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This is my tattoo of a geisha. The geisha were not prostitutes as most people tend to think, more like glorified hostesses. This picture was part of a series with the four seasons (summer). There really should be cherry blossoms in the tattoo as well, but maybe later. I also feel this is not finished yet. I would like to have the box colored and the samisun filled in as well.
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Here is my very first tattoo!!! It is hard to see, (I know you are thinking what the hell am I talking about!!!) but it is the small writing to the right of the samurai. I went to a tattoo shop when I was young and thought I would try it out and see how I liked it. It was so small that if I ended up not liking it I could change it or ignore it. That one little tattoo lead to the samurai. The original tattoo "artist" did such a crappy job, that a few years later I had to have it fixed. The origin of this particular samurai is that his name was Miyamoto Musashi. His picture is based on a wood block print from the 1800s. Miyamoto was an undefeated samurai and lived in the 15/16th century. He had many duels in his lifetime, and when he was still quite young, decided to fight with two wood swords to make the fight more challenging. Still he won. Much later in life he retired, weary from war and fighting, became a Buddhist monk. He was a poet and artist. One of his most famous works was a book called "the Book of Five Rings". Essentially a book on sword play, but later interpreted as a book on strategy and even how to live ones life. The tattooed writing is the chapter title of each of the five books. They are "ground", "water", "fire", "wind" and "nothing" (or void - a Buddhist concept).
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This of course has to be my favorite so far. The monk is based on a Michael Whelan print. He has done cover art for science fiction books and is known mostly for his fantasy prints. I wanted to have the floating monk in front of a sun with the flames out stretched. This is my most favorite because the detail an shading are so excellent. I highly recommend my tattoo artist (Stephen Bat) and he now runs his own shop Capital Tattoo here in Edmonton, I will be sure to include a link for you when he has a website up and running! |
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Most recently I have had Stephen design a dragon to go with my Japanese theme. He has done a great job and it looks fantastic up close, and I still have 4 hours left for this portion. I like that he was the most receptive to my requests, I did not want an evil looking dragon (but not "Puff either ;-) and asked for the Japanese dragon characteristics. |
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