Kintsugi Barbed Wire Heart
I have had the honor and good fortune to work with Darryl on several tattoo projects now and always enjoy the experience. For this latest tattoo, Darryl wanted a Kintsugi heart on his right arm, snuggled up underneath a cool neo-tribal piece on his right deltoid. He didn't want a perfect, symmetrical rendering of a heart-- in fact, that was the whole point: Kintsugi (also called kintsukuroi), means "golden joinery," and is the traditional Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics by mending the fractures with natural urushi tree-sap lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum. It is thought that the new vessel, even though it was broken, becomes a more unique one because of the repair-- there is nothing else like it in the world. And after thinking about that metaphor for his life, he decided to add some barbed wire around the heart, embracing it, sort of holding it together. I wasn't sure those two concepts would combine well together but I think the design worked out nicely.
Here are some photos of the drawing, outline, grayshading and fresh color stages.
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