Now, every tattoo artist who enjoys doing custom gets excited at the prospect of being given a canvas of that size; but we all know that talk is proverbially cheap. Most people who talk about full back pieces flake out long before the first line of the design is drawn. Most tattoo artists consider themselves fortunate if they're able to start 5 or 6 back pieces a year; and REALLY lucky if they get to finish 2 or 3 a year! Tattoos that size are expensive and require a lot more commitment than most people realize when they start talking about them.

In Tommy's case I was fortunate- he was serious. As I worked away, packing black into his tattoo, he described the design he wanted:

Kali, the Hindu Deity of Death, with some fire as the center piece. Lord Yama, the Tibetan God of Death above Kali's left shoulder; and Lord Yamantaka, the Tibetan God of The Dead above Kali's right shoulder.

Other than including those elements, the design was up to me. Anyone who is familiar with my work knows that my personal focus is on traditional Japanese style tattooing and that my work is heavily influenced by Asian art of all kinds. In fact, I've traveled pretty extensively througout asia to study the art. But that's another story.

Sufficed to say, this was exactly the kind of tattoo that I love doing. As ‘stoked' as I was about doing his tattoo, Tommy agreed to let me document the experience. In order to make this project work, we agreed that we'd have to schedule regular appointments and that they'd have to be every week or two to make it worth posting on the internet. If we spread the appointments out any further, or scheduled them irregularly, it would be difficult for people to follow our progress. This posed a couple of problems:

First of all, getting a good tattoo isn't cheap- even if you're a regular and devoted customer! I wanted to work every week for as long as he could take it; but at my hourly rate that added up to a lot of money, and quickly. As much as Tommy wanted to go along with my plan, there was no way he could afford it financially.

Second of all, not too many people can take 4 (or more) hours of tattooing week after week. Some people can and some can't. Since Tommy's only other tattoo was the tribal I was working on, we didn't know if Tommy was one of those who could. He had a tendency to pass out! The first appointment I had tattooing him began with Tommy passing out 2 or 3 times- starting with the first couple of lines! Every time we worked on his leg he had an ‘episode;' but he was able to get through it and he stuck it out until his appointment was over. With this in mind, II was concerned about getting into tattooing his whole back!

Then I had to consider whether or not his body would recover (from a 4+ hour tattoo session) enough in one week to go back to tattooing for hours the following week. I wasn't, at all, sure that I was going to be able to crank through this tattoo the way that I wanted to.

I thought about the whole idea until Tommy came in for his final appointment to finish the tribal on his leg. I decided it was worth giving a try. I could always stop, or slow down, if he stopped healing up quickly; and if he began burning out from the pace we could slow it down. The only holdup was the financial aspect. With a fairly new studio absorbing every spare cent that comes my way, finances are always a major concern in my life. Finally I decided on a compromise.

While I tattooed on Tommy I talked to him- expressing my concerns but explaining that I thought it would work. I suggested a credit arrangement that would allow him to get the tattoo he wanted (and that I wanted to do) without draining the family finances. After hearing my proposal he agreed! I figured that if the man was willing to trust me with his whole back, and was willing to endure the merciless pace I was suggesting, the least I could do was to find a way for him to afford it. The deal we struck is fair to both of us.

Let the Games Begin!

As October rolled into November Tommy and I began doing research. He was pretty specific about what he wanted Kali to look like. He wanted a relatively ‘human' looking face versus the stylized faces that are often used in depicting Kali. He, also, wanted specific ‘mudras' (hand positions) that convey a message. Tommy looked for examples of things he liked; and I researched, and sketched, things that I wanted. Gradually an image began to form in my mind that I thought he and I would both like. I began drawing.

It took several very late nights at the tattoo shop for me to come up with a sketch that I liked. Much less something that I was comfortable showing the other people at Body Adorned or Tommy! When I, finally, brought the sketch out I saw heads shaking and eyebrows rise. I started sweating. Eventually Bobby Love looked up from the drawing and told me I was, “nutz!” I thought, WHAT the..? HUH?

A smile cracked on his face and he said he really liked it. As usual, I had gone a little nutty on the detail and it's always been a source of brotherly ribbing from Bobby and other associates of mine. PHEW!

I got a similar reaction from Tommy. I called him and asked him to stop by to look at the preliminary drawing. When he got to the the studio the detail took him a little by surprise. He had been concerned that some of the elements (i.e. the hands and the jewelry) would be impossible to do even at that scale. Even when I was able to include all the ‘little things,' it seemed to worry him. After a little discussion, and some reassurance from Bob, he came around and began getting really excited. All we had to do was set a date to get started.

