I met Emily years ago; she's another one of my awesome Burning Man friends. She recently came in to see me for a sweet lil graywork tattoo floating on her right hip, for her husband.
She says, "The Hippo is an inside joke between partners. He has always commented on, kissed, and caressed my "hippo ears"--his words not mine. Frequently he comments when I'm upstairs and he is downstairs that I have hippo feet and make hippo noises. We always laugh about it. He asks me occasionally what my next tattoo will be. And over Christmas he jokingly asked me when I'm going to get a big hippo tattooed on my face (now labeling it as his favorite animal after all these years), not knowing I had already made an appointment and placed a deposit with Victoria for the intention to honor our love, and the way he always makes me laugh. Even better that it's his favorite. So, there you have it: a happy hippo on my hip, it is. Say that ten times fast."
Here are some photos of the drawing, very fresh outline (you can still see some stencil), and very, very fresh final gray shading stages.
