Hawaii has always been one of Nicole's favorite places on the globe. When she came in to see me about a coverup tattoo for some old ink on her upper right arm that was no longer serving her, she had several imagery ideas-- but we soon settled on Hawaiian flowers and a sea turtle. She also wanted water in there somewhere and I said, "Sure-- I can use that to unify and tie everything together." I knew that I would use the floral imagery to cover the old ink and I wanted to put the turtle on her inner arm, because I needed virgin skin to realize it properly. I told her, "If we put it there, you can look down and see it floating, looking up at you."
Here are some pictures of the drawing, before, and final color stages.