The Journal of Joe The Peacock. Yay.: The 15-year tattoo, part 5

7.16.2008:

The 15-year tattoo, part 5

8:14 PM

After a month hiatus from the tattoo parlor (well, from Todo actually since he was in California for a while... I wasn't on hiatus from the parlor, since Jeremiah did a piece on my leg a few weeks ago), the Akira sleeve is once again in progress.

Here's the bits from last night and today. The forearm and upper arm pieces will be connected through the unified background next week. For now, they look like separate pieces, but they're all part of the same moment in the story (again, from the comics, not the anime).

A standalone portion of a building's structural pillar, grafitti'ed with a bloody "A" (for Akira's gang)

The iron rebar (the spindly things poking out the top) aren't colored in yet, because of the background work that's going in behind them. They will be next week.

The pillar has basically landed right on top of the most notable (and beautiful) thing from the entire Akira storyline, Kaneda's bike, and split it in half. Back half:

Front half:

Note: the front of the bike that you know and love is actually laying in chunks on the ground... or will be, next week when the wrist is finished :)

Portions of the military's attempt to restore order to the city right before Akira went off are evident in the foreground. We've only gotten to the tank so far:

To give a sense of what it's all coming together as, here's a few shots of the whole arm:

Labels: art, tattoo

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6 Comments:

Elsinore said...: Damn, dude, that is wild. Nice work!; 7/16/2008 10:11 PM
Tom said...: O_O

So I'm guessing you really, really, really like Akira!

Great work!; 7/17/2008 11:55 AM
ladydyani said...: This post has been removed by the author.; 7/19/2008 8:59 AM
ladydyani said...: It looks completely wicked, Joe. I do want to ask, why start at either end and work your way to the middle? Wouldn't you start at one end and work to the other?

Also, for some reason I'm thinking that the elbow area will hurt the worst. Let me know, m'kay?; 7/19/2008 9:00 AM
Oberburgermeister said...: Sick!; 7/19/2008 2:59 PM
JtP said...: Starting at 2 seperate ends - because we knew that the shoulder would cap with the cryo chamber (the big biomechanical mass on my shoudler) and the wrist would cap with the junk from the bike. We knew the approximate placements for the main character pieces and the glass chunks. The big variable is how it would all synch up in the middle, and that's all 'background' work (like the city skyscrapers and the tank).

You start with the "features" first, then fill in with background and detail, so that if your math is off, you don't end up going into someone's hand (if starting at the shoulder) or up into the traps (if starting on the wrist).

I imagine if my piece was all one big design / pattern, you could start in one spot and finish at the end of the other.

And yeah, the elbow hurt, but not nearly as bad as the soft area in the underarm just beyond the armpit. That SUCKED.; 7/19/2008 5:11 PM