Polar Bear Tattoo
5 Sep
I dig Polar Bears.
That made me pretty excited to get to do this tattoo.
Polar bears are a pain in the ass to tattoo because they are white and white can’t be trusted to stay in the skin over the years.
This particular client is also an outdoors type = sun abuse.
The white needed to be faked.
The trick is to pull the tattoo off with as little white as possible and use as little shade as possible to make sure it doesn’t look like a brown or black bear. It is kinda like cartoon style drawing with color tricks to make the bear and ice look white even in areas no white is used.
The result is when you glance at the bear you see white, but if you look very very close and are trying to see it you will notice that 90% of the white look in the ice and bear is actually still the clients own skin color.
A big part in this illusion is to use NO black pigment. I use only shades of grey because any tattoo with an outline is automatically registered in the eye as a blackish line and shade is blackish shade. Not using black makes the entire tattoo seem lighter than it is.
Another part of the trick is to darken some skin. If you look at the simple reflection super close you will see that the skin tone in it appears to be natural, but is in reality a tone darker than the skin surrounding the tattoo.
The only drawback in this type of tattooing is I can’t get super detailed.
Still… better a tattoo lacking a bit of detail that looks good 20 years later than a super freak detailed tattoo that looks like shit in five.
This client wanted one of my multidimensional, semi abstracted, negative space type designs.
He wanted ice and he wanted the polar bear to be getting a seal.
He found me a basic image to work from and that made it all a snap.
Polar bear themed tattoo
Polar bears live in the U.S. (Alaska), Canada, Russia, Greenland, and Norway.
Polar bear numbers are currently stable, but as the Arctic continues to warm due to climate change the numbers of polar bears drop and eventually they won’t have sufficient numbers to easily maintain existence on this planet.
Rapid loss of sea ice is the major threat. Other big threats include pollution, poaching, and industrial impact. (Sometimes I think we humans are a disease the earth must rid itself of.)
Since 2008 the U.S. Department of the Interior has listed the polar bear as a Threatened Species under the Endangered Species Act.
So far it hasn’t helped because ice melt continues and protection under the Endangered Species Act doesn’t stop humans from polluting the planet.
Don’t give a crud about polar bears?
Polar bears hold a very important spot in nature by preventing an overpopulation of seals.
Overpopulation of seals will result in lower numbers of fish.
That will result in many other imbalances, but immediate concern will be loss of one more food source for human consumption.
Think less people eating fish = people eating more of other things = higher prices for all food sources and more starving people around the world.
Want to learn about the Northern Lights?
Check this great explanation from The Library of Congress out.
