Catwoman!

Catwoman done yesterday by Jess. Thank you George for always giving her something awesome to work on! 

Thriller Baby!

Jess did this one about a month back, finally had a chance to post it!

The first of the Halloween Charity Tattoos

Jess has finished the first three of the seven classic monsters.  She has been squeezing these designs in wherever she can (that means no waiting till August 2012), and doing them for $100 each!  All of the money raised is going to the Buffalo City Mission.  Each of the designs have been spoken for and are scheduled to be done in the next few weeks.  We will post photos as they are finished!

Many of you may recognize the quote from the Monster Squad movie back in the late 80's.  Eric and I thought it was so perfect we had to add it on. 

The Wolfman was the second character I was able to do.  Eventually, Irene and I may add on the rest of his body and mimic the the classic movie poster this was inspired from.

Color portraits are so much fun to do, I wish I did them more often! We added the bats and background just to finish things off a bit. 

New Finished Work By Jess

 Cannan came to me with the pink flower and waves on the top of his arm already done.  We had a great time adding all of the rest. Thank you so much Cannan! You are a great friend. 

Jewelry / Birdie / Poppy action! This is the first part to the design we have planned. The rest will continue down her arm and include more flowers and vintage jewelry. I can't wait to finish the rest. 

 When Randy comes in I know I will get to do something truly strange, he always keeps me on my toes. This is our Statue of Liberty tribute. I had a lot of fun with her. 

This is Pete's tribute to his Sicilian heritage. We took the Trinacria (the symbol of Sicily found on the Sicilian flag) and put our own spin on it. It is a head of a Gorgon (same as Medusa), whose hair is interwoven with snakes and ears of wheat. The wheat symbolizes fertility. The symbol on her forehead of the three legs symbolizes the three promontories of Sicily. I have never done a heritage tattoo that was so fierce. 

Simple rose tribute. Just clean fun. 

Stargazer lilies on the back. These have become one of my favorite flowers to tattoo - there is so much variation in their color! I had a lot of fun with this. 

Some new (and some not so old) work by Jess

A traditional phoenix with a twist, this was a ton of fun to work on.  Obviously filled with a bunch of symbolism, the subject matter all worked well together.  Most people lean toward doing the phoenix in color, lots of reds and oranges, but this was an awesome break from the norm.  Thanks to Steve for letting me have fun with it! 

Peter's back has been a project that we have worked on for over the last two years.  It was both exciting to be done and be able to snap some photos, and sad to have finished and know that our sessions were over.  After so long in the chair, I think of Peter as both friend and family.  During our last appointment we figured out that in total her had spent almost 3 whole days of his life in the chair.  It was definitely a large project!  I had a great time doing the work and am truly honored to have done it.  Perhaps a bodysuit will be in his future.

Brian found a photo of a cross with wings that he liked.  We tweaked the background and pushed the colors to make it as bright as possible.  It was a blast to work on.  Thanks Brian! 

This was Katherine's first tattoo.  She sat like a champ and we finished it all in one sitting.  It was great to work in such a painterly way - I found the whole process to be very intuitive - very much like doing artwork other than tattooing.  I forget what that's like sometimes!

Sexy Grim Reaper!!!  Pin - Ups are pure fun.  Whether classic, sexy style or modern and stylized like this one they are always full of sass.  Kevin came in with a few vague ideas of how he wanted her to look and we went from there.  We both wanted more color than a traditional reaper so red became the obvious choice for the cloak. 

Kristen's half sleeve was inspired by all of her musical influences.  When she first came to me with this idea she had a stack of references and ideas.  At first we struggled with finding a solution that didn't involve covering her arm in band logos.  In the end we used a few and incorporated them with other elements, lyrics and other symbolism, to tie the whole piece together. 

It was quite the process to lay everything out and I think I had a migraine after one of her appointments, but it was worth every bit of discomfort.  Kristen is a fierce chic and this design fits her personality perfectly.  It was a fun collaboration and I hope to work on her right arm in the future. 

Ken and I had done the buffalo a while back and now we thought that it needed to be expanded upon. We added the lettering and decoration to enlarge the whole piece.  I never get sick of doing "Buffalo" inspired tattoos.

Anyone who knows me knows that I am obsessed with Halloween.  When George told me he wanted a Jack - O - Lantern, I think I may have screeched like a school girl, kind of embarrassing.  I still have a whole list of Halloween stuff I would like to do if anyone is interested.  I promise I will keep my composure.

It happens often where clients come in with an awesome conceptual idea and no idea as to how to execute it.  Sometimes this gap between idea and finished design stems from the limitations of the tattoo medium.  Sometimes it stems from a client's desire to put too much into a small design.  Either way it can be a struggle to come up with a satisfying plan.

