Friday, March 4, 2011

Ship Tattoo

I was immortalized today. There is now someone out there with my artwork tattooed on them. Jacka, a fellow blogger (check it out here) asked me to illustrate a ship for him. So I did.



When I asked 'why a ship?', he explained that, for generations, the men in his family spent most of their lives out at sea. So I want to create something swashbuckling and a little bit epic. The inspiration for the linework came a bit from ILoveDust studio. It'd be so awesome to work with those guys. ILoveDust, if you're reading, I finish honours at the end of this year. Very open.




Anyway, I felt it was appropriate to clean up the sketch and try out some colours;





These were good but perhaps a little sterile. Jacka ended up going with the sketch. I have often been apprehensive about my final output being completely hand generated becuase of the human imperfections. However, I'm beginning to notice that embracing the imperfections gets me closer to what I can call a style. Here is the tattoo in its glory,


Hi Ho Silver, AWAY!

All the best,

Mete.

5 comments:

  1. Wonderful design! Fantastic inkwork by the tattooist as well.

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  2. I've been looking at ship tattoos for the past few months, trying to find the right one. All of them are too big, too complex. Too much shading and color and noise.

    This is my favorite that I have seen so far. I think I may get something similar to this. I love that it's literal, but also whimsical.

    So, there may be two people in the world with your artwork on their body. Or a variation of it.

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  3. I guess maybe I should ask if that's okay? I'm not sure what the protocol is here!

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  4. Hey anonymous, shoot me an email at mete@metedesign.com.au and we'll go from there.

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  5. YAYYYYYY!

    I love it so much, so honoured to have it permanently etched on my booby.

    Fantastic job Mete!

    Holly (from Advanced Art Tattooing, North Fitzroy) did an amazing job turning your sketch into a reality.

    6 months on and I love it more and more everyday

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