So, these are a little out of the ordinary for me. My tattoo artist Esther Gracia and I have been working out how to finish off my right arm from the elbow to the wrist. We tossed around a lot of ideas over the last few months, until finally landing on this “cigar box” idea. The idea being objects you would find in an old cigar box or drawer, each object complimenting the last while evoking a kind of antique/precious feel to them. It’s a bit hard to explain really, but it all comes out of my obsession with symbology and how a singular object can have a very abstract meaning for different people. Think of it as a personal rebus that has no beginning or end. The list of objects is growing by the day, but so far includes beetles, moths, nails, seeds, samaras, bones, wishing lures, a hornet, broken bird’s eggs, antique coins….and well, the list goes on and on.
The problem being, these aren’t particularly easy things to make tattooable. We are trying to evoke an antique engraving style, while still allowing them to hold up as tattoos over the years. So inspired by every Harter clipart dover collection book under the sun and tattoo artists like Guy Le Tattooer, we have adopted this kind of pointillism technique that is a bit foreign to both Esther and myself.
She has been doing some amazing drawings for the project and some even more amazing tattoos. But to help her on the workload of drawing a million tiny things, I have been trying to draw some of the objects myself in the style that she has come up with (seen above), and let me tell you…it’s not easy. Everything needs to be so graphic and simplified to make them work as tattoos, it’s the complete opposite of how my brain usually wants to draw things.
Below is the first piece we collaborated on for the sleeve. It still needs some work, but really came out stunning.
