5.15.2008:
The 15-year tattoo, part 1
2:28 PMI drew the very first incarnation of this piece when I was 16 years old.
Over the years, it's seen numerous changes, incarnations, refactors and updates, all of which have increased the size and shape and concept. In between my inability to find an artist capable of handling it and my ever-growing pickiness, I always put it aside and told myself "one day..."
Well, the day has finally come. This is the product of my first sitting with Todo, tattoo artist to the stars and musicians and athletes. I am honored that he accepted the piece, and am happy as hell with the result so far:
Obviously, it's not finished yet. I go back next Friday to finalize this piece (complete the shading and coloring in the lettering and glass, then the overlay detail), as well as start on part 2 (additional chunks of the glass around the middle and bottom, wrapping around the bicep and tricep). Then, in June, I go for the final sitting to finish all detail overlay on all the glass and lettering, and fill-in behind the piece with shadow and shading, creating a full 3/4 sleeve on my left arm.
I'm extremely excited. This has been a LONG time coming.
Labels: being yourself, Joe's life, memories, tattoo
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8 Comments:
What does it mean?
Looks good so far. We'll need to see it after each step.
The first character looks something like:き (mi) upside down and the second character is obviously: ㇻ (ra)
But they're in different scripts. き is hiragana which is used for writing Japanese words and ㇻ which is used to write foreign words in Japanese.
In order to be consistent it should probably be written "きら" or "ミㇻ"
Correct on the 3rd character.
The "first one" you're seeing as one character upside down. Try seeing it as a Sumi artist's broad stroke of the characters ア and キ...
(DMH will probably go "OOOOOOOOH!" when they read this :) )
It says "アキラ”（Akira) which I assume is in honor of the anime of the same name.
To DMH: き＝Ki み＝Mi
I used to get my Hiragana mixed up all the time too. :)
Not the anime ;)
But yeah, it is Akira. Growing up, the Akira comic book series and Dave Sim's Cerebus were my two biggest influences in both art and writing (with Alan Moore and Frank Miller in the mix as well). This piece is indeed a tribute to both the story and Otomo Katsuhiro, whom I have a MASSIVE amount of respect for. Like, huge respect. Monster respect.
More than that, the "logo" you see here was done as a gift to Otomo Katsuhiro by legendary manga artist Hiroshi Hirata, who did Archer's Spirit. So, two men I respect greatly coordinating on script and design for one of the Three Big Stories of my childhood (the two I mentioned above, and Star Wars, but don't look for any boba fett's on my ankle or anything), and yeah...
There's enough respect there to pay tribute to both men by tattooing my body for the rest of my life :)
What a beautiful work of art - I'm really looking forward to seeing the final piece.
Congratulations, Joe! :)
Yeah, I see. I said "Aaaah" though ;) Well, I've not really studied that much Japanese. Just dabbled a bit in the past. I did know the hiragana at one point. But then life happened and decisions had to be made and I ended up having to choose between Japanese and Chinese. Turned out it was easier for me to get a job in China and the decision and switch was made. So my Chinese is good and I haven't made it back to Japanese yet, although I plan on tackling it in the future. And then once I was in China I found a Russian/Ukrainian girl. Fast forward to now and we're married and living in the Ukraine working on her visa. So...yeah...languages.
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