We decided that December 21st was the day we'd do the first part of the outline. Even though we could have done all of the outline on the first day, I wanted to cut Tommy a little slack and limit that first day to around 8 hours or so. It's really easy to burn a client out on a big project by putting them through too much too fast. The last thing I wanted was for Tommy to burn out- we had a lot of tattooing ahead of us.

On December 21st Tommy showed up at the shop around 2 O'clock in the afternoon. As usual I didn't have anything ready to go, so I began making needles while Tommy ran to a copy shop to get have copies made of the drawing. Because there was so much tiny detail in the jewelry, the headdresses and all the hands I needed some really thin liners; but I needed some fairly heavy lines on Kali's body. I made 6 needles for the day: 2 really tight 4 needle liners, 2 tight 5 needle liners and 2 regular 7 needle liners. For a big outline I like to have backup needles in case something goes wrong with one of the one's I'm using.

I put the new needles and the liner tubes I'd chosen in the Statim (autoclave) to sterilize and began setting up my station while I waited for Tommy to get back. By the time I'd finished Tommy was back and I began cutting up one of the copies into sections that would fit into the thermafax (stencil maker). One of the biggest headaches with a backpiece, especially one with this much detail, is figuring how to chop up the design in a way that it can be put back together- without totally screwing up the intricate design when you apply the stencil to the skin. I ended up making 8 different stencils.

Tommy's wife had given his back a preliminary shave before he came to the shop so all I had to do was give it a quick once-over with a razor. After wiping his back down with alcohol we began putting the stencil on.

This is where the adventure really got weird. I was putting the third piece of the puzzle on his back when Tommy says, “Hang on a sec. I think I need to sit down for a second!” I'm thinking: What the…? This has to be a joke!

He sits down with his elbows on his knees and rests his chin on his up-turned hands. I ask him if he's alright and he says, “Yeah, I just started feeling light headed for some reason. Everything started to close in on me, like I was going to black out.” Now every tattoo artist has had clients get woozy and pass out at some time in their career; but I've NEVER heard of anyone passing out when the stencil was being put on! With Tommy's history of becoming lightheaded I almost expected him to need a break at some time, but I sure wasn't expecting it this early on. This was truly a first. I began to wonder if this tattoo was really going to happen. After a few minutes, and some soda, he said he was feeling better and that he was ready to start again.

When he stood up and turned around I couldn't believe my eyes! When he got lightheaded he had bro ken out in a cold sweat and completely melted the stencil off! His back was just a giant smudge of purple. This was not going well.

I cleaned the mess off his back and began to reapply the stencils. Sure enough, about half way through getting the design in place, Tommy says, “Hold up for a minute!” Oh SHIT! Before he could sit down I began hustling him, by the arm, through the tattoo shop and out the front door into the cold December air. There was NO WAY I was going to start all over again- it was already after 5pm . I think Tommy was a little shocked at the way I scooted his butt through the shop and it seemed to take his mind off the tattoo- which I think was the cause of him getting lightheaded in the first place. The combination of the cold air and having his mind distracted from what he was doing kept him from sweating the stencil off. While he did manage to sweat part of it off, the majority stayed intact. When we went back inside, and finished putting the rest of the stencil on, he didn't have any problems. The rest of the stenciling process went surprisingly fast and it wasn't long before we were able to get to work.

Tommy sat really well. He was able to keep himself positioned so that his skin was pretty well stretched out. So it made my job really easy. I was really worried about the stencil for Kali's crown not staying, so I started there. It took almost an hour and a half to do the head and crown. Then I moved to Yamantaka- I needed to get all those little hands tattooed on before Tommy had one of his little ‘episodes.' Luckily, he didn't get lightheaded at all once I started actually tattooing on him. I worked through Yamantaka and took a smoke break. Then we were back to work on Lord Yama. Once the two smaller figures were done I moved onto Kali's body. We took a smoke break every hour and a half, or so. 7 ½ hours after we tattooed the first line, we were finished with the initial outline!

I sent a very sore and tired Tommy home wrapped in saran wrap; and I headed home. I'm not sure which one of us was more tired. That day was one of the most draining of my entire career in spite of how satisfying it was. As exhausted as I was, I knew I'd be anxious to get back to work on it.

Since Christmas is only a few days away I guess I'll have some distraction. Since Tommy has a daughter there was no way he's going to be able to get worked on until after the Christmas holidays anyway. I think from here on out I'm going to do this in a diary form.

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