Good evening, everyone.
I’m Mina. I’m 24 and have wanted a tattoo since I was sixteen but out of respect to the permanency of it I have put it off. I am a bit of an artist (nothing great) and when I was sixteen I designed a tattoo around the relationship between myself and my best friend.
Little did I know, at the time, that in four years I’d be lucky enough to marry my best friend and four years after that I’d have his son! 😀
The design sat in a drawer for all those years and I just recently pulled it out. After all this time I still love it (mostly) and have finally decided that since it’s been eight years and I still like it it’s probably safe to go ahead and get it.
My husband has three tattoos but he’s really not much help in the way of guiding me to what to look for in a good artist to help clean up my design and elaborate it the way I feel it needs to be done.
This will probably be my only tattoo and it’s very special/important to me so I want it to be perfect (not to mention the fact that I can’t undo it either). The problem is, I am picky though willing to put my faith and trust in a good artist provided I can find him or her and have the chance to really work with the design until it is, in my mind, flawless.
The question is: who is the gifted artist whom I will have the honor of choosing for my first (and probably only) tattoo? And how do I find him or her?
So, that’s my story as to why I’m here.
I’ve been doing research for days now. I’ve waited eight years for this tattoo, I’m willing to wait eight more and go to far off lands (not to mention pay good money) in order to get it right.
What is the tattoo of (style wise) and which part of the world are you in?
I am sure I can dig up a few sample artists.
Take Care
Matthew
Don’t know if I could put pictures up here or not but here we go…
Like I said, this piece was designed around my friendship with my husband.
The yin yang has always had special meaning for me. I’ve always loved the fact that it is two parts, separate but completing one another with pieces intertwined. I also love its astronomical origins as I have always been fascinated and a bit of an amateur astronomer.
The pieces of this yin yang stand side by side rather than top and bottom to symbolize our standing beside one another through everything, neither dominating the other.
The pieces are not touching because at the time (and to this day) we have always been very individual and separated by many things, including distance, war and the regular separations that occur with the military. It symbolizes our ability to be our own persons.
But we will always carry pieces of each other with us. I am a Pisces, he is a Libra. Even though we don’t believe in astrology, it was a long running tradition that he would either call me or email me from wherever he was in the world and read me our horoscopes. It was just something goofy that meant a lot to me because it meant he was thinking of me no matter what. That is why I used our astrological symbols instead of the dots.
Our birth stone colors are both blue so I’ve used them in the coloring of the pieces.
The tribal, budding flower behind it represents our meeting in youth and how we have grown together. I also made it “grow” to connect both of our symbols to symbolize our connection.
We have been best friends since I was sixteen. I knew that even if our friendship dwindled and died I always wanted to remember him and all the love and support he gave me as my friend. I designed the tattoo more as a tribute to our friendship before we even got together. It kind of surprised us both when we ended up getting together and getting married.
Forgive me if the terminology is not correct.
1. The center piece and focal point of the tattoo is the yin yang, and even though I am very aware that the yin yang has Asian origins I really want to stay away from the Asian style.
2. I want to get it between my shoulder blades, above the bra-strap line and below the neck so that it’s visible only when I want it to be but can be the focal point if I purposely wear a backless dress, etc.
3. I am not happy with my version of the tribal and it doesn’t even have to be tribal. I just threw that in there as a filler but I’ve never been happy with it and this is where I need a more experienced artist to help me. I want something around the yin yang, preferably some kind of flower or representation of a flower but I’m not sure how I want it and need a good artist to help elaborate here.
4. When I think of adjectives to describe how I want the finished product to look words like, “elegant”, “beautiful”, “tasteful”, “charming”, “simple” and “touching” come to mind. I want to stay FAR away from bold, cartoon, flashy, gaudy, etc. I want to be able to proudly display this if I were to be dressed in a backless opera dress and have it compliment me, my attire and the occasion. When people see it I want them to think, “What a piece of art” rather than, “Wow, that’s a tattoo!” If that makes any sense.
5. I live in the Des Moine area of Iowa and we just moved here in February so I don’t know anyone (especially none with tattoos) and I am still very unfamiliar with the area.
Like I said, I know there’s an artist out there who can wow me and give me what I want (there are probably several) I just want to be sure I’ve found the right one.
In my opinion (and please note that this is a non-professional opinion and just an opinion :)), I love the whole concept of the Yin Yang, but I think the zodiacs would look better if they were inside a ‘dot’. Maybe just use the two blues, so there’s dark background, light dot, dark zodiac, and vice versa. Then of course add some shading and contrast to make it come alive.
Also, the ‘tribal’ detracts from the tattoo and I am glad that you are not happy with it either. IMO I’d go for beautiful but simple flowers. Thin stalks/stems (whatever the correct English word is for it) and elegant but simple flowers, and some leaves. I think that would transform the concept from “That’s a tattoo” to “That’s art”.
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