The Bleeding Brush

Baltimore Tattoo Arts Con......Phew...that was fun

2008-02-13T16:42:08Z

What a very busy, slightly stressful and thoroughly enjoyable weekend was had by all. Nobody died, no windows smashed no crime of any sort, it was a good convention but I think the Sheraton City Center hotel will not be having us back next year!

So many photographs taken of the Victorian Britishink and accompanying, suitably attired clients, who rock BTW.....

"Tis how we perambulate"

And thank you to Erica who took this fav. of mine, so far....

If anyone has photographs and would like to forward them for inclusion on our site please email them to office (@) britishinkdc.com.

Thanks to all who came out and made it a hell of a time....wow...thank you....

New Video on britishinkdc.com

2007-12-08T21:10:27Z

I just completed a short (2 min. 37 sec.) video which is now front and center on the web site, any thoughts welcome:

Baltimore Tattoo Arts Con. Feb 8th-10th 2008

2007-11-28T20:43:09Z

We're going to be there, Cynthia and myself, and we're taking appointments right now. Limited availability.

We're planning something a bit "unusual" for our booth......HA!

Pecha Kucha - Speed presentation

2007-11-28T17:29:33Z

Britishink will be involved in the second Pecha Kucha event in Washington DC on Tues. 4th December 2007

Time: 20:20 pm

Venue: Mate Lounge

3101 K St, NW

Washington, DC

More details on this wonderful concept here: Pecha Kucha

And the DC page here: DC Pecha Kucha

I hope some of you can be there.

Massive update

2007-10-12T15:11:53Z

The snake back piece is finished (or is it?) For now I'm saying done:

Left side ribs^^^

Finished Leg ^^^

And we have completed the line work on the Pirate Back Piece, color sessions being set up today:

Mmmmmmm...some purple and black in the clouds.....deep greens in the waves...oh I can't wait.....

Yarrrrrrr....

Tattoo Machine Experiments

2007-09-06T19:13:53Z

Some folks have asked to see some machines so here's a couple:

The Pirate Machine...for the pirate back piece color....Capt. Jonesy

Gold Coast and Ivory Coast maps on the coils:

Now some fun stuff.....I'm making a machine for a "build off" challenge on a machine builders forum.....unusual materials are the order of the day...I've got a boner...?

It's going to take a lot of work to finish this one....

Just a small peek into my twisted world.....

Cover up from Hell part 6

2007-08-14T20:23:13Z

Ok, so this time I got to add one flower and a bud, and layer some color into the covering top two blossoms.

Sorry about the glare....

Added some deeper black shaded areas under the petals....

I guess I'll be finished with this in a few sessions....:(

Cover up from Hell part 5

2007-08-11T15:54:48Z

So the Snakes tail now gets some color and the side rib panel is healing nicely:

And yes, he asked for more flowers!!!! Still to come.

Ink of the Nation....

2007-08-03T12:36:06Z

I was on N.P.R.s Talk of the Nation yesterday audio here . Wow...35 minutes on air and it felt like 5 or 6. Flew by all too fast, I had so much more to say and sadly no chance to say it. The folks at N.P.R. are all so wonderful and I'm on their "go to" list for anything tattoo related now....cool!

Thank you Cyn for coming along with me and for taking the photos.

'\= HA!

britishink_art @ 2007-07-30T15:37:00

2007-07-30T19:45:00Z

Steve's back in the chair for line work session 2. The stencil, I noticed when making it, when viewed with a light source behind it glows with vibrant color, I need some Plexi and we'll be making window art....anyway....Glowing Stencil of Doom....

And the resulting line work...

So this is where we are after 5 hours of outline......

Cover up from Hell part 4

2007-07-11T14:17:45Z

We got round to the extension of the snake to the ditch of the right knee, ouch, with roses and some vines:

So this is the first, and terrible, photo of the whole layout:

That is one massive snake....and still so much to do.....