When Pete came in with this idea I knew I could have some fun with it - just not sure exactly how.  Thank god he trusts me.  As it turned out, it was a tough concept to put together.  In the first few sketches the skull did not come across as much as I wanted - it just looked like a bunch of random pieces of glass.  It took some tweaking, but in the end it worked out just the way we talked about.  I really enjoyed the challenge and am thankful for the inspiration.

Garrett came to me wanting a tattoo for his children.  He chose feathers and flowers to symbolize them.  It caps off the top of his arm and perhaps it will grow someday if his family does.  I love when people think outside of the box.  We could have easily done their names and zodiac symbols, but this holds much more meaning. 

Tattoos and Piercings for a good cause

Just recently we were approached by a student from Depew High School in participating in an event to raise money for a good cause.  Lydia Matuch was a junior at Depew when she passed away from cancer.  Her classmates came up with an interesting idea to raise money for a scholarship fund created in Lydia's name.  Their campaign was coined "Dare to Remember Lydia".  How it worked was a student would dare a teacher to do something they would normally not do.  The teacher would then tell the student how much money that would need to be raised for the scholarship fund for the dare to be completed.  This year one teacher decided to get a tattoo and two teachers decided to get their nostrils pierced.  So far the tattoo and one of the nostrils have been pierced and we are waiting for the final teacher to come in so we can complete our end.  We were more than happy to donate our time to this.  There are fund raisers going on all the time, but someone was really using their head when they came up with this concept.

Depew High School teacher Jill Snuszka getting a tattoo on her ankle by Jess.

Close - up of Jill's tattoo in progress. 

The finished design. 

Some of Jessica's recent work.

The character in the center of the heart means 'soul mates', while the other two sets of characters are the names of my client and his wife. We placed it on the left side of his chest - roughly over his heart.

While most of the time I try to discourage such signs of affection because I usually end up covering them up, this seemed absolutely fitting for my client Bill. Him and his wife are one of the cutest couples I have ever known. Being around them brings a smile to my face every time and I am truly glad to have gotten to know them over the last few years. 

Portraits are one of my very favorite tattoos to do, I just wish this one was not a memorial.

 None the less, it was an honor to do. 

GYPSY SKULL!! This was so much fun.  This was Sandy's first tattoo, on her ribs, and she sat like a champ.  She was even able to hold a conversation with me the whole time. Tough chic!

Perhaps someone will let me do a male version of this piece someday. (hint, hint. anybody?)

John's arm was a pleasure to work on. The whole piece was designed around the koi pond that he has built at home. He came to me with just the outline of the red koi. We added all of the background, flowers, rocks, water and the other koi. The whole project took six sittings.

Everyone can agree that Grandparents are a very important part of one's  life. In this case Scott decided to show the world how important by getting this Military Era portrait tattooed on the top of his arm. Scott is a really great kid and I enjoy working on him whenever I can. Especially, if it means tattooing something cool like this!

A simple rose for the family

Jess and her client found a fun way of incorporating initials into the design without making it look like alphabet soup.  Simple, pretty and elegant. 

St. Michael and some cover ups

There is not a person in the shop who doesn't love what they do, but when work seems more like just hanging out with friends and listening to good music it is even better. When we get to see someone multiple times for a larger piece, they become like family. When that piece is finished it is bittersweet - it's rewarding to know that we are finally finished, sad that it is the end. Here are a few larger projects Jess has just finished.

Shawn wanted a depiction of St. Michael leading God's armies against Satan and his uprising. The lettering you may recognize from the movie The Boondock Saints. Shawn's dry humor kept me in stitches and forced us to break more than a few times just so I could control my laughter. 

Cover up before.

Stephanie had a bit of a mess on her back that we covered up with cherry blossoms. I love how this wraps along her collar bone. Steph sat like a rock yet was one of the nicest, sweetest people and so much fun to work with. 

Greg had an old "Dirty Dick" tattoo that he wanted covered up. Dirty Dick is a huge part of Buffalo's tattoo history and it is amazing how many people he made his mark on. We covered up his traditional, off center eagle with Ghost Rider. Greg was so laid back and easy to work on. I look forward to his future appointments. 

Halloween!

Maybe it's the handfuls of candy or the spiked cider, or perhaps it's just all of the creativity associated with the holiday, but like most other artists we are slightly obsessed with Halloween. What other holiday celebrates individuality and creative thought? When else can you find skulls and bats and zombies hiding in plain sight? It is such a fun time... 

 Here are a few pieces Jess has done in the last week or so that have celebrated the creepy and quirky. 

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Precious Little Girls

Derek came to us a while back wanting to do two portraits of his daughters. As his appointment neared, he found himself with unflattering, blurry reference photos for Jess to work with. She offered to have him bring the little ones in so that we could take some shots. After propping the girls up and talking about Dora the Explorer for a little while we were finally able to get some useable reference pictures. Here are the finished products done on two separate appointments.