Have I already used that title? I might have.
Yesterday I made a decision: I'm getting tattooed for my birthday. I've got the design for my back figured out, I can finally afford it (with some help from The Most Awesome Birthday Present Ever), and damn it, it's my birthday. I spent a couple of hours last night making a Photoshop mock-up so that I can give the artist something to work from, and now all that's left is to decide which artist that's going to be. Probably Marie Wadman, I mused last night, but I want to take a good look at Karen Roze's portfolio just to be sure. They're both in the Mission. I could stop in at both shops on my way home from work and make up my mind, so let me just go to their websites to get their addresses.
Dum de dum... Sacred Rose, Black and Blue... hang on a sec.
Marie Wadman isn't tattooing at Black and Blue anymore. Just at the moment, in fact, she isn't tattooing anywhere. She's opening up her own shop and will be taking clients when she gets it up and running... in the fall. Fall? Fall?! I said my birthday, not my half-birthday! I wanted to spend my summer photosynthesizing!
I despair. If Karen Roze's work isn't what I'm looking for, I will instead spend my summer sulking.
Edit: all right, all right. Click here to see my crappy Photoshop sketch of the design. That's blackberries on the left, tomatoes on the right, and horticultural detail and integration with my existing tattoos are being pretty much ignored at this point. I'm also still biting my nails over that top tomato, although without an appropriate artist that's the least of my worries.
Posted by dianna at March 15, 2005 10:38 AMand so the "who has the best tatoo artist" battle begins.
also, pictures of this photoshop draft? your readers are waiting in anticipation.
Posted by: marina at March 15, 2005 06:02 PMWell, hell.
Karen Roze is fine, but her style isn't what I'm looking for. Neither is anyone else in either Sacred Rose OR Black and Blue. Neither was anyone at Braindrops as of the last time I looked (that's for Michele).
So here's the call for submissions: I want to find the best damn plant artist in the greater Bay Area. I want deep, beautiful shading and eyestrain-inducing larger-than-life color. For instance? There are tomatoes in my design (Marina, I'll post the mock-up tonight if you bug me to do it). I want them looking curvy enough that you could lean over and bite into one, and bright enough that you'd want to.
If you've got a suggestion, anyone, I'm all ears. And a few tomatoes.
Posted by: Dianna at March 15, 2005 06:43 PMblack and blue had the best plant artists i'd ever seen. sorry i am no help here. and i totally admit braindrops is more of the eastern "flava" tattoo and not plants and therefore not appropriate to what you're doing. i won't pull out my "tattoo artist" to measure with.
Posted by: michele at March 15, 2005 10:30 PMp.s. holy sweet jesus you're naked.
i was expecting this to look really drastically different from your photoshop. as in...i was expecting life-size fruit and lots more different kinds. is it only going to be blackberries and tomatos and approx that size fruit?
Posted by: michele at March 15, 2005 10:32 PMI'm not sure. That sketch turned out differently than I was originally thinking of it(which doesn't speak well about my drawing abilities); it was going to be much bigger and denser, and it still might be. I'm starting to really like the delicate version, though. It's pretty.
p.s. Of course I'm naked. What did you think, I was planning to get a tattoo over my shirt?
Posted by: Dianna at March 15, 2005 10:40 PMthat's so exciting! i can't wait to see it once you get it done. i like the delicate version too. i think if you find a good artist it will be really detailed and intricate, so you might not want to take away from it with more "stuff."
Thanks! What I'm thinking of isn't really more "stuff", just more detail. I'm working on a second Photoshop thing where I'm drawing in the leaves in the way they'd actually grow, and so far I think I'm liking the results. It's looking more like a jungle, which is what tomatoes and blackberries both try to grow into, so that's nice.
Posted by: Dianna at March 16, 2005 10:38 PMOh, and Jason, who was your man on Divisadero again? Someone at Everlasting, right? I think I need to go interrogate one of the guys there. Why is San Francisco so far away?
Posted by: Dianna at March 16, 2005 10:42 PM