Ideas Please

General tattoo discussion

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tj29
Posts: 12
Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2009 8:23 pm

Sat Feb 14, 2009 6:02 am

Hi All,

I have had a dragon on my upper arm rapping around my daughters name and it looks amazing in black and grey.

This is the start of my half sleeve.

However, I need some ideas on what to have on my underarm. I thought of a Koi but ive never been to keen on having a fish on my arm. The thing is I would like whatever it is to have a meaning but at the same time helps the whole tattoo flow.

Im going to have some Lotus Flowers in it somewhere mixed with smoke and clouds but im just abit stuck as to what else to have.

Please help!

Many Thanks
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BadTaste
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Sat Feb 14, 2009 8:14 am

Unless you've got massive arms a decent sized Lotus with some background should be more than enough for the underside, unless the original dragon is quite small. A half sleeve isn't a huge tattoo, Trying to cram too many features into it can backfire.
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Freddie
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Joined: Wed Oct 29, 2008 4:01 am

Sat Feb 14, 2009 11:20 am

BT's right on the money. Try to simplify the amount of ideas, and make each individual element large enough to be seen.

For example, I'm currently working on a guy's half sleeve with HUGE arms (about 22 inches around), with a new skool-y approach to traditional japanese iconography as the theme. That said, even with a large arm, it only has 3 real design elements (A large weaving dragon on the outside of the arm, a hanya and a tengu together on the inside, and a stylized lotus on the back. of the arm). That said, each of the 3 elements is large enough to be read easily and have a pile of impact.

I say it a lot on this board : Don't cram 10 pounds of shit into a 5 pound bag.

that all said and out of the way : If you could post a pic of the dragon you currently have it could help. Putting a koi and a lotus, with a more tradition background of windbars and wavework doesn't, to me, sound like too much, but it's hard to judge without seeing the existing piece and the size of your arm (i.e how much free space the artist will have to work with).
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