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Kneel never before another man, only before a God.

Jack travelled from Canada last month so we could tattoo his chest and arm based on a piece of artwork I did for the winter solstice 2014. It’s a piece of blackwork tattoo art drawn on paper I’m still really happy with and excited at the prospect of getting to do a tattoo inspired by it.  We had gone back and forth a few times via email about design and placement etc and all was good. There’s the obvious pressure that comes from somebody travelling thousands of miles to receive a tattoo, knowing that realistically the deadline is final. You can’t really ask them to pop back in a couple of weeks to finish off. So once Jack arrived I got him settled in explained some ideas I’d had and set about drawing them on. Unless you’re a freehand tattooer or have had some large freehand work it’s hard to explain the process and what’s going on, I mean obviously it’s one person drawing on another, but beneath that the dynamic between the two is very unique and ever changing. As I draw I’m constantly monitoring the others reaction and emotional response to what I’ve done or something I might say and it’s through this process that I’m lead to the final destination of the tattoo.

After several hours of working on Jack I think we both realised that a lunch break was needed and a reassessment of where we were going with the tattoo. Jack said he’d like a more literal take on the piece of artwork so that was our next avenue but still something wasn’t  quite right. Sat down with a cuppa we spoke about our options, I didn’t want Jack to leave without getting tattooed but I was beginning to wonder if I was the right guy for the job. You see the artwork was done on a flat piece of paper with no thought of it fitting on the human form, of course I could have modified it slightly and used a stencil to transfer it on to Jacks body but honestly there’s a plethora of tattooers that would do something like that better than me. It’s the industry standard to draw something and then stick it on somebody, I want my work to fit and flow on a person I want it to be drawn at the time it’s created because it’s in this moment when I feel I can produce my best work, not one week prior after I’ve put Marley to bed. It’s as much about the experience as the end result and I didn’t want to rob Jack of this process.

So I told Jack to have an hour or so and take a walk along the river and just contemplate where he wanted to go from here. I let him know that there was no pressure to get tattooed by me if this wasn’t working out how he expected, 45 minutes later and Jack was back at the door. He was still a little uncertain as to where we go from here but certain he wanted a tattoo by me and not something that was a stencil just to keep him happy.

When I asked him if there were any other ideas he had for tattoos or any body parts he’d like tattooing. That’s when he said it.

“Have you ever seen the stars that Russian criminals have tattooed on their knees?”

Of course I had, I once contemplated getting something inspired by them myself but knowing that I wanted a body suit prevented me from placing smaller tattoos over my body. Of course I wasn’t going to do something that looked like a Russian prison tattoo (at least in design) but that message of defiance, to never kneel before another man, that was something I would love to convey in a tattoo. So it was settled a pair of stars placed on the knees in a style similar to the artwork he originally came for.

We had our bearing, knew the direction and had the wind was blowing favourably, so I sent Jack off to his hotel to rest up ready for tomorrow when the drawing on would start again.  The next day was a completely different atmosphere the cloud of uncertainty replaced with clarity so we pushed on with a smile on our dial. Now the only headache for me was to draw identical designs next to each other, but there are far worse stresses to have in life. Constantly pushing boundaries and trying to better ourselves rarely makes for an easy life but almost always makes for a rewarding life!!!

Thank you again Jack for travelling so far to see me, I hope I made it worth your while and thank you for presenting me with such a cool idea to work from.

H

 

Hanumantra Blackwork bold strong knee tattoo un1ty uk tattooist 1
Initial rough sketch that didn’t work out.
Hanumantra Blackwork bold strong knee tattoo un1ty uk tattooist
Second rough sketch that also didn’t work out.
Hanumantra Blackwork bold strong knee tattoo un1ty uk tattooist
finally we found our way

 

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Hanumantra Blackwork bold strong knee tattoo un1ty uk tattooist5

Hanumantra Blackwork bold strong knee tattoo un1ty uk tattooist6

Hanumantra Blackwork bold strong knee tattoo un1ty uk tattooist
Kneel before another man??? Never!!!

Hanumantra Blackwork bold strong knee tattoo un1ty uk tattooist8