Tattoos are permanent, and you cant erase once you start, so its not uncommon for custom tattoo artists to make a complete painting of the intended design prior to actually tattooing them. Each one is a unique expression of the clients wishes and the artists vision for the design. While not every tattoo demands such elaborate preparation, its good to see examples of artwork other than tattoos from the person you choose to adorn you for the rest of your life!

Below are a few examples of artwork created by tattoo artist N^T^N Alexander. These paintings were created for clients specifically for the purpose of tattooing them:

Color Study for V-Twin Tattoo. Watercolor on Bristol Board, N^T^N 2007

A customer who wanted to immortalize his love of motorcycles commissioned this tattoo design from me. When circumstances prevented him from getting the tattoo, I decided to complete the sketch and make a watercolor painting from it instead. The flying eyeball comes from a skateboard deck design by Jim Phillips and the glowing spiderweb background complements the strong hotrod/rockabilly feel he wanted the overall piece to have.

The Road to Hell is Easy, Watercolor on Paper, 2006

This design was commissioned by a client who was in recovery after years of battling addiction. He liked the look of old fashioned pistols and wanted to have a skull and some poppy flowers in the design as well. After some discussion, we decided to include a latin phrase in the design, “Facilis Decensus Averno” which means, “The road to Hell is Easy” The tattoo was designed to serve as a reminder to him that he could always fall back into the hell of opiate addiction if he didnt stay strong and focused.