Big Butterfly Overhaul

EK:
Time does pass a little quickly when there is more to be done. It was with a mild sense of guilt that I've realised that I've put off a new posting of the blog about a new/old friend who came a-visiting to talk about a repair job for an old tattoo more than a month ago.

A new/old friend, you say? It's not that I cannot make up my mind about the dynamics of a friendship -- it's just that I've met Alicia recently, and yet we seem to go way, way, back.  For more details about the first meet, click here:

http://us-skin-grafx.blogspot.com/2011/01/kismet-or-serendipity-ordont-i-know-you.html

Anyway, Ali (as in "Allie", not as in Ali Baba-lah!), visits once in a while, whenever her busy schedule permits. Once, she dropped by bringing 'tong sui' (sweet Chinese soupy desserts) and over mouthfuls of red bean soup and tau fu fah, she told me that her husband Andrew and friends really dig the cherry blossoms, and branches. However, they were also saying that the new ink didn't match with the old ink.

According to Ali, the old ink covered up an older tattoo, and was done a few years ago by Eddie David. From what I understood, the first piece of ink was covered up by the black-coloured body of a butterfly.  There were no hard lines to the wings, and they flared out in cloudy shapes from blue to pinkish-red to yellow.

This is the BEFORE pic of the butterfly., done by Eddie David a few years ago. The lime green edge of the wings were added by me to cover up the faded yellow that was originally there, back when the cherry blossoms were done.

The first time I tattooed Alicia, the yellow parts of the wing, on the outermost area, were faded to the point that we could barely see them anymore, so we actually decided to run over all of the yellow parts with lime green. The result was there was comparatively more 'pop' to the butterfly after the colour change. However, this time around, Alicia wanted a total overhaul of the butterfly, and her edict was something in the lines of  "Just make it look more like a butterfly, and try to match it in with what I already have."

That time, we ended up breaking out some new skin scribes (surgical marking pens) and drawing suggestions directly on her shoulder. However, I strongly felt that overhauling the existing butterfly tattoo required more thinking and consideration than what we were drawing on the spot, so Alicia went home while I screwed on another thinking cap to tackle the issue.

There were a couple of issues I was concerned with. First, there was marked scarring on the skin in certain areas where the original wings had been put in, which means putting certain colours, especially those with large pigments, would be unadvisable. Pumping ink with large pigments is not easy and takes more time and care to put in. If the artist is impatient, he/she turns the tattoo machine's intensity way up -- which also typically results in chewing up the skin even more and scarring it, if not scarring it even worse. This meant a limited colour selection in which to work with.

Second, the style of the 'new' butterfly left me at a loss. Alicia left the style to me, though she ultimately is the one who confirms the design. I drew a few with black outlines, and a lacy pattern full of curlicues overlapping the coloured wing area to match with the branches. Randy offered another version, that was like a slightly modified but very natural-looking Monarch butterfly.

On the day itself, we presented a version both of us (finally) agreed on. Personally, I wasn't crazy about the design due to the original, we were a limited in fixing it.

Alicia bared her shoulder and I set to drawing on her skin first. When I was almost done, Randy (who was talking to Andrew, Ali's husband) was called over to take a look. First, he looked at it. Then his brow furrowed. From experience, I knew this would  lead to one of two things: Either he would completely agree and give a thumbs up, or we were in for another complete change.



DURING: At the halfway point, after the butterfly has been completely relined and veins and outline added in. Alicia is prone on the bed :P



First, he went, "Hm," with his fist against his chin. Then he went "Hmmmmm." And then.... he went, "No. No no no no no. Scrub the markings off, we're doing this another way!"

Alicia looked at me, I looked at her. I think we breathed a simultaneous, inward sigh, and said, "Okay." We pulled up references again, and it was through a mixture of calculation and informed guesswork that the old butterfly was transformed -- or covered up, if you would -- into  one with semi tribal outlines, natural-looking veins and colours that, while completely covering the old hues, would render itself as an almost glazed finish.

I wouldn't say it was a walk in the park. First off, the original shape of the butterfly was not symmetrical at all, so we had to keep adjusting lines and thickness according in order to help balance it out as best as we could.

I started out with black ink, running outlines over the old butterfly first.  Then, with a single needle, drew and dragged the butterfly veins from the body to the wing. Alicia had been there, between drawing, erasing, redrawing and inking for a few hours already. She sent Andrew to get dinner (which was KFC...yumm!).  Randy took over the colour work in the wings, starting with different plums and dark pinks, slowly moving into a purple and I believe, a mild blue at the end.
Here is the end result:

AFTER: Complete change, except for the original body. I had to follow the original freehand antennae. Plus, more flowers were added. Victim, I mean,  client happy :)

All in all, while I had a little tension in the re-designing of the design, in all honesty, I'm really glad it turned out that way, because the end result was much better than anticipated.  After everything was said and done, we cleaned up, wrapped and degloved, washed our hands and sat down to a good ol'fashioned Southern fried chicken dinner.

Alicia's tattoo is healed out now (pending a small touch up), which shows you how long I've dragged out writing this blog. In the meantime, she's brought a friend from Doha to get poked, and I'm in the midst of working another design for another buddy! 

With her new digs, new hairstyle and new ink to match... it just sounds to me that Ali is in store for more new, positive things to come.