Tattoo Love+

So how about an alternative take on an art post? 'Kay ready?

Amanda Wachob Tattoos

More entertaining than bunny-vision?

I am in love with tattoo culture, especially when it has a meaning to it, and it is really well done.

Actually, unless it's done well I can get kinda snobby about the whole thing because I value it so much as an art.  I decided to do a post on a couple of awesome artists that I discovered recently as I've been looking the right artists to do some ideas I have planned.  

Really bad or really awesome?

Backstory: For those who know me, I have one tattoo on my left rib cage, going from my underarm to the top of my hip, it says my mantra from a few years back "While I breathe, I hope" in Latin ("Dum Spiro, Spero).  I'm a big nerd when it comes to meaningful script and I love when tattoos are super feminine and full of whimsy.  I tend to fall for the artists who have a more surrealist approach to tattooing. 

I've been wanting to add butterflies coming out of my current tattoo but I have had a hard time visualizing whether I wanted colours, black and grey or what.  

So I discovered THIS picture of a monarch, only to find out it's by the brilliant Kelly Doty from Easthampton, Massachusetts:

The detail is brilliant, including the shading under the butterfly, the colouring on the body, and the accuracy to an actual butterfly (I'm particularly impressed by the feelers!). Seeing this tattoo made me think of getting colour work since I have an affinity for blue butterflies:

These are also similar in style (not by Doty):

I must say that I would travel from this little town in Southern Ontario to Massachusetts just to get  Kelly to tattoo me because I love her stuff so much. 

Here are a few more of her signature tattoos:

The second tattoo artist I discovered is Amanda Wachob from New York City, who is known for her tattoos created in a painterly style where it appears as if actual brush strokes have been used to create the work. 

I find her work so appealing because it's art before it's a tattoo, and she relies very little on outlines and traditional tattoo shading.  I find this approach much softer and the end result much more subtle.  I would love for her to do the cherry blossom branches I would like tattooed on my feet, sort of in vein with what she did here:

Here's a couple more incredible pieces:

Imitated ink splatter

Inspired by Magritte

I would be honoured to have one or both of these lovely tattoo artists tattoo me in the future!

Kelly tattoos out of Off The Map in Massachusetts and Amanda out of her studio in New York City and can be contacted here. 

I'd like to leave you all with some awesome tattoos and some ideas I have for future tattoos of mine:

And lastly,

Hot men with tattoos, who could ask for more?