It’s hard for me to believe now that my body was a blank canvas for more than three quarters of my life. I didn’t get my first tattoo until I was forty-five but in the seven years since I’ve kind of made up for lost time. Each of those pieces have been done by the very same extremely talented tattooist, Greg “Grease” Lehman.
Each tattoo I've gotten means something to me and I view each piece to be a kind of talisman. Each piece of art is a part of me now. Back in 2017 I had a very detailed mandala done on my right shoulder and, being a fan of sacred geometry I asked Greg to create a flower of life pattern behind it.
For my latest session I decided to finish this right arm sleeve.
Greg has been tattooing professionally since 1989 and his expertise was quickly made apparent as he matched the new section of the Flower of Life pattern perfectly with the old section from 2017. As soon as the guide pattern was applied to my forearm he quickly got to work with the needles.
First he traced the outline of each shape and then set to work shading the open spaces with grey ink, as you can see from the video the shading is done with a bundle of 4-5 needles.
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This three hour session was definitely the most painful I've had to date. It also took the longest to heal, just because there was so much shading involved.
But the end result was well worth it.
About 7-10 days after getting a fresh tattoo it goes through what I call "the shedding phase". Gross, I know.
It's been three weeks after my initial appointment and it's nearly healed and in a week or two more the color of new section of the sleeve will blend perfectly with the older tattoo.
The retouch session is scheduled for the end of November where Greg will just extend the pattern a tad more around the back of my arm and correct any color and line irregularities.
If you would've told me a decade ago that I'd have two (nearly) full sleeves I wouldn't have believed you. Since then I've really learned to appreciate, deeply, the art of tattooing and those people involved with it.
If the work is well thought-out, each design is sacred, a true collaborative effort between you and the artist. The art itself represents a feeling, thought, belief, or memory, frozen in time and that travels with you for the rest of your days. Sacred indeed.
~Eric Vance Walton~
Thanks for reading! All for now. Remember…trust your instincts, invest in you, live boldly, and take chances.
(Photos and video are original.)
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