When Danielle came in to see me, she already had a nice mostly gray work piece of a quince on her upper right shoulder/arm. It was fairly old, didn't have an outline and the color that had been added around it's edges had faded down almost to the point where you couldn't see it.
She was wondering if we could add some more imagery from the natural world to her arm to fill out the half sleeve, and had some plants in mind. Working in the library sciences, she was articulate and organized (my favorite!) and brought in printouts of watercress and nettles (so helpful). We decided to add Chanterelle mushrooms and ferns with Fiddleheads to round the piece out. Also, we needed to rework the quince, with outline, new gray and color, to connect it to the new ink.
She says, "For the past ten years I have been very focused on my career as a librarian. When I turned fifty this past year, I had some time for reflection from the past half century of my life and wanting to seek better work/life integration. This tattoo is to help serve as a reminder for the other passions in my life of the great outdoors, hiking, foraging, sustainability, cooking, and feeding others."
Here are some photos of the drawing, before, outline and gray shading and part of the fresh final color stages.
