleeve which has been ongoing for quite a while - it's owner was working as a chef and now as the kitchen manager for Hard Rock Cafe - which means that finding time to get tattooed, and particularly to heal, hasn't been easy. But she's looking lovely nonetheless! The grey flames at the top of his arm were already there so I put more further down the design to make them part of the finished sleeve - hence her name of Flame Geisha...

Today we worked on the forearm as much as possible -it's insanely busy here in Edinburgh at the moment with the Edinburgh Festival being on and it's a bit easier trying to run a busy kitchen if you can actually bend your arm - so no elbow coverage till holiday time kids!!

The entire sleeve will be in shades of grey, pink and red - but we've sneaked in a blue cherry blossom. Just because we could. And it looks great.

I did start the zombie ice cream tattoo as well but we're waiting for the colour to be in that before I take the photo - and that will have to be another day cos Ms Ice Cream has been averaging about 3 hours sleep a night of late, so wasn't up for a long tattoo sitting.

Rock'n'Roll!!

Super Sushi!

Eek! Been too busy to keep up with my new-found blogging hobby....

Saturday morning involved colouring in the tail of a dragon that goes from knee to armpit - that one's been on the go for a while! Then had someone come in to check their design I'd drawn - cherry blossom (no really) and bamboo to go up her side - all A-OK so now booked in. Very Pretty.

Then came a consultation for more koi carp - a guy from Kent who wants koi and flowers surrounding his calf - should be beautiful but have to behave and add it to the end of the drawing list!!

Sat evening was spent with my gorgeous hubby at a birthday party for my pal Radio 1/Scotland DJ Vic Galloway - his lovely partner Lexi had invited us all round for sushi (height of civilisation - she'd made loads and it was fantastic!) at their flat before Vic DJ'd the night away at a local bar.

Sunday was one of those 'do the million things you never get time to do' days - the ones that normal people seem to do all the time...

And finally today was a full-on drawing day to try and catch up - two flowery legs and yet more (blue) koi - started designing a coverup with them.

Bored yet?

I am with the sound of my own typing so off to get on with it. Over and out.

Cherry Blossom Geisha with Sword

This tattoo started with a flurry of cherry blossom on the clients shoulder as a coverup for a tiny first tattoo.
The cherry blossom turned out so pretty we've gone on to add the geisha, which I just finished this morning,and next sitting we're starting on the inside of the arm to make it a half sleeve.

The design for that includes an owl, a rose and a horseshoe - not what you'd generally expect to find with a geisha but that's half the fun and the design looks great (though I do say so myself...).

Sakura Stationery

En route to the studio this morning I picked up a whole load of stationery decorated with cherry blossom designs... ...the blurb on the back of the folders says its a tribute to the Japanese Hanami (cherry blossom viewing).
One of the advantages of having a girly tattoo studio which specialises in Japanese style floral designs is that I get to buy all this stuff and call it work...
One of the disadvantages is I still have to do the accounts to fill the folders...