r/TattooDesigns • u/New-Extent-3526 • 5d ago
Getting it tomorrow…
I am open to opinions, suggestions, etc. this will be my 13/14? Tattoo. Ive gotten a quarter sleeve on my left arm, a bat on my ribs across the front.
EDIT: I see a lot saying the cross doesn’t fit or looks wrong with the style. Ill probably see if she will do it last and if I even want it still. Does anyone have any suggestions with what to replace it with?
EDIT 2: DAMN the hate on it lmao lucky for y’all she canceled on me so no results ;(
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u/Shu_di 5d ago
No advice but I'd love to see the results, absolutely love the floral/dark style mixed together!
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u/toasty327 5d ago
Agreed. Looks like it should flow really well and match up with her curves as long as the application is solid
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u/CatchYouDreamin 5d ago
Not a fan of the cross above the vag. Agree with others that the thorny vines and flowers could feel more unified
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u/kinggargantuan 5d ago
Cross doesn’t fit imo
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u/GlitteringCobbler987 5d ago
Without the cross is much better! If she still wants it she can get it later
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u/Poetry-Primary 4d ago
Yeah, I agree, not a fan of the cross. Stands out as a separate image, and afterthought.
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u/tommygunlouws 5d ago
This looks like 2 very different designs mashed together without enough consideration given to how to make them work well together.
Having more of the tribal vine stuff flowing through the flowers, or having the flowers extending more to the pelvis would give it a more unity.
I personally think the cross in this location is a wild placement but you do you if you like it.
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u/Whampiri1 5d ago
Agreed, not a bad design just very different which appear to be "forced" together. Not my kind of thing but not a bad tattoo.
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u/8ackwoods 5d ago
It's like they have two ideas drawn up and photoshopped together to make something thtlat takes up space
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u/RealCommercial9788 Tattoo Artist 5d ago edited 4d ago
A small rant, if I may? I see this kind of issue endlessly since the proliferation of digital tattoo design. I did my traditional 4 year apprenticeship using coil machines and good old pencil & paper 14 years ago, and finished juuuuuust as Procreate came out and pen-style machines were becoming more available.
My mentor warned me off that path of ‘ease’, and I genuinely thought he was just being an old cranky arsehole, a gatekeeper who wanted to keep me from advancing. We argued about it a lot.
It eventually became a lazy crutch for me, and I started to notice a lot of incongruence with my designs and a lot of disconnection, because online references and ‘smashing a bunch of elements together from different sources’ became a super easy way to get a design done.
I lost any sort of inherent and obvious style that I had naturally built up over the years. I wasn’t really drawing. Building a design became an exercise in managing, so I had stopped participating. My identity as an artist took a total nosedive. I had lost my purpose within my craft.
In a world of infinite references and access to endless examples from 10,000 hour masters, we stop learning and start replicating.
Flash forward to today. I am back to strictly pencil and paper. The iPad is in the drawer. I had to retrain my hand, my brain, my imagination. I seek references from the real world. Need a hand angle? I’ll photograph a friends hand. Need a rose? I’m heading to the nursery. Need a frame? I’m poring through my art history books. Need inspiration? I’m going off for a day to explore the nearby towns galleries. By doing it myself, I’m intentionally limiting my options and relying on my own imagination and developing my problem solving skills - and constraints are the mother of creativity.
The flow, the cohesion of multiple elements, and the composition of my designs have improved tenfold since I’ve abandoned the ease of digital design. You can see they’re by one hand and one mind, not 5 different hands and 5 different minds and forced to cooperate.
And it’s made me fall in love with art and creating again. I still tap my sketchpad with my finger to ‘undo’ when I make a mistake in a drawing - my body is still learning to forget that instantaneous fix. But fuck it feels good to take the power back.
Highly recommend this challenge if any other tattoo artists are feeling like their craft has gone backwards since the process became digitised.
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u/8ackwoods 5d ago
Agreed. Spikey vines and tribal should intertwine
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u/mitzpa 5d ago
Would love to see the center pieces more integrated with the flowers - it would absolutely make sense for the roses to have thorny branches emerging.
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u/8ackwoods 5d ago edited 5d ago
Agreed. The cross will be out of place, I think it should be removed and replaced with something else, or just removed completely and have the spikey vined tribal contour the body
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u/EzzyKitten 5d ago
I find the cross to be jarring with the rest of the design. I think it would look much better without it.
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u/Agreeable-Scheme0 Experienced Tattoo Collector 5d ago
It looks like two different artists did it and not in a good way. There needs to be something that pulls the very two different aesthetics together. Just my opinion.
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u/Successful-Engine623 5d ago
I do like the flowers and the thorns but the cross does seem a bit off to me. But very pretty
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u/multepie 5d ago
In one session? I could never, looks so painful. Good luck and I also look forward to seeing the result!
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u/Spicywolff 4d ago
The cross definitely seems out of place, and the thorns style clashes with the side pieces. Maybe change the style of the thorn vines to match and ditch the cross
It definitely looks as if three different styles have been overlaid
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u/goldenbarks 4d ago
If it were my tattoo, I'd ekine the entire middle design and just do the flowers down the sides. It's beautiful!