Pirate Back gets started...

2007-06-28T03:33:03Z

My my Mr. King, what have we gotten ourselves into now....

Apply the stencil very carefully and check it for placement...

Excellent, now we can begin....two hours later....

Oh when will I see you again...?

Cover up from Hell part 3

2007-06-19T20:17:30Z

Stage 6: Layout the future snake tail, allowing for more flowers, roses, passion flowers etc.

Daylilies opening, Cherry blossoms and Hibiscus, a background of leaves will be added later.

Until next week......

Cover up from Hell part 2

2007-06-12T19:56:13Z

Stage 4 photos, Leaves and flowers & old head colored (first pass)

Stage 5, More flowers to color, butterflies too....

This is starting to look half decent.....more to come next week.

The cover-up from Hell

2007-06-09T17:43:41Z

Every so often I come across a person in need of some good design. A cover-up in this case, in desperate need of some thought and an artistic challenge beyond the day to day design and tattoo work that is my bread and butter.

The HUGE black snake on this mans back was tattooed in Thailand with bamboo split to form the "needles". Too "brutal" he called it, no grace or finesse. The poor man lives with this for a few years and finally gets the courage to see another tattooist who says he can fix it.
His concept is to create a tree from the black snake and add flowers and insects and an additional, new snake.....

Wow...He came from a tattoo session in the middle of it he just cut out and came over to me.....the pen marks on the right hand side are his not mine.

The flowers are weak and look like fried eggs.

So the challenge is on, 3 hours a week until completion......

Session 1: define flowers, establish new snake body flow:

Session 2: Begin color on snake body and try to cover that damn black, more flowers/foliage:

Session 3: Color rest of snake, connect head to body:

Session 4 pics to follow.....It's getting there, slowly but surely and the change in his whole persona is amazing, as the snake sheds and take on a new life so does he, happy now, smiling and full of energy. See you next Tuesday my man......

Custom Tattooing 101

2007-05-21T14:26:10Z

First entry,

So what does it take to make a custom tattoo?

I'm going to run through the stages of a piece I'm working on step by step to show the process from conception to completion.

Stage 1: The contact. Let's call him Steve..

Dec. 2006: ..."...Hey Paul,

Roger XXXXXXX (an immigration judge now up in XXXXXXX who you did some work for...he told me to drop his name) recommended you to me so I thought I'd drop you a line real quick. I recently got my first tattoo and am interested in getting some more work done...in the long run I'd like to cover my entire back (and I wear a size 52 suit, so there's a lot of room to work with). Wanted to see if you've got some time for me to drop by and chat with you about my plans after Christmas. My first tat is captain "Calico" Jack's pirate flag, and I want to do sort of a pirate/ocean theme and build around what I've got now....

Steve...."

Well that's an email I cannot resist, the consultation date was set up , With travel and work we met on May 8th, and the idea for the tattoo discussed.
We settled on a sailing ship, rocks made of skulls and the storm clouds.

The deposit paid and the drawing began.

An email arrives: May 15th

"...Hey Paul, here are a few ideas I've come up with over the past week.


Instead of doing a sailing ship, how about a shipwrecked ship crashed
up on some rocks (and perhaps skulls)?  Possibly a skeleton or phantom
crew, with some sort of treasure just out of reach?  I was also
thinking about doing some sort of huge leviathin and using it as the
lower and side borders for the entire peice, sort of a 3/4 frame, with
the upper "border" being the weather (storm clouds, light and the
like, as we talked about).

Steve....."



Stage 2: The Sketches.

That's fine, in fact I prefer the new ideas.

A concept sketch is made to figure out the lay-out and scale of the elements.

So with the approval the final drawings are being made, full scale 22" x20":

Some of the linework isn't in there yet, treasure and clouds and the like, but you get the idea.

So there it stands.....the concept is set, the linework is panned and being finished......What comes next ?....you ask....the tattooing of course.

.