This beautiful project has taken place over a lifetime. The original lower back tattoo was done back in 1997. We had started tattooing Carmen in 1993 when she was one of the first five people I tattooed for free so as to learn. This back piece was started to cover the lower back tattoo known as a tramp stamp these days about 2015. Kind of crazy to start out by covering up your own work from 25 years earlier, but this is a lifetime of ink.
Shown here is the before picture where we show the original cherry blossom tattoo (not mine) and the tramp stamp tattoo that we would cover up.
We also connected the back tattoo with a arm sleeve she had already. So we used the twirl sky to bridge both images together. The majority of this work has been freehand paiting in what would work well to merge the two tattoos.
No doubt that this piece for carmen will continue to grow and evolve. We work on it a few ties per year. I have yet to finish the piece with probably about 3 or 4 sessions to go. Our next work will be an exciting new art form where we tattoo white ink into and over black ink. I can't wait to showcase this new style. Look for that in August 2022.
Look for more pics and updates on this project coming August 2022