So it has indeed been a while, wouldn’t you agree?
The holidays have come and gone and I pretty much used that time to not post any work or anything like that on here… I was out in St. Louis with my lady and we went to visit my aunt Sue and my cousin Christie for christmas and my birthday. It was an awesome trip where we ate Waffle House and White Castle and my tummy was soooo happy the whole time, hahahahaha… I have been updating tattoo and art pics through my instagram though… if you’re on there, look me up @lefthandblack to see stuff usually the same day I do it! I also haven’t been posting too much on here because I’ve been packing up the old studio and buying crap for the new studio… The new studio is taking FOREVER and costing tons more than I thought it would so there isn’t too much to discuss about that just yet… I’ll post pics when we get it closer to go time!
For now though, the update on the studio is “it’s coming along”…
So here are a few sweet tattoos Ive done in the time since my last post… There are plenty more that aren’t on here just yet since they are outline only or the pics didn’t come out too good or what have you… anyway, enjoy!
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This is a pretty sweet black and grey day of the dead girl… Modeled after one of the lotteria drawings she had brought in but I tuned it up a bit… We did it all in one shot on the back of the arm and I believe it was close to 4 hours but I can’t really remember…
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Here is the beginning stages of a half sleever I started a while back… All lines and shade in one session since he drove out from AZ to get this tattooed. I usually try and do longer sessions on people that come from out of state or out of the country… This owl tattoo is for his daughter, as you can see by the banners… The owl ever vigilant as he watches over her. His wife and his initials carved into the tree was a fun touch… The keys are just awesome, hahaha.
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Here’s another owl that I recently finished… This one is a full half-sleeve and fills almost every square inch of the upper arm with the body of the owl… I love doing pieces that have very limited background and really use that area for the main piece and nothing else… This is a good example of how I like to do tattoos.
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Here’s some of the progress on the thigh piece i started on cage-fighter, Gabe Rudiger. Some zombie samurai skeleton guys attacking a samurai warrior… In the distance you can see the same samurai in a zen state sitting in a lotus flower. The whole piece represents the chaos that he, as the warrior, must endure and the zen like state that he strives to achieve…
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This is an upper arm half-sleever that I started on my friend Josh from As I Lay Dying. It’s a demon-hunting angel with an AK47… It’s only black and grey right now but we’ll be starting color here in the next week. This piece was a lot of fun to draw and even more to tattoo! Looking forward to getting back to work on it and getting started on his front piece!
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This is a sweet calf piece I started a while back on Danny from San Francisco. Danny is just starting out in the tattoo world and we spent so much of the appointment talking about tattoos, tattoo artists, tattoo etiquette, tattoo machines, tattoo flash, drawing for tattoos… pretty much everything tattoo related… Looking forward to getting Danny back in the chair and finishing this one up!
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This is an awesome 5 eyed wolf I did the other day… The lines and some of the shading (the eyes and snout) were done at a previous session. This pic is from session two where I shaded all the fur around the wolf’s face. Could use a little more black?
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Check out this sweet chest panel I did a while back… A rose with a set of teeth! I wish I could say I thought of the idea, but the credit goes to Jeff Proctor. You can check out his awesome artwork HERE. I never really heard of him until I tattooed this but I have to say his art is awesome! I would definitely check it out! Hope I did his work justice!
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Here’s a sweet hand tattoo I did on this dude Kyle Mestery from Winnipeg, Canada… He tattoos out of BLAZE INK which is also in Winnipeg… We did this all in one shot and I think it took about 3 hours to do if I remember correctly… He sat like a champ and we had tons to talk about so the time just flew on by! Hope it healed well, brother, and I hope to see you in Montreal come September!
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Here’s a painting I did for the EVERYTHING WENT BLACK art show. Obviously everything in the show has to be BLACK FLAG related… One of my favorite lines in any punk song ever is “Don’t tell me about tomorrow” from the song “Revenge”. I just always thought that line embodied the true punk spirit. “Don’t tell me about tomorrow” is like, who gives a shit about the future… A punk rock Carpe Diem, if you will… The piece is acrylic on garage haggled wood and measures at 60′x24. I think it’s continuing on to show again in SF and then it should be home if no one buys it… We’ll see.
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And for the last part of this post, here is my poster for the Montreal Art & Tattoo Expo 2012! They asked me if I would be one of the artists for this years convention and I ecstatically accepted!!!! This will be the 10 year anniversary of the Montreal convention and I am glad to be a part of it in a more-than-just-tattooing-there-way! This painting is watercolor on Arches cold-press and is 18×26 or so… I don’t think I actually fully measured it. It started out as 22×30 paper but it’s smaller on the paper and blah blah blah, hahaha. Either way it’s killer and I am so honored to be asked to participate as one of the artists for the poster!
So that’s it for now… Hopefully the next post will be pictures of the new studio and on a new website and a new everything! I would say there will be a new post soon, but who knows? It may be a week? Maybe two… Just keep checking back and see what the news is! Or follow me on the instagram by searching @lefthandblack
Until the next time,
Turk
