So, I’ve been wanting this tattoo I thought up for about 3yrs. now, and I don’t really care what anyone else thinks about it, because, after all, it’s my tattoo.
However! My twin sister really doesn’t like how in the third “box” the person’s head is cut off, and she said it would ease her opinion on the matter if I posted on a tattoo forum such as this one, and asked what other people think. She’s my best friend, so if I can make her feel better about my first tattoo, I’d like to make that happen.
It’s important to me that it’s cut off at the eyes–if you really want me to explain that, or anything else about why I chose this design, just ask–and I don’t think it looks bad aesthetically.
But, I’m posting to ask any of you lovely people if you think the third “box” looks, aesthetically, jarring??
Thanks for reading, if you did.
Apart from my general lack of enthusiasm for that tattoo, I actually agree with your sister. Whereas the first two pictures show a face, the third one shows some chin and a torso. It looks like it was done wrong… like when you hand your kids the camera and they go crazy and half the picture only show half the stuff 🙂
PREPARE FOR PRETENTIOUSNESS
The first face is Napoleon Bonaparte. My favourite author is Dostoyevsky, and in his books he uses Napoleon as a symbol for greatness, and not just greatness but aspiring to greatness despite your human flaws. Transcending your “mortal coil” and all its shortcomings, so to speak. I’ve also always thought of myself as having a Napoleon complex. 🙂
The second face is the painting “The Scream”, which I’m sure you’ve seen before. Although everyone knows it, a lot of people don’t know it’s an illustration of existential angst. It’s my fave painting, because existentialism is my outlook on life.
And the half-face is the half-face of a member of Manic Street Preachers, probably my favourite band of all time. It’s certainly the band I most look up to as people/heroes/whatever. I wanted to cut him off at the eyes though because I don’t want him to represent just himself, this particular member, but the whole band. Especially because the rest of the members are as equally as important to me. And cutting people off at the eyes also depowers them, if you know what I mean? The leopard-print is an iconic fashion choice for the band so that’s why I don’t feel bad showing more of that and less of the face.
If anyone asks me in real life what it means I’ll say it’s too complicated, haha.
Anyway. Now that I’ve written that out, I feel like I seem slightly crazy, don’t I? Maybe I should listen to my sister and just put his face…
So you want to get those three images side by side as your tattoo? I’m not really feeling the whole concept either but I have a feeling you’re going to get what you want anyway. I don’t like the cut off face, it just doesn’t look right to me. No offense but it seems like you’re putting way too much thought into this or actually trying to incorporate too much philosophical meaning into the tattoo. Especially when you’re talking about band members meaning so much to you and cutting off eyes to depower them, you’re taking things too far. I agree with ArniVidar in that at least the first two have a face but overall this just doesn’t go together. You’re creating a tattoo, not a thesis for a philosophy degree.
Pretentiousness achieved.
Now, although I understand your reasoning for each picture, I see some flaws in your thinking (if it were applied to me, obviously).
First off, although Dostoyevsky did indeed write about Napoleon, Napoleon is no more a beacon for existentialism than I am. He was a power-crazed lunatic tyrant, hell-bent on controlling the world. There is greatness, and then there is insanity. You might just as well choose any of the other power-hungry tyrants of the world history as Napoleon. Hitler, for instance, had very noble goals of uniting the planet under one rule, just as Napoleon did. He also brought about incredible changes in technology and science, without which we as a race would be much less evolved than we are today. The only real difference was that he was slightly more twisted in his head.
For me, if I were going to celebrate Dostoyevsky, I’d do so with something more significantly ‘his’.
Secondly, The Scream.. to each his own, but I always try to keep angst away from my ink. I have enough angst in my life on a day-to-day basis without putting it in my ink as well. 🙂
Third, the MSP piece. Of all the things you could choose to represent the Manic Street Preachers, you choose Richey Edwards’ sliced head? Really? The nose, cheeks and a chin of a guy presumed dead for 16 years and that may well have ended with his head cut off is somehow representative of the band and their music? No. It represents some deep psychosis. And cutting off the top of the head at eye level to de-power a picture… de-power A PICTURE.. that’s just more crazy talk.
Fourth and last, the combination of the three.
