Mx.D.P

So, I got the finished tattoo art up in the studio… on the walls, the cupboard, the hallway and even the ceiling. After saying I would probably never tattoo any of these designs, a regular saw the boar and devil on the ceiling and has booked to have them tattooed on his sleeve in two weeks time!

When I thought it was over, I found 4 A3 sheets I had started but discarded, plus an unused sheet. These were on thick cotton rag with a rough texture. I probably started these, and though this surface is awful.

I’m now up for the challenge and thought I could break a few rules. I learnt more in these few pieces than I did all summer, but I needed the summers work to have the skills to explore these sheets.

The Pork Chop

‘Pork Chop‘ sheet is a nickname for ‘tattoo flash sheets’ that have artwork cut out from other flash.

The name refers to the idea that these little designs are the best bits. However, tattooists started to draw them on one sheet. In this one, I broke the rules, and it became a written chop sheet. This is a chop sheet of my life, and it was the most beautiful meditation to draw… I can see this working well in a workshop setting; it was very cathartic.

The Tested-to-Destruction sheet

This was probably the most completed sheet when I started.

In tattooing, we often cover up an existing tattoo, changing what is there, and that’s what I started to do here, it has had a lot of layers..

This is the state of play as of tonight… its an investigation of process

It’s Bigger on the Inside.

I haven’t got a ‘before’ photo for this next one. I explored the idea of line weight and coloured background in the Trans flag colours, of course! Lines are the transformation of this summer’s work. I will probably talk more about this in my review of online tattooing courses. Still, it has questioned years of not only my tattoo process but the very foundation of tattooing in the 21st century and what its future may look like.

Meanwhile, back at the painting process, this sheet, even though it is heavy-weigh, could have done with being stretched before adding the colour washes. It was a b*gger to laminate.

Agender Animals

The next piece uses the colours of the Agender Flag in a gender exploration, it has moved away from a tattoo flash sheet.

This has changed enormously and if I can get it finished in time I will submit this to an open call at the end of the month.

I quite fancy the Agender Tiger (my surgeon Mr Kerrig Singe is the Tiger and I am the eviscerated monster on the right) I can see those as a tattoo… when I returned from hospital without a womb I said to my husband I am not a Womb-man now… of course I never was… This work is not finished, but this is as of tonight.

Mermaids in Borth

The last was the blank sheet using the Non-binary and Trans flag colours I painted my interpretation of two of my favourite historic tattoo design concepts the Mermaid and the Ship-in-a-bottle. I used all the skills I have developed this summer and I really love this piece so it’s going to sit next to my tattoo station to make me smile as I tattoo.

What will all this lead to, I am not sure but it has been an intense experience and like playing scales it has transformed my techniques and started to discover new ones. I’ve been able to get away from even line weight that has preoccupied my life for 25 years, though I still imagine a tattoo machine been thrown at my head by the tattoo Gods saying WTF still I think they have enjoyed my naughtiness this summer.