Good Wood Tattoo

The tattoo no one thought could be done.

I’m fortunate enough to tattoo in one of greatest tattoo city’s in the world, San Francisco, It is home to some of the best artists and biggest egos coming out of the Industry. It can be just as disappointing meeting your heroes as it is finding out their work ethics.

A lot of my business comes from people being told that their tattoo can’t be done or the artists won’t do it. Their ideas are just on the side of bizarre or just a little out of the ordinary. Nothing that would or should be deemed un-tattooable.

I guess the goal for every tattoo artists is to do work they love doing and nothing else. I myself don’t want to tattoo barbwire arm bands and baby names all day but I’m always up for a challenge.

The Idea:

This person wanted his arm to look like it was growing into a tree from his mid-forearm up his neck and then have his family members Initials carved into the bark.

He was told that it couldn’t be done and it would look weird. Another shop told him that you need to start it with some kind of symbol because a sleeve with to points going away from each other isn’t smart.

It is a little bizarre but I thought it would be a cool challenge to use black and gray to show texture and make the skin appear to look like weathered bark.

The most challenging part was that he needed both arms done in a month before he moved back to Southern California.