deeperthanwar

I've been tattooing a lot of birds lately.  And I'm not saying that I've had more female customers than male, either. 
It just seems that I've had a lot of requests for tattoos of our feathered friends in the last few weeks.

When I first got interested in tattooing, one of my major inspirations was the work philosophy of Dave Berwick, of Physical Poetry in Leeds.  All of his work is custom, and there is no flash on the walls.  He believes that all tattoos should be unique to the wearer. 

Now that I'm working as an artist, I have the same passion for custom work.  The shop that I work in is also custom-only.  Which means that just because I've been doing a lot of bird tattoos, doesn't mean that they're all the same.  See for yourself:

I did these two birds a couple of weeks ago.  She already had some text on her high ribs: "beauty is in the eye of the beholder"
She wanted two swallows to go just below the text, one on each side of her ribs.  One had to be green, and one red, to represent the struggle between good and evil.

I went with an old school feel, but I think that the colours bring it a bit more into the new school.  They're also fairly big - nearly six inches tall.

This is a work in progress.  The finished piece will stretch across his whole chest, and onto his upper arms too.
The theme is life and death/good and evil.  When he first came for the consultation, to look at what I'd drawn up for him, he was about to tell me that he changed his mind on having the owl, but he said when he saw the drawing that I'd done, that he decided to get it.

The phoenix was much more difficult to work with, because it's not real.  Putting it next to a real bird presented some challenges.  I dealt with it by making the owl look less real, and by giving a similar shape to the feathers on both birds.

When this client comes back for the next session, we're on to the next part of the tattoo - a heart that's been ripped in half then sewn back together. 

The client in this picture emailed me to say that she'd been looking for a Christian tattoo artist for a while to do a piece for her.

As she wanted a bluebird, I went with the old school tradition, because I think it lends itself really nicely to the colours on this bird.  It was also really important to her to have the heart in there, as this tattoo is in memory of her grandmother. 
I feel like the vines give the whole thing some movement.

So there you have it.  Five birds, each designed especially for the client.  Each tattoo entirely unique to the person that has it.

If you want something absolutely unique to you on your body, just let me know!  Don't forget that we now offer gift certificates, and that we have some amazing deals on at the moment.  Check out the homepage for more details!