Tattoos - The Greenman back-piece...

Over the years I have collected work by various artists:

• My very first tattoo was the dragon on my left shoulder - completed by Ian of Reading
• Ian also translated my designs for the bee on my chest and the "Snakes-entwined" on my right arm
• Bob at Mantra (Cheltenham) worked the celtic band on my left arm, and the small bee below it
• Oz (a guest artist at Mantra at the time), gave me the ant and the labyrinth on my feet - plus the beautifully worked wasp on my arse...
• The ivy twist around my right wrist is by Jon from "Colour of Magic" in Stroud
• Finally - the majority of the work on the "greenman" has been by Ian of Reading...

I originally chose Ian because I felt he was one of the best freehand tattooists in the country at the time (even though it meant a regular journey of 2-3 hours just to get to him!). I had seen examples of his work in books (for example the "Gorilla" back piece). - and I felt that he would be able to interpret my designs in a sympathetic way. We worked closely for several years on completing the backpiece, but unfortunately, Ian "retired" from doing custom work before we managed to finish, and so I had to look for a new artist to complete my vision...

After much hunting, pouring over copies of "Skin Deep" and watching artists at work at conventions I finally found someone who could not only finish what Ian started, but take that design and expand it beyond my original ideas. That artist is Jo Harrison from Modern Body Art in Birmingham.

Jo featured in the Nov 2002 edition of Skin Deep (she has also won several awards, including "Best Sleeve" at Mantra 2005 for a beautifully creative piece using "negative" space to create snow flakes). She comes from an art background, and a lot of her work tends towards the "New Traditional" style (such as that above) - being intensely rich and colourful - with some of the most beautiful colour blends I have seen.

She is also one of the most approachable and accommodating Tattoo artists I have ever come across! - her many talents mean that she's also in huge demand, so be prepared to wait several months if you want work from her... (Jo is currently on her "Sweet sting World tour" of Conventions and guest-spots - catch up with her tour-dates and blog at: http://www.joharrison.co.uk/ ).

Jo began work by completing the last pieces of the original design by Ian - including re-inking and colouring the "Skull" in a beautiful bone-white, and reworking some of the older "leaves" to match her own colour and style. We then spent several hours discussing ways in which she could expand the design further - exchanging drawings, discussing ideas - and with her generally being incredibly inspiring...

Jo really fleshed out the design - spreading it out over my sides and down onto my lower back - incorporating many new Magickal elements as she did so: adding a beautifully detailed Ankh hanging amongst the leaves, a scourge that crosses under the "roots", an Athame, and a beautifully executed piece of Greek inscribed scrollwork...

Greenman "panorama"

Detail of the Ankh (left side) and the scourge (right side)

Detail of the bee and lotus flower (left side), the face and skull (center), and the butterfly and dagger (right side)

As you can see from the above pictures, after 8 years of hard work the Greenman back-piece is now complete!

However, that doesn't mean that we're done, just that we are now free to start work on expanding the original design into two related sleeves - the first of which "Air and water" now has it's own page.