Nadine's Ankh and Orchids

I met Nadine last month and she was kind enough to share this beautiful floral piece with us:

The symbol in the foreground is her own "stylized version" of an ankh, a symbol dating back to ancient Egypt which means eternal life.

She has orchids added to the piece because her mother loves those flowers.The orchids were inked about five years ago which is remarkable because reds and yellows tend to fade more quickly on the skin and, Nadine notes, "so far my color has held true".

The ankh took about 45 minutes to do while the rest of the tattoo took five and a half hours over two sittings.

She wanted to point out that the outline is done in purple ink, not black, a nice artistic touch that she convinced her artist was a good choice.

This lovely tattoo was done at New York Adorned, by Brian Randolph.

Work from NY Adorned has been posted previously here (links to all posts tagged NY Adorned).

Thanks again to Nadine for sharing this fantastic tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Mandy's Leopard Stars

I spotted Mandy on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan last month and I had to stop her to ask about this, one of her three tattoos:


She came up with the design and made sure to include the leopard print that she likes so much.

She credits the artist Eric Newby at Ink Xpressions on Ringgold Road in East Ridge (Chattanooga), Tennessee.

You may notice another tattoo peeking into the picture, so let me show you the larger perspective and a glimpse of the piece to the left of the stars:


Mandy informed me later, via e-mail, that the floral piece

"was actually a stencil I found, and I really liked the design a lot. I had two black and white tattoos, so I wanted bright colors and we decided no outlines would look cool. It was a long process to get the colors I wanted to absorb, but it was well worth it in the end. The artist was Shane Hartline at Evermore Galleries in Chattanooga".

Thanks to Mandy for sharing these tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!