Custom Work: Part II

Apologies for my slackerness in posting this update - I'm working for two people at the moment and considering I usually barely work for one this is taking its toll somewhat, plus no internet access at home due to a shiny new flat and the crappiness of Virgin Media. Anyhoo, last week I went for my art consult with Kamil, and so without further ado may I present...

Chapter II - On the Subject of Art Consultations.

I managed (with every neurotic nerve in my body literally screaming at me to get a move on) to only be 5 minutes early for my art consultation and as soon as I arrived Kamil went bounding upstairs to get my sketch. Let me say this now: it was pretty much completely different from the design we had discussed. This is mainly due to me saying "no, seriously - do whatever" the last time I saw him. Because the design had to include a re work of my hideous snowflake tattoo that currently resides on my shoulder, (Note to self: I should really get a photo of it before I have it covered) he took the whole "winter" theme and ran with it. We'd discussed having a character, a woman with a frozen face, as the main element of my design and the sketch that Kamil showed me was an expansion of that. In short I will have a tattoo of a highly stylised comicbook ice queen stretching down the length of my back. Anyone who reads Circular Logic (or is a regular visitor to the Pajiba comments threads) will know exactly how incredibly thrilled this makes me. Like, it's a week later and the thought of it still makes me squee. He showed me how he was going to use the blank space of my skin for some incredibly nifty looking negative shading and gave me a general idea of the colour scheme he was going to use, explaining how he'd be mixing some warm tones into the background to keep the whole thing from being too harsh. We chatted about how he was planning on using pink and yellow highlights and about the way that ice fractures light and how he was going to be recreating that using ink. The final colour scheme still isn't decided yet and I'm glad about that because I'd never realised what an incredibly fluid process this whole thing is - I'm actually almost more excited about seeing the design evolve than I actually am about getting the finished tattoo.

Almost.

I was completely happy with the design, although it was different than what I'd originally pictured I could certainly tell that this was better. It has exactly the feel that I was going for when I first got my snowflake done and I'm glad that I'll be getting a design that incorporates it rather than just obliterating it - it's important to me symbolically that my big blue mistake remains on my skin. And so... I put down the rest of my deposit for my first session (more than I was asked to - I always do this with tattoos, piercings, anything - the more money I part with up front and can never get back the less likely I am to have a complete freak out and not do it) and I start work on October the 10th. I am so very, very excited. We decided on a three hour session at first which I'm a little nervous as I've never sat for more than two hours and most of that was shading which, for me at least, hurts a hell of a lot less than outline. Still, three hours is enough to get the line work finished and maybe start some of the shading so I guess this is a case of grin and bear it.

Also: three hours alone in a room with someone who's essentially hurting you? Yet another reason you have to get on with your tattoo artist.

In between now and then is the London Tattoo convention which, provided I actually get myself into gear and buy tickets for, I will be blogging about soon afterwards.