As a wise man said, you appear to be trying to cram 10 lbs. of crap into a 5 lbs. bag. Somehow you seem to be wanting to create a tattoo of ‘you’, incorporating way too many different concepts to ever work. Your solution; to have three separate pictures side by side, as if they were framed there.
And the frame brings another problem. It’s rectangular. It’s made out of 90° corners and straight lines. Straight and accurate can never be achieved on your skin. Only maybe one body position in a million could ever see a true rectangle. The rest of them would distort the ‘frame’ and would be seriously obvious, especially with three identical frames side by side. Think of it this way: In your hall you have three equally sized frames hanging on the wall. Every time you pass them, one of them is hanging crooked. So you fix it and move on. The next time you walk by, you find another picture hanging crooked and fix that. But they’re constantly moving and you’re constantly aware of the fact that they’re crooked, but you can’t do anything to sort them out. That, alone, would drive me bonkers 🙂
Your idea isn’t A tattoo. It is three tattoos side by side. So why not think of them as three tattoos? Why not just give yourself time and create one good tattoo out of each of your ideas and get a bigger and better result? I guarantee you that in the long run, you will be much happier with the result.
Hi
From a purely art point of view you are going to struggle to make all 3 images flow into one tattoo. You could have each one done as a singular piece which would make it easier.
What you are suggesting is not impossible but with the boxes you are creating boundaries that the brain would read as being separate piece of art no matter how close they are together.
Perhaps you should consider having them flow into a montage of portraits?
I too love the manics but I am seriously not a fan of the pop art style of partial faces. I have seen that image on many a T-shirt and frankly it would suck as a tattoo as would look unfinished and certainly clashes with the other 2.
Nice concepts but seriously reconsider the design ethos.
Take Care
Matthew
I agree with your sister. The the third picture itself just looks… awkward. I also dont like the three framed pictures idea for the reasons stated above, and the fact that it wouldnt really flow with your body (its going to have to be somewhat large to get all that detail in there). I think if you are intent on getting those pictures, incorporate them together and make it flow.
Also, dont place too much emphasis on the meaning of the tattoo. Your priority should be to get a good looking tattoo. A crappy looking tattoo with alot of meaning is still a crappy tattoo.
Sorry for not replying for a couple days, I haven’t had a chance to do anything but work, go to school, and do homework until this evening really. I appreciate everyone’s response, and maybe a few of you will be relieved that after receiving such a hugely negative reaction to my idea, I think I’m just gonna go with my second idea for a tattoo for now. (My sister will be happy, lol.)
In particular, I never really thought about what ArniVidar brought up–that the straight lines of the shapes would never look straight to me. I’m probably OCD but I never thought of that myself, neither did my sister, and I know I would go crazy looking at it now that I do think about it.
Also, after hearing the negativity on this design, I think it would be best, as some of you pointed out, to just have these three exist as separate different tattoos, and the Manics one I’ll rethink entirely. No cutting off. In any case, it’s going to be shelved for a while. (Although Arni, if you don’t think Richey represents the Manics or their music well–all I can say is that The Holy Bible isn’t your fave album, is it? 😛 Also, Napoleon is not at all comparable to Hitler or similar disgusting excuses for leaders. This argument is not a new one and it would be futile to get into one with you on a tattoo forum, but keep in mind that every democracy in the world founded itself on the Napoleonic Code. If you want to debate more PM me.)
I will say that I resent Adler’s comment about a “thesis for a philosophy degree”, as a side. I’m not trying to be smart. I just think a lot. I think too much for my well-being.
I know where you’re coming from. You just have to think about the tattoo as art. It doesn’t matter how much something means to you and that you want to cram everything meaningful into that one tattoo….. if it’s going to look like shit, you’re not going to be happy with it. Take your time with it and find a way to work some or most of what’s meaningful into a design that will look good on it’s own. By that, I mean that a tattoo should look good with or without any meaning.
P.S: Initially, I thought I wouldn’t care too much about the opinion of anonymous posters on a board about something as personal as a tattoo. But now I’ve seen how vocal and honest you all are, maybe you have some opinions on my second idea for a tattoo. It would go on my left arm, and be about 9cm across, starting from the crook of my elbow:
It’s the name of the little band I have with my sister. Even if we change the official name, it’ll always be our codename for it. We refer to our aspiration as “our underground dream”. It’s a phrase from a novel.
A little plain, but heh, a much more simple meaning.
You must be logged in to create new topics.
