Hubby's "new" tattoo – picture heavy

I call it “new” because it has been completely touched up. He got the tattoo when he was home on leave during his first deployment in June 2005.

This is how it looked the day he got it. The Yin Yan was colored in with balck ink after this photo was taken, but I don’t have a full back showing it.

This is how it looked the day before it was touched up. He did not heal well, and according to Mr. Tom, the gentleman who did the touch up work, the other guy did a crappy job to begin with.

Since Mr. Tom couldn’t make out the dragon heads in the greywashing we had to go looking for new oriental and western dragon heads to base them off of. You can guess where my mind went immediately. 😀 I tried to convince my husband of using Windstones as inspiration for both, but he found a different western dragon head he liked better.

Here’s progression shots of all the touched up tattoos as well as the dragon heads they were based off of. Mr. Tom also goes by the name Spider and “signs” his work with a little spider. Can anyone spot the spider?

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/left_oriental.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/right_western.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b235/pegasi1978/center_yinyang.jpg

Which makes his back look like this now. Much nicer than it was when Mr. Tom started.

His new tattoo (on his left upper arm) is based off a necklace I picked up for him at one of the two stores in Savannah that sell Windstones. The spirals are Celtic and stand for spiritual growth. Mr. Tom freehanded a drawing based on the necklace, which we then took reduced in size to fit his arm. When all was said and done, he gave us the orignals so no one else will ever have that exact same tattoo.

The tattoos on my husband’s back are based off flash art that you can find in tattoo shops. I wish I could remember the artist’s name on the yin yang dragon. The yin yang has always been special to my husband and when I saw that one in the book I pointed it out to him right away. He loved it enough to have it done. Whenever I look at that tattoo I always think of the lines from the Mummy Returns:

Ardeth Bay: If I were to say to you that, “I am a stranger traveling from the East, seeking that which is lost”…
Rick: Then I would reply that, “I am a stranger traveling from the West, it is I whom you seek.”

When my husband was originally getting the first tattoo, before the guy even started with any ink he used the tattoo needle on my husband’s back to be sure he could handle it, a dry run so to speak. Obviously my husband could handle the sensation. The back tattoo took 8 hours the first time it was done, then 10 hours when it was touched up. The arm piece only took about 2 hours.