Tattoo Talk Thursday: Vampire Duckie (The Nightmare Before Christmas)

Welcome back to another Tattoo Talk Thursday! It's been a while since I did one of these, but it's been a while since I got tattooed! (And I'm sorry it's a day late, things got a little busy for me yesterday.) The last time was back in April when I got the strawberries done on my throat and the mess of lettering on there all cleaned up and looking fly. I went back to the same artist that I've been going to for my last few tattoos. (His Instagram and other links are down below.) I've been really happy with his work and I know that I'd be comfortable having him tattoo my stomach, which is a sensitive area for me. I don't really like showing it off. I'm gaining some body confidence here and there. I booked in with him the day that he finished by throat to have a pride piece done originally. But do to quitting my job and the unease of certain things with me, I decided to put the pride piece on hold and do it another time. It's a toss up between that and one piece that you'll see featured in another blog soon. Thankfully, I already have the artwork all drawn up for him and it's ready to go. It's a little bit big in the original drawing, but that's fine, it can be shunk during the stenciling stage. I drew it originally wanting it to be a little larger piece, but then I realised that I wouldn't be able to do the lowest part of my stomach with my rocketman tattoo and that's just not cool. The reference art for the piece is a still shot from The Nightmare Before Christmas where the vampires are making presents. Yes! They're the ones that make the vampire duckie. I mean, really who else? It's a vampire after all. I thought it was just the cutiest. Originally, I thought about having all the vampires making the vampire duckie going up my side, then I got Beethoven's love letter there back in LA in 2015 and that kinda shot that idea. Also, it would probably kinda have to wrap onto my back and that would get in the way of the big piece that I have planned for that. It takes me about a half hour to draw it up from the still shot. The film is dark, so I had to use other photos when it got down to the fine details, like the little sharp teeth. He shrinks it so it will fit in the palm of my hand easily and he sets to work on the tattoo. I love the atmosphere of the shop. There's always good music, good conversations and everyone is really friendly. When he was putting the stencil on I asked him to get as close as possible to the snorlax. I'm starting to connect all the pieces on my stomach and working them into my ribcage. I'm gonna have this body suit done by the time im 40. I know when I was 18, I said I'd have it done by 30, but things get in the way, money, travel, COVID and time. Maybe make it 35? I have almost all of my back to do and that's going to really cost me and having bottom surgery is going to slow me down, so probably closer to 40 I'll have my entire body done. Jesus. Where is the time going? I just want to say this for the record. I hate having my stomach tattooed. It's soft and the pale stretch marks and self-harm scars on the side that he's tattooing are delicate. It feels like I'm being cut, but I lay perfectly still. I know that most of that pain is in my head, that I'm okay and that I don't need to move. Part of me wants to watch, since I love watching people (including myself when possible) be tattooed. It's always shitty getting this part of me tattooed. I did most of my front in one go with three different artists within a 24-hour period. Now I'm looking to fill in the rest of my sides. I tell him to pick the colour for the ribbon and the box, do whatever he wants, I'm not picky at all; I'd just like th colour of the ribbon not to clash with the pinks of the peoneies around snorlax. (That has to be one of my all time favourite tattoos that I've gotten over the past 13 years.)He leaves enough space so if I want to do like a colour pop background to the tattoo at a later date I can. Now I'm thinking about a nice evil lavender colour to offset the piece. Might have to have him do that when I head back to him. I think he'd be down with that. It takes him a little over an hour to finish the tattoo. He tells me I can get up and take a look at it and it's another knock out. He even got the little dribbles of blood coming from the what I like to call bullet holes in the duck. There's only a little bit of redness around the area. I was worried that the skin he was tattooing over wouldn't allow us to finish because he was working on a pretty rough patch, but things went perfect. I'm going to have him finish the Magdeburg skyline on my stomach. I just did the outline, but now that it needs a bit of a touch up, I'm going to have him rework it. It's probably going to kill me, but eh. Beauty is pain, right? Also in other news I have a TikTok for my artwork ONLY. (@darkdreamingdaniel) I won't be responding to messages on the account at all, watching videos or subscribing to anyone. People who I've subcribed to I know personally. If you want to connect with me do so via my other social media! If you message on TikTok wanting other social media or permissions to use an image/video those will be replied to. : ) It's only out there to get my artwork seen a little more than it has been. If that changes I will post a notification. I'm wanting to keep certain things seperate. I might even do an Instagram just for my artwork so people can see that. I don't get to draw all that often, but I do have a lot of ideas and parts of ideas that I'd like to put out there for feedback. Thanks everyone! MY TWITTER & INSTAGRAM KEVINS LINKS