Tattoo: Mason Jar, Butterflies, Flowers
I made this tattoo design for my girlfriend who had recently gone through a hard time before we met. She had been wanting this design for a few years as a reminder to her about her overcoming depression and thoughts of suicide. When she first told me about it I immediately went to work.
She wanted an open mason jar with two burning notes inside. The smoke coming out of the jar was to turn into butterflies as a symbol of freedom and rebirth. Then the flowers all along the jar were those that had meanings to her depression and feelings. Each one representing a part of her she overcame. I sketched out the initial design and started to build upon that.
Once I finished the initial sketch I then converted it to a digital file. My girlfriend had a hard time deciding on where she wanted this tattoo to be inked, so I did her a favor by giving her a few examples. She wanted this tattoo to be either on her shoulder, lower torso or on her ribs. I found references of each to place the design on there for her imagination.
The shoulder one was very simple to do. I used the clone stamp tool and the patch tool to cover up an already visible tattoo on the reference model to clear up space for the tattoo.
I did the exact same steps to make the ribs design in this photo.
This one was a little tricky to accomplish. The model in this photo had an enormous tattoo that blended in with the skin in such a way that the patch tool and clone stamp tool had trouble.
In the very end my girlfriend chose to get the shoulder tattoo design. She was able to get tatted up as a birthday/Christmas present from her parents. The tattoo artist was able to copy my design and add a few extra touches and effects to it.
Here is the finished product. She absolutely loves it, after many years of waiting, she finally gets to have her mark. I enjoyed making this design and being able to help her out.
