Hello all, I finally bit the bullet and got my first tattoo. I would love to pretend that it went easy, but it was 5 hours of pain. I would like to think that it was well worth it. I absolutely love japanese tattoo and wanted to do a half sleeve on my left arm.
I chose a koi dragon and brought my design to Jeff at sinkin ink, located in Hamilton Ontario Canada. He created something that was above my expectations, as I told him to do what would look good. Yesterday, he put 5 hours of his time into my tattoo, and I am pleased with the progress so far.
I need to finish the shading on both sides of my arm still, and I need to add color to the koi. Any suggestions on the color welcomed, as I am having difficulty deciding.
Any comments or critiques, appreciated!
Wow thanks for the comments. I am so pleased with it. I will be extending the black shading on the sides next month as well as coloring the koi. I really want it to look like a koi that is just starting to morf into the dragon as it is what I am aiming for.
My fear with the blue is that it will be more of a dragon than a koi. As you can see the fins are just starting to morf and the face obviously.
I was thinking of darker oranges like copper and brass yellow, more dirty colors so to speak to give it an edge while still looking like the koi.
Perhaps I should look online more for some turquois colors to view.
I appreciate the comments alot. Tattoos are forever and I am so nervous to make a wrong choice.
Now I just got to figure out what to do on the back of my arm. He doesnt want to complete the shading on the sides until I decide, so I am not waisting space with just black shading.
He is sucha great artist, I would recommend him to anyone
ok so i go this Friday for my second sitting. I have worked the colors out and we are going traditional koi colors, however, going with coppers, and darker yellows. the scale work is going to be oranges, black, yellow and the beards are going to be yellows and red. Should be really sick, darker than a normal koi tattoo to look a little tougher.
Now I have also added for the back of my arm a japanese lantern with kanji symbol for family. Should look good, adding the rest of the black background as well.
Now quick question, I am thinking about extending this down to my elbow to complete the half sleeve. Do you think I should add the windbars etc to the bottom, or just leave it the length that it is???
I like that alot, I agree with orange on the koi and maybe running into a darker orange/red on the dragons head, I’d definately put some blue, in the water and leave that wind/air bar across the middle open to break it up a bit. Persoanlly I think it will look better with hits of clour rather than full on saturation/block colouring.
Nice one, let us see the finished result.
not to late. Im more confused this week than ever before. I am leaning towards either yellows and green for the beards, or yellows and reds for the beards.
As for the koi, copper, orange, yellow, red. I saw a green koi head with the first part of the koi in green and back half in orange that was cool as well.
I am doing the back of my arm with blue japanese lantern and red writing and then lots of black background.
I just wish I could decide on the color, it is drivng me crazy.
I appreciate all of the comments thus far, thanks so much.
I will post the result on Friday
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