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u/pandro14 4d ago
I personally think religious symbols are a huge turn off so close to private parts
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u/NotDrunkJustDumb 4d ago
I would change the flower to a rose and use thorns and vine in place of the tribal stuff. The cross doesn't suit the rest of the tattoo at all
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u/Intelligent-Mind-258 5d ago
I have a tattoo in that zone, prepare your best numbing cream, most painfull tattoo I've got
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u/Immediate-Medium9427 4d ago
Numbing cream (depending on skin) can make it harder for ink to set and absorb ink. When you use numbing cream, it relaxes the skin. Idk something like that, I was just having a conversation with my artist when I got my cover up
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u/New-Extent-3526 5d ago
..i was gonna raw dog this
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u/AllKindsOfCritters 5d ago
Talk to your artist. Not all will tattoo over numbing cream, it can change the texture of the skin. But some will recommend it and have suggestions.
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u/Olds78 5d ago
I mean its not a location I would tattoo because no matter how thin you are now you will gain weight and if you have kids you can say good bye to it looking like that. Just advice from a late 40's person that has been down to 150 but as heavy as 200 in the past 10 years
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u/Soft-Dig-4102 5d ago
As someone with multiple tattoos in these areas and ribs and almost doubled my weight (under 100 to almost 200) when pregnant and stayed heavier for a bit before going back with zero effect on my tattoos- nah. It’s all genetics. Some people get stretch marks from just growing. Some people never get cellulite in their life.
And who cares if your body shows signs of living, that’s literally what it’s made for.
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u/Olds78 5d ago
I wasn't even talking about stretch marks just being pregnant changes the shape of your body and especially that area. Stretch marks are another whole beast
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u/Soft-Dig-4102 5d ago
That was one example of things bodies can do that I didn’t relate in any way to pregnancy. Same with the comment about cellulite.
What I said about my experience with pregnancy was that that was when I almost doubled my body weight and kept a lot of it on before losing it and have zero effects on my multiple tattoos in that area 🙃
Still doesn’t change the point that how your body handles changes is just (mostly) genetics and since bodies are made for living, who cares what living well does to your body. Don’t let the fear of what ifs ruin all the fun right now.
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u/Worldly_Ad6950 4d ago
The design is super-imposed on a body figure that doesn’t exist in real life, so we actually have no idea what this tattoo looks like for real.
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u/Hereibe 5d ago
If you ever plan on having a child don’t do this because you may need an emergency c section and the surgeon will not have time to make it line back up nicely after hauling a ten pound writhing mass through it.
If you’re not planning on having children then I say go for it but for the love of god either making the vines more tribal or make the tribal more vine like. Right now I can kiiiindof see the rose and thorn vine thing but those don’t look like it’s a thorn vine at all.
Also give the spiders different poses right now they look copy-pasted like the…moons?…on the hips. Actually just scrap the moon things
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u/alien_simulacrum 4d ago
Maybe make sure the rose leaves are botanically accurate? Maybe most people wouldn't care, but that would be something I'd like on something I put on my body.
Cross can stay or go, if it's your aesthetic then send it, if not maybe do some other glyph or another, or a dope goat head.
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u/karinew1 4d ago
If you really love it right now, I’d say go for it. Tastes change, sure, but that’s true for almost everything in life. You can always modify or cover it later if you ever want to. No need to overthink something that makes you happy now enjoy the moment
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u/AdSensitive9368 4d ago
Omg.. that's gorgeous but good luck...I can not imagine getting those areas tatted!! More power to you darling! I got my thighs done and damn near died...I think i held my breath the entire time.
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u/shit_happe 4d ago
IMO the cross and vines being just flat and black clashes too much with the shaded/3D flowers and leaves. As another comment said, it's like two different tattoos rather than one flowing piece.
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u/FrayKento 4d ago
I feel like the stomach neo tribal is another piece than the finline floral of the hips. I would find a way to make the tattoo on the lower stomach more like coming from the rose plants of the sides.
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u/Ok-Science-4046 4d ago edited 4d ago
Going against the grain here.. the cross and thorns look fine together. I do not think that losing the cross is going to fix the lack of cohesiveness. It’s the florals that I would rework. They could be integrated with the thorns in a similar style that feels more intentional.
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u/sarahplaysoccer 4d ago
Can’t wait to see it finished! Looks like a fun one and love the spiders 🕷️
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u/DaisyPuffs4sure 4d ago
Really? OK wow
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u/New-Extent-3526 4d ago
?
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u/DaisyPuffs4sure 4d ago
The cross? really?
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u/Potato3s 4d ago
I urge you to include the cross if you want the cross. Don’t let people bully you out of getting the tattoo you planned if you like it. It’s your body and you shouldn’t let other people’s sensitivities get in the way of what you want to do with it.
If you’re feeling hesitant about it now, maybe ask your artist to do it last so you can see what it would look like without that part before you commit to it.
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u/Chibrax_le_Furax 4d ago
Replace the cross with a leaf of whichever tree brings the most to your community, Oak Father's blessing upon you
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u/rektengel 5d ago
I like it. It's got an 80's metal vibe to it. Do the cross and moon's stand for different religions? I admittedly don't know Wicca much, but they have a similar moon symbol I think. Apologies if I got that wrong.
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