It’s been a busy week at Icon, and I should definitely have more to show you than I do – my camera needs to be charged, so everything I have to share either came from my photo-saving coworker Betty or are low-quality iPhone and iPad photos. Be that as it may, I have some really exciting new stuff to show you!
I did these cute scissors on yet another Kirsten (the third I’ve met in Portland! All so nice!). I love these and I love her blog project from the past year, Dollar Dress Friday. The tattoo was her way of marking the project’s culmination, and I was so stoked to do it; you may or may not know I love sewing, but I do (I have 3 sewing tattoos myself!). Funnily, so far all the Kirstens have been getting tattoos that feel would eerily spot-on for me, too. How about that.
I also got to work on this super fun project. It’s on Michelle, the only other recipient of a tattoo of sewing shears from yours truly! Michelle is also my middle name, adding to some name coincidences in my life lately. This is her new tattoo, a compass with a cute pink pencil incorporating flourish from a big gold candleholder in her childhood home. The line from the pencil loops around and integrates with an extant tattoo by someone else of a heart-shaped button, and threads (ha-ha, “threads,” get it?) through into a needle on her inner forearm. It’s a little confusing to photograph but it looks so cute in real life, and Michelle is SO fun to work with. I’m really proud of this piece, and excited to get to do some black and grey!
This weird fish is an anglerfish. She now lives on my dear friend Vanessa’s inner arm, and boy, does she ever need some braces. Vanessa has a bunch of sea life tattoos from me, but this guy is kind of a creature unto herself! Not only do they look super weird, but anglerfish have some pretty strange mating habits, as we discovered while looking through reference photos. The males are far smaller than the females, and only the females have those funny little lanterns. That is not the strange thing about their mating habits. You have to go read that somewhere else because it’s kind of gross and amazing. Vanessa and I both like how they always look confused, and she pointed out that the lantern makes it look like the fish is constantly chasing a carrot on a string. Such a weird animal and so fun to tattoo – totally unlike any other creature! Well, except maybe other crazy disfigured cave- & deep-sea-gremlins. Sorry for the crappy photo quality, but I really had to share. When I look at it, I can’t stop making funny noises in my head that I imagine such a weird gnashy-looking mouth would make.
Today I covered up an old Chinese character on Megan’s neck with some lovely autumn leaves. She wanted something that reminded her of playing in the fall leaf piles with her brothers as a kid, and I love that idea! Especially since Texas has mostly pathetic autumn leaves (it has other strengths, okay?). It was so fun to work with her and hear about her awesome writing job! I really enjoyed this tattoo.
This little rose tattoo is inspired by some imagery from beautiful vintage cardstock. I did this on Nikee, and it looks like we might be doing some trade in the future! She was such a delight to tattoo and I love how these roses, if not the picture, came out. The pink is actually quite vibrant, but who’d know from the photo? Oh well – healed pictures later, I hope!
I’ll be back in a few days with a sneak peek of a big Pacific-Northwest-themed thigh piece on Icon’s lovely shopgirl and my friend, Candace! Unless I posted it already and forgot, which is actually totally possible, but I don’t think it’s the case. We also did a Friday the 13th flash day this past week, which I only half-assedly participated in (I already had appointments that day, and squeezed some in whenever I could to help out, but didn’t get a chance to do any flash myself), but it was a super fun albeit crazy day. I ended it by tattooing some really cute tiny arrows from a vintage Eames print on my extra-awesome cousin (and fellow Icon employee) Kari. And that, my friends, was also awesome. Because EVERYTHING IS AWESOME AND BEAUTIFUL (I think I just said both of those words about 14 times each in this blog post).
I do want to tell you all that myself and the ladies at the shop are plotting a Twin Peaks flash day soon. Really soon. I’ll keep you posted because I bet some of you are almost as excited as we are!
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