Hi, I am looking to get part of a Japanese style sleeve covering my forearm area and upper inner arm. I know from pics the style of tattoo I am looking for but I am wondering how do you go about designing Japanese sleeve work? My artist has said to call in with some pics of designs I want so I am goignt o try design something myself over the coming weeks. Thing is though I am not sure how people design sleeves. Do you just take ideas you see and put them all together? I know I would like dead flowers in my tattoo which I guess is my own sort of customization but generally I just want to take ideas I see on other people that I like and put it on my own arm. So things like waves which are very common on sleeves and shaded rays I like. Do I just write down all of these ideas and print as many pics as I can before going in to my artist with all this stuff and then he draws something out?
Thanks
I just had my sleeve finished. With traditional Japanese tattoos there are rules. I have a snake, peonies, a toad, a hannya, and water. The elements of my tattoo are all related to the summer season and water. I didn’t get cherry blossoms because when they bloom the snake would still be hibernating. Certain animals go with certain flowers in certain seasons. Certain animals go with certain elements. Lots to think about. As for design and flow – usually the main design elements are tattooed and the connecting background is hand drawn onto the skin to flow with your body’s natural curves and musculature. Hope this helped a bit.
Thanks, this is a huge help and now Japanese sleeves are starting to make more sense to me. It makes sense when you break it down in to elements. Well I am just looking to have a quarter sleeve on the lower inner arm only for now but I hope to then develop it in to a proper sleeve in the future. I am nowhere near financially set up to afford a full one so ideally I would like to get part of it now and build it in the future rather than have to wait a few years to begin it. One theme I see on many Japanese sleeves it the sort of wavey effect which usually fills out the background in between the more personalized designs like dragon or flowers. I want to customize mine to have dead flowers such as on the link below so I guess I am not looking for traditional Japanese work but more to incorporate it as a backdrop. Since I am looking to get the work done around stars that are already on my arm it will definitely not be a traditional Japanese piece. I am assuming this is common enough though that people use the Japanese theme while not getting a truly traditional piece done?
(link to dead flowers)
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_K2JIxITMTV8/TKr6eFG_cSI/AAAAAAAAAIY/QsbDTcwdF5g/s1600/dead-flowers.jpg
Sorry about the bad iphone pictures through the mirror
Just got this one yesterday- my mentor had a cancellation and told me I was going to get tattooed. Benefit of an apprenticeship. I totally wasn’t ready and turned into a wussy towards the end so the white highlights still need to be done.
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Very nice man!!
if you want japanese style you cant use roses as they dont fit the theme imo, you need to look more at peonies and cherry blossoms. i dont know how easy it would be to make these look dead and withered without just making it look like your artist has drawn them badly so maybe instead think about having a sleeve in colour but the flowers in black and grey and symbolise it that way? i dunno, mrchen would probably be a good person to ask about this. Also the area that you’re planning for your sleeve seems to keep getting smaller lol if it is not just inside your forearm its not really a sleeve yet so you need to consider what will look good as a sigular piece as well as how to add to it as it sounds like it will be alone on your arm for some time. if you dont want waves there are other ways you can go with smoke and floral etc.
David, your sleeve looks gorgeous! deffo upload some better quality pics when you get a chance so we can fully appreciate it! is the new black and grey one meant to be an eye? or just an abstract picture? x
My advice on designing your own, and this is from someone who used to be a designer by trade (ok not tattoo more advertising and graphics), DON’T design your own. I have one I designed myelf and I’m forever looking at it and thinking “that coulda been improved… I’m not happy with that… etc
When I had my sleeve started, I scoured the net for ideas, styles, designs, things I do/don’t like and then took them all together, pics etc. to my artist and said go for it. Choose half a dozen ideas for elements to be incorporated into your sleeve and leave them to it. One thing I found was that when a design is laid down on paper on the flat, it will look quite different anyway to what the finished result will look like due to light, colours etc.
Find an artist who has previous examples of Jap sleeve work as well so you have an idea of their style. They do vary.
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