Report on the working process of a full-leg sleeve biomech tattoo.
A satisfied client is always a satisfaction, a returning client is a greater satisfaction, but a client who observes your journey, follows you and at the sight of one of your experiments tells you “I want it!” gives you even greater satisfaction.
I had been experimenting with a new style for my biomechs for some time, the intention was to abandon the old style, full of elements, pipes, mechanical and organic parts etc., to move on to something more abstract made up of larger surfaces, which flows with the body in a more elegant way and with more elaborate light and colour effects.
I was at the beginning of my journey in that direction, my drawings were merely studies, not work ready to be tattooed.
This guy told me he wanted a biomech on his leg and wanted something very special.
He had definitely come at the right time. I told him about the path I had taken and showed him some studies from which we could have developed the work.
Among the many studies, one in particular struck him. For him it was already his. In fact, the shapes adapted to his idea, I just had to develop the design further but not that much either. A few changes, some additions, an adaptation to the size of his leg and we would have been able to start.
A stimulus for the future
Starting this piece together with this guy’s excitement was an important stimulus to continue my research and development work.
In the following months I created dozens of biomech projects with my new style alongside a new way of showcasing my work, a technique that later resulted in a couple of tutorials sold by the American company Tattoo Smart.
Some of those pieces found potential clients almost immediately. Some finalized the project, few others had to give up for personal reasons.
It was an intense research process the fruits of which can be seen in one of my website’s galleries.
The search has come to a halt due to other commitments but I will soon start again with the same enthusiasm.
Technique and style
Those who know me know that I love biomechs and know that I have almost always done them freehand, but not this time, not for my new work and not for this one.
With a design to follow I wouldn’t have ran the risk of losing myself in technicalities exaggerating with elements and details, a “risk” which I could easily run into working freehand on a leg that roughly has the same extension of two backs.
But I had a problem to solve, in order to spread the colour evenly and above all quickly on such a large area I needed large needles.
Unfortunately cartridges, which I have been using for years now, do not go beyond a 27 needle module. Too small to fill large areas of colour quickly.
So I had to find a machine that worked with standard needles and I needed a rotary.
I’ve had tendonitis problems for some years now, caused by prolonged use of old coil machines which are notoriously heavy. There are light aluminum machines of course, but after switching to the noiselessness of the rotary I challenge anyone to go back to very noisy coils.
My search lasted a few months, while I was doing the outlines and shading in gray, I ordered and tried out different machines – which I then reviewed on YouTube – until I found the right one. It still has some vibration and noise issues but it does its job and, to be completely honest, I believe it’s hard to eliminate vibrations and noise when using a 39 or 49 needle module.
So this work has not only been a stylistic research but also a technical one, both in the design phase and on skin.
Patience is a virtue of the strong
The sessions were scheduled pretty far apart, including summer breaks of over 4 months. We definitely took our time to finish this piece, but even by speeding things up, it’s absolutely impossible to do a tattoo of this size in a short amount of time.
Nothing of quality can be done in a short amount of time. Anyone who is satisfied with something done quickly doesn’t have beautiful tattoos or, at best, has a number of stickers placed on the body in bulk.
This work has given me the opportunity to grow a lot as a tattoo artist and not only, but if there is nothing better than a client who follows you and gives you freedom to experiment, what can we say about a client who decides to continue something of this kind on his entire chest and back?
To be continued 😀
Here below the images of the working process and a video of the healed tattoo.
