Ink Nerd meets Red Rocket

Ok, finally, here are the “in progress” shots of the now-two-week-old triceratops skull tattoo; lots more after the jump…

Mike Bellamy of Red Rocket Tattoo giving me the business (photo by Amy).

The obligatory “before” shot (photo by Amy).

Mike’s design, scaled and trimmed to fit my arm. We wound up enlarging it once because I wanted it a little bigger than his first size estimate. He was happy to oblige.

Mike steadily working through the outline (photo by Amy).

Mike took this photo during a break, relatively early on. You can see the purple stencil where I haven’t been inked yet.

Mike continues the outline (photo by Amy).

The completed outline. Is that badass, or what?! (photo by Amy)

The skull is finished, now work on the greenery begins (photo by Mark).

I didn’t get any action shots between the previous shot and the next; Amy and Mark had to go back to work, and Mike and I both had to concentrate hard to get through the last 2 hours of the session (total needling time was just over 4 hours).

There was some bleeding and grimacing on my part (you don’t want to see pictures of that, anyway, right?), but I tried to at least sit still and not audibly whimper. It was really cool, though, to see it all come together.

Posing for portfolio photographs (photo by Mike).

All in all, it was a really amazing experience. I was so thrilled with Mike’s custom design; he really captured every element that I wanted, but made it his own. I had been trying not to imagine what the design might look like, since I didn’t want to be disappointed, but he exceeded expectations! His friendly, low-key demeanor was really calming. Most of the session didn’t even hurt too badly; the sensation was almost therapeutic (at least at first).

The bottom line, however, is that I love this tattoo, and am proud to wear it. Thanks, Mike; I hope to work with you again soon!