It's been a crazy few days! I did my first realistic tattoo this week, it was hard! John helped me pick the reference photo, I worked from a black and white image so as not to get too confused...

It took me a long time but Vicky sat like a champ! John didn't sit in and watch me but he did check up on me every once in a while, mostly to tell me it wasn't dark enough at the start and then to tell me a few bits might be too dark at the end, but it turned out ok, I leant loads!!! We'll add more to it eventually so its not just a floating rose on Vickys leg, I'm so grateful she had faith in me and let me do my first realistic piece on her. I'm looking forward to doing more now, hopefully with less guidance but I know I still have loads to learn. The response has been very positive, a little overwhelming in fact!

Today I worked on a Halloween inspired piece that I've already started, its so much fun, I'm dead excited to finish it. Yesterday I worked on a sugar skull chest piece that I'd already started too, so far we've worked on the right side but we're going to extend it into a full chest piece now, so excited to do more, its going to be massive when its finished.

Tomorrow Jen and I are headed to the Tattoo Freeze convention in Telford, looking forward to a weekend of catching up with people, meeting new people and letting my hair down, its going to be fun! 

This morning I did a smaller tattoo, it was the Sues first tattoo and she wanted something small and girly so that's what we did. She was lovely and she was really happy with the final outcome, this is what makes tattooing worth while, seeing a happy customer!
I also managed to get a photo of Pauline's gypsy lady, its been in progress for a long time, Pauline has my first  tattoo (the purple rose) and its an extension of that, I've learnt loads from working on this tattoo and we're still going to add more so still more to learn...

Photo of the healed tattoo so far, thanks Pauline! :)

Yesterday I was excited to continue a tattoo I'd started just before Christmas, when Rachel came in she showed me how her tattoo had healed after the first session and it had healed unbelievably well, it was so bright!

Healed flower!

This is how far we got after a full day session, I re-lined some parts, added the leaves, coloured the top flower and got the grey on the skull, curious to see how it heals this time, I hope its just as well.

Thanks Rachel, looking forward to doing more! :) 

Todays tattoo...

Today was fun! I finished the Finding Nemo tattoo I started at the end of last year, on the first sitting I had one of those complete lack of confidence days, I really struggled, luckily Jackie was very patient and an amazing sitter (its on the inner bicep, not a nice area to have tattooed!). Jackie came all the way from Derby to get tattooed, 3 hours from the shop, it still surprises me every time someone travels so far to get tattooed by me!

Thanks Jackie! :)