Geisha Inner Arm Tattoo with Red Carnations

Just finished this lovely red and black lady, off to do some serious drawing!!

Japanese Tattoos on an Autumnal Theme

Seems to be that without trying deliberately, the theme of tattoos in the studio this week have all been very autumnal - koi,maple leaves, reds,oranges and rusts... wonderful!

Red and Gold Geisha Tattoo

Fiona told me she would like one of my 'trademark' Art Deco geisha tattoos, but wanted the colourway to be taken from the beautiful costumes and headresses from an assortment of Chinese films, hence the reds and golds as a palette and the small creatures in her hair combs.
I took this photo on finishing the tattoo but it doesn't really do it justice, but I've been promised a healed up photo via facebook when it's all healed and lovely!

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.

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...

Back at last!

Vast amounts of business (read busy-ness) outside work (mainly involving painting and decorating!) have taken over my life and kept me from doing any of this lovely internet stuff for ages.

Finally back to it though - got myself a new 'business' facebook page (see the 'Like' box and button on this blog) called (appropriately enough) 'Venus Flytrap Tattoo'.

Am now back to redesigning my poor ancient website, tattooing with a vengeance (!) and drawing up some beautiful new customer designs as well.

Also got my lovely Sakura geisha painting finished too - as you can see...

So prepare for a renewed internet presence on all levels - which will make for an interesting read because I've got loads of exciting Japanese and floral tattoo work on the go these days...

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!!

Art Deco Geisha and Veiled Spanish Lady...

Last night was at a cocktail party 'meeting and greeting' the cast and crew of 'Be Bop a Lula' - it's a show from LA that's in Edinburgh for the Festival Fringe - and my lovely hubby is musical director (and playing live guitar) for the Festival version. Thankfully I'm not drinking these days - cos we both had to get up early today - Paul for rehearsals and me for 2 big tattoos...Today was a 'finishing tattoos' kind of a day - in the morning was Junior, with his technicolour art deco style geisha. He already had an existing tattoo on the outside of his upper arm -you can see the background clouds from this on the right hand side of the photo, so we put the geisha on the inside of his arm to create a half sleeve.
He's obviously happy with the results because now I'm going on to draw an equally stylised and brightly coloured phoenix for his forearm - which will end up as a full sleeve.

This afternoon I got to put the finishing touches to one of my favourite tattoos - Mays Spanish Lady. May originally asked me to design one of my 'signature' geishas for her right shoulder - but, since she's very Spanish I asked if she would mind if her lady was Spanish instead of Japanese. We both loved the resulting design - and once we do a proper photoshoot you'll be able to see just how much the tattoo lady resembles her beautiful owner!

I've got several such photoshoots planned for my new website - now all I need is 27 hours in the day to get the time to create the 'settings' and get them done!

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!!

Sakura Geisha and Koi with Maple

The beautiful geisha pic above is a tattoo I did on the lovely Linda a while back - the tattoo was done over a few sittings - partly because it is so detailed, especially the kimono fabric, and partly despite the fact that Linda is something of a trooper, it really is no fun having your ribs tattooed!
She'd booked herself in for an hour this morning - so we started on the background - which as you can see from the photo will be covered in pink sakura and possibly a few sumi grey branches - but not if that's going to look too busy.
The sakura look quite harsh because they've just been done, but the idea is that with their pink outlines they will 'sink' into the background once they settle down, leaving the geisha to remain in the foreground as the focus of attention.


This afternoon was spent doing a couple of hours on Michaels koi and maple sleeve. The first colour I put in this tattoo (in the maple leaves at the top) came out a little faint - but we've resolved that and the next lot of colour and shading in the koi have come out great - so it's onward and upward - just as koi should be!! I'll leave the maple leaves for a little while before skimming back over them to 'soup them up'!
I'm in the process of designing the inside of this half sleeve - with a large scrolling chrysanthemum flower and some loose petals floating in the water. The flower will be oranges into golds and yellows, sticking with the hot/autumnal colour palette against a background of sumi grey and black.
Talking of the background - I'm thinking of making it really dark - so the grey and orange koi, red and orange maple, and golden chrysanthemum will really stand out against it once it's all settled down.
Till tomorrow then - when we should be seeing a sakura geisha sleeve with fire and the aforementioned zombie ice cream!

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...).

From Art Nouveau to Zombie Ice Cream

Yesterday was a geisha day - getting close to finishing one of my 'trademark' geisha tattoos in my equally trademark colours of pink and teal. That one should be finished at the next sitting so we've arranged to leave time to take some decent photos at that point (which should be in about 3 weeks).

I also talked to the lovely Sarah from Electric Cabaret (an alternative clothes store up the road from me) about designing her a zombie ice cream tattoo (with added bat sweets, naturally). Started the beautiful art nouveau lady above this morning - yet another cracking amount of outlines!

Last but by no means least found the artwork for one of my old business cards I thought I'd show you - come to think of it should really put some of the new ones up too...

Off to draw - more later.

Have been at it again. Was on the way to my studio, innocently seeking out pink gift wrap to make origami fans (for a website photoshoot,as it happens). Found yet more pink and geisha-covered stationery. Since 'everything more pink and sakura-covered than everything else' is my number one design rule - it just had to be done. I'll consider them inspirational materials.

This lovely fishy design is part of the plan for 2 sleeves. Sleeve number one has five koi swimming upstream, going from full colour at the bottom, to the sumi grey you see pictured at the top. In keeping with the Japanese story, once the koi are complete, there will be a dragon on the other arm. I've just started this tattoo, today was sitting number two - so expect some pictures of the actual sleeve materialising in the not too far distant future.

I was supposed to be tattooing again this afternoon, adding flowers to an existing foot tattoo - but my customer has really bad flu symptoms (scream 'swine flu' everyone!) - so we both agreed it was better all round if she didn't come in.

Going to get on with chipping away at my enormous drawing list for a bit, then this evening either start on the aforementioned origami fans, or continue painting some more of the modelling clay blossom I'm making to decorate the frame of one of my geisha paintings. A lot more on those babies soon too...