The Illustrated Man, Part 11: Grim Reaper

For tattoo number eleven, I wanted to keep going with the old school, traditional stuff. In all honesty, had Josh (the artist) stayed at Tiki Tattoo (Lacey, WA) for longer, I'd probably be covered in old school tattoos right now. He was really good with that style, and I was always pleased with the work. Anyway, this time around, I wanted to go with a grim reaper. He had a good picture of one in one of his books, but the problem was the cape for the reaper was designed to look tribal. I fucking HATE tribal work. He said he did, too, so he changed up the cape to have a more custom-yet-traditional look to it. The end result is what you see in the photo, which is located on the back of my right shoulder. I get a lot of compliments on this tattoo, and once again, the color has held up very well, despite being nearly a decade old. Currently, my artist at Brave New World Tattoo in Denver, CO, Chase Martines, has toyed with the idea of taking the cape on the reaper and extending it all the way down the length of my back. I am very much in favor of doing this, and hope to have it done within the next year or so.

The Illustrated Man, Part 10: Mr. Lucky

For tattoo #10, I decided that I wanted something on my right forearm that was similar to the on one my left forearm, keeping with old school, traditional designs. Josh (formerly of Tiki Tattoo in Lacey, WA) had me look through some work and I found I wanted to have a "Mr. Lucky"-style skull done. Once again, Josh took a rough idea, drew something up of his own based on that idea, and he put together the piece you see in the picture. He also chose the color scheme, and added a nautical star to the tattoo because I wanted one somewhere on me. Although it is hard to tell in this pic-partially because it's small and partially because the tattoo is nearly 10 years old and has faded a little (although it has actually held its color very well thus far)-this Mr. Lucky skull has three gold teeth, one on top and two on bottom. In those gold teeth are an 'X' (representing my straight edge lifestyle) and the number '13' (because, well, why the fuck not? It's a good number), respectively.

The Illustrated Man, Part 9: Straight Razor

This is the ninth tattoo I got, located on the inside of my left forearm (it is now part of a sleeve, but I'll save that for another day). Again, I wanted a more old school traditional design, something the artist was very good at. We took a look at some flash art, I picked a basic design, and then let him go to town on customizing it. It contains a straight razor wrapped in a banner. The banner contains the number '13', the traditional suits in a deck of playing cards a pair of dice rolled to snake eyes. He added some flames and a freehand design was added to the blade, and I allowed him to pick the color scheme from top to bottom. Courtesy of Josh (formerly) of Tiki Tattoo in Lacey, WA (I believe Josh moved to Hawaii and opened up shop there, but I'm not 100% positive).

The Illustrated Man, Part 6: Snake Eyes

Again, there is really no story to this piece. I simply wanted a more traditional, old school design, so I had a set of dice rolled to snake eyes done, surrounded by blue flames. I will get it touched up eventually, as I know it's in need of one. This is the sixth tattoo I got, and is located on my lower neck, between my shoulders. Tattoo courtesy of Curtis (formerly) at Tiki Tattoo in Lacey, WA.