alright - who's got the graphic art talent?

[short bus president]

I've settled in on designing a tattoo I've wanted for years but have been unable to transfer from my mind's eye to paper. I'd rather be able to show my chosen skin artist an image than have him/her "wing it" on my verbal description. In an ideal world, I'd rather work with my chosen skin artist to do the design from the ground up, but they tend to charge for design consult time as well as actual inking time, and I'm gonna be picky enough about this image that the consult expense would be too outrageous (the 12 or more inking sessions are going to be expensive enough).

I clearly lack the artisitic abilities to create an accurate representation on paper of this image I can see quite vividly in my mind. I've culled various pictures online and from books - I can identify the elements from each picture I want to pilfer and use in my own design, but again I appear utterly unable to lift and combine them by my own hand. I basically need a full-color, cop-style sketch artist to more or less volunteer to help me out if this thing is ever gonna see the light of day.

Who has tips on where I might troll for such an individual, other than here in the Lounge (which I figured was at least worth a shot - I know there are some damn talented DUers out there)?

Sucks ass that I took the short bus to art class.

[short bus president]

1. and an additional (probably equally well-received) plea for assistance

on my part:

If anyone has a recommendation for a skin artist in the NC area (preferably close to Chapel Hill), I'm all ears. My only tattoos have come from Tennessee, and the choice of studios is for some reason much broader here. I want the best.

[short bus president]

4. kick

for any Sunday afternoon latecomers?

:kick:

[nuxvomica]

2. So describe what you want

Don't be shy.

[short bus president]

3. It's not a matter of "shy"

It's that I'LL FUCKING RIP THE SKIN OFF OF ANYONE WHO GETS IT BEFORE I DO WITH MY GODDAMNED TWO FRONT TEETH I'm maybe a little overprotective of my concept. But I've described it here before, a long time ago, so could probably do it again.

I want to do a mid-back, full color piece of (presently) indeterminate shape, but roughly equivalent to a 6-8" diameter circle.

The outer edges would be inked to look like skin flaps cut open and pinned back in the manner of a dissection. Not sure how best to get the right effect, but probably a square-ish opening with 4 flaps pinned out in a sort of 4-leaf clover pattern, as opposed to going for "round."

The peeled back skin would reveal an internal space made to look like a sort of "control center," with levers and pulleys and guages and maybe an old school steam valve and all sorts of science-lookin' apparati. At the center, levetating, is that funky-looking multi-armed hindu god character, with all arms employed working the various machinery, except for the top two, which are folded in prayer.

It has to have a somehow "believable" blend of the realistic and the more-or-less cartoonish, which is the most difficult part of it for me to work out.

[DS1]

7. that sounds fucking cool!

What I can say is that genre is called "bio-mech" in the industry.

It also sounds like a really nifty photoshop job!

contemplates doing it...

[Wonk]

8. re: biomech tattoos, I found this with a quick google search

A large gallery of biomech tattoos. You or SBP might find some inspiration there :-)

http://www.bmezine.com/tattoo/mech1.html

[DS1]

10. fuckin A, someone's got the Giger gun! sweet!

I deleted the pic, just in case the webmaster at that site backtracks the link source, and gets your idea.

/paranoid

[short bus president]

11. The real question,

of course, is whether there's an artist alive good enough to place your sig image strategically over a muscle for that flex-motion action.

[DS1]

12. well, if I put his arm on my leg

and ran down the street (follow the image with me) naked, it might do the trick :evilgrin:

[short bus president]

13. Never thought I'd see it here!

"If I put his arm on my leg... naked..."

I ALWAYS KNEW YOU WERE A CLOSET SHRUBHUMPER!

:P

[DS1]

14. oh really

---- ---!

let's play hangman :evilgrin:

[short bus president]

15. How 'bout "20 Questions" instead?

Tonight I have in mind a certain smart-assed DUer IN NEED OF AN ASS-KICKIN'!

Questions in the subject line, please, and GOOD LUCK!

:P

[short bus president]

5. one more kick for the Sunday evening crowd.

:kick:

"Bueller? --- Bueller?"

[Wonk]

6. Just thought I'd let you know I'm not ignoring this. You ask for a lot.

For the amount of work that'd go into doing it well, and that it's just a vanity job, I'd expect to get paid for it. I suspect other artists feel similarly, but maybe you'll get lucky.

[short bus president]

9. much obliged, Sir Wonk

I may be better off just soliciting advice on which area skin artists to visit and audition for the project - this strikes me as something that should maybe be carried through beginning-to-end by the same set of eyes, with the same vision.

I'm pretty sure it's too late to edit the subject line now, though. May just check on that...

[short bus president]

16. one more kick

for the Monday afternoon crowd. I appreciate all the input thus far on this (except for DS1's... his input SUCKS! :P ). Wonder if I'd have better luck if I put the word "fetish" in the subject line?

;-)