Here is a watercolor painting of a dragon and a tiger embraced in a battle. Done in more of a traditional style, but I still managed to put my own spin on it. I’d love to do some more vibrant and creative pieces like this for tattoos in the future!

Mike Myers Tattoo by Matt Maguire

Heres a color tattoo of a fish monster I did at Witch City Ink on Andy’s lower left arm based off an old school panther pose.  For more info on my art or tattoos check out my portfolio under Matt Maguire.

Heres a picture of the 2 tattoos we covered:

Brads Before Picture

When Brad arrived for his first tattoo session we sat right down and got to work. I was careful to locate elements of the design in places where I knew the color would mask the old tattoos. We tattooed for 3 hours and I managed to lay down the entire outline and some of the black. We made great progress but nevertheless, after the first session it was clear there was a long way to go. After our session, Brad took a picture of the outline. The photo is a little bit low resolution but you can at least get a sense of the progress. After 3 hours the tattoo looked like this:

First Session

The first session we got the whole outline in and some of the preliminary black, in the next session, 6 hours into the tattoo, we began to prepare the underpainting of the scales and background. Fortunately, Brad sat perfectly every session and was patient about getting the results he wanted. As a result I was able to concentrate on every detail along the way. Soon the tattoo started taking shape:

2nd Session

In the 3rd session the entire tattoo started really looking clearer and brighter, and we felt like huge progress had been made. At this point it started getting pretty hard to tell it was a coverup tattoo at all. 9 hours into the tattoo and the 1/2 sleeve looked like this:

3rd Session

At last we got to the final session, the last 3 hours. This is where a large amount of final detail work, color touch ups, and tightening of the outline took place. Using the last session to really perfect the tattoo gave me a chance to go over every area and make those colors pop out. Both Brad and I were very pleased with the final results as seen below:

Brads Dragon Final 1

Front View, Final Session

Brads Dragon, Back View, Final Session

Some tattoos definitely require patience, but in the end it pays off.

Witch City Ink is truly an International destination each year with friends dropping in from studios from around the world. Last years Boston Tattoo Convention saw artists HoriRyu and Nene spending a week with the crew after the convention. Below are some photos from the event:

Guest Artists HoriRyu and Nene from Japan and LA

After hanging out with us all at the BTC last year, Japanese Tattoo artist HoriRyu started a large Japanese dragon on Natans leg. The initial design began with a 5 hour outline session.

This is what we do for fun!

Here’s a better photo of HoriRyu’s Dragon Leg Sleeve outline on N^T^N after the Boston Tattoo Convention. HoriRyu and Natan will complete the tattoo when Natan works at his studio in Tokyo in 2009.

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Kiku, Japanese Chrysanthemum

This is the final piece of a band of Japanese flowers recently completed by Natan at Witch City Ink in Salem Ma.  The rest of the tattoo is viewable in Natans portfolio at witcityink.com.

Natan specializes is custom tattooing and is available for appointments at any of his 3 shops in Massachusetts.  He works by appointment only and is generally booked at least 3 weeks in advance.

Octopus tattoo 1/2 Sleeve

Artist: Natan Alexander Lin
Subject: Octopus
Medium: Black and Gray tattoo

This half sleeve octopus tattoo is a fine example of Black and Grey work from our shop owner and artist Natan.  His extensive studies and work in Japan allowed him to add Japanese inspired style waves to round out the piece and fit the clients needs.