It is super cool that I have an international clientele.
People come from all over the world to get tattoos from me and that makes me feel pretty darn good.
It especially makes me feel good because I am not always easy to find… so sometimes people need to really hunt.
On the other hand it causes me a problem.
I love to see the finished product.
A tattoo isn’t really finished until it reaches 6 months to a year in age.
It changes a lot during those months and I do my tattoos for that finished look.
When people travel from far away to get tattoos from me I very seldom see them again.
That means I rarely get to see my finished (healed and aged) tattoos.
I’d guess at least half o the work I do is from out of state and about 15% is from out of the country.
Cool… but it sucks I don’t get to see the finished tattoo and know the client is happy.
Sometimes though A client sends me a picture.
Super cool!

This picture was sent along with a thank you note from the client. It shows off her reverse image sailing tattoo I had done for her about a year previous.
I cropped the image to not show the faces… but still I am sure you can all get the idea of the picture.
The client was nice enough to think of me a year plus later when she saw the tattoo on her back and sent this picture along with a super nice note.
Images of my work in real life situations are my favorite.
Much better than just a close up of the tattoo to me.
It is one of he reasons I tattoo.
Unlike paintings…. Tattoos move.
They travel the globe and all different sorts get to view my art.
So…
about the tattoo.
The client travels and races sail boats. It is her hobby.
She was in Australia when she got hold of me to set up the work so I was actually confused when I found she was from DC.
Anyways… I can’t recall the type of sailboat, but she was very specific and sent me some pictures.
She also described how they turned.
I ended up watching some videos to really get a feel for it and then I went to work.
She was interested in my multi dimension reverse image color style stuff and wanted something centered on her back.
She didn’t care to much about how much I utilized the negative space as long as I used it and she wanted some bright colors.
Besides that she let me go with it.
The design was done with no rough work. It came together very easy.
She loved it.
The actual tattoo took about 6 hours.
I took a picture, but it came out shiny.
I will however share anyway…

The not very good picture I took of the multi dimension reverse image sailing tattoo when it was fresh done.
The coolest part of this tattoo is kinda hidden.
You will notice the base shape of the entire design is a copy of the primary boat.
The entire right side color wedge is a sail… but the super sweet part is in the water.
The entire boat is there.
I worked the boat into the water so as to not be easy to notice or distract from the waves, but the whole thing is there.
It was extremely fun.
Now for some extras…..
A couple semi famous quotes that I particularly like involving the wind and sails:
First ~ From William Arthur Ward…
The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails.
And second ~ From Jimmy Dean…
I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.
You gotta admit… Those quotes rock!
Now a fun fact ~
Have you been Minding Your P’s and Q’s?
I sure hope you have. We have all heard this saying before , but who the heck knows what it really means and where it came from?
People pretty much use the Minding Your P’s and Q’s saying nowadays to imply that you are on your best behavior.
They really don’t know what the P or the Q stands for though.
The saying comes from old navy sailors.
The “P” is for pea jackets and “Q” is for the officers queues (pig-tails, wigs).
When it was time for inspections they had best have their P’s and Q’s in order!