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You're not going to believe this!

Started by The Troll King,

70 posts in this topic

The Troll King

The Troll King

Posted
Posted

Ok, so a few months ago I got this bright idea that I was going to get a tattoo.

I'm not really the tattoo kind of person but my wife has wanted one for a long time and suddenly I though, sure I'd get a tattoo.

 

Anyway, I hadn't really thought of what I'd get as a tattoo and then I kept looking at my Mark Brooks Vampirella which I use as my wallpaper on my iPhone.

 

For those of you that don't remember it, here it is:

 

MarkBrooksVampirella.jpg

 

The more I looked at it, the more I thought, "Hey, that would make a pretty cool tattoo!"

 

So, I did what I normally do and I started over-researching tattoo artists. My wife and I went to two different book stores and bought every tattoo magazine on the shelves. I subscribed to two of them, looked at pictures on the internet, etc. etc.

 

I checked a few shops in San Antonio and was not pleased with the portfolios I was seeing. Finally I found a guy in Oklahoma City that was featured in a magazine I had picked up and I had decided this was probably the guy.

 

One weekend when I came home (as I work out of town and only come home about once a month) I went down to Deep Ellum in Dallas where there are some tattoo shops. I wanted to make sure that there wasn't a stone left unturned in seeking an artist. I had my portfolio with me with my Brooks Vampi and showed it to a few people. Looking at the portfolios at two different shops I was really turned off and figured the guy in Oklahoma was my best shot.

 

I was just about to leave Deep Ellum (which is an area east of downtown Dallas that has lots of clubs, bars, etc.) and I got on Elm Street. Elm Street runs one-way heading west and is most famous for being the road that JFK was shot on. As I turned and started heading west I saw another tattoo shop and figured I'd go ahead and stop and take a look.

 

The name of the place was "Elm Street Tattoo". Here's a shot of the outside.

 

elm-street-header.jpg

 

The place was full of all kinds of odds and ends on shelves that ran around the entire place. There was old Star Wars toys, bobble-heads, action figures, gumball machine trinkets, etc.

 

I walked in with my portfolio and showed it to a guy and told him what I was thinking about doing. I asked him if he could recommend an artist and he said, you need to talk to Dean Williams. He gave me Dean's card and I started flipping through his portfolio. I was floored! Some of the pictures in his portfolio were incredible! I knew I had found my artist!

 

I left there delighted. I came home and started doing further research and found Dean's Myspace page:

 

http://www.myspace.com/normanwilliams

 

I also learned that Elm Street Tattoo was actually pretty well known. Why? Because the co-owner of the place (Dean is part owner) is Oliver Peck. Oliver use to be married to Kat Von D and she frequently use to work in the shop. Their website is actually more than two years outdated and Kat is still listed as one of the shop artists.

 

http://www.elmstreettattoo.com/

 

There are several Youtube videos of several of the artists doing various things in the shop. They hold an annual Friday the 13 event where they will tattoo "13" on people for $13. Normally they are going after the world record by doing this in 24 hours which both Kat and Oliver have done in this shop.

 

Here's a video of a Vans photo shoot in the shop:

It's pretty funny because Oliver busts his frequently in the shoot.

 

 

So, after looking at more of Dean's work I was still really impressed. I eventually got the courage to email him and after emailing back and forth a few times I now had an appointment!

 

I met Dean for the first time in person yesterday at about 5pm. I had resized and printed out a high res copy of mym Brooks Vampi and I felt like the size was perfect for my lower left leg.

 

Dean needed a little time to draw it up so my wife and I went next door to a cafe and had a light dinner.

 

About 7:30pm or so after milling around and Dean going back and forth as to design issues he started to work on my leg.

 

When he realized it was my first tattoo he warned he that it was going to ing hurt. After getting started it did hurt a little but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. At times it definitely hurt like hell but it wasn't completely unbearable.

 

Here's a shot of Dean at work on my leg:

100_1326.jpg

 

We took breaks about once an hour or so just to give me a chance to move around and to take a smoke break. He didn't want me looking at it until it was finished so I did my best to not. My wife kept talking about how awesome some part of it was and I really wanted to look but I held off.

 

The last hour was the worst! Oh God, it hurt SO bad. Now... keep in mind when I say last hour, it was now nearly 2:30am! That's right... nearly 7 hours later! My wife had gone back to the cafe earlier to get me some orange juice. Dean is diabetic so he was drinking grape sodas to keep his blood sugar up. It was like the marathon from hell!

 

Every artist and every sight-seerer and other people getting tattoos kept talking about how great it looked. One of the artists at about hour 5 asked Dean when he was going to be finished with my damn tattoo and then told me that he was only trying to stop him from hurting me!

 

When I was outside after it was finished I asked one of the artists how he thought I held up being that it was my first tattoo. He said, "Dude, you did amazing! Most people never last more than 3 hours because the pain just gets too intense and it's always that last hour that hurts the most because you're anticpating it being over."

 

I gave him a smile through my shakiness (as my nerves had been so tense for so long that my body was almost in shock from the release) I thanked him for the compliment and he told me how awesome the tattoo was.

 

So... long story I know, thanks for bearing with me... here comes a couple of pictures! Keep in mind this tattoo is less than 24 hours old and my skin is still really red and sore. I have some healing to do.

 

Also, the glare from the flash can be seen at the top and being so fresh, there's really no way to avoid it.

 

First shot:

 

VampirellaTattoo.jpg

 

Detail of the face and upper body.

 

VampirellaTattooDetail.jpg

 

After it heals there's going to be a few touch ups and finishes made to it. Mostly the white highlights will be added to her hair and a few other places.

 

So, what do you guys think? :)

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The Troll King

The Troll King

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What I'm most surprised about is that these pics my wife took were after I had gotten out of the shower and washed it for the first time just a couple of hours ago.

 

It really looks to me that I'm going to heal well as I'm not oozing plasma really badly.

 

After I heal completely I'll take some more pics and post them!

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KolmarAvenue

KolmarAvenue

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Nice, I'm looking for my next piece to get myself. It may just be Texas! I've got tattoos and found a place I like, or actually an artist I like about 2 miles from me! I can relate with looking for the right artist, it's so much harder than people think. I'm feeling very lucky to have someone so close. For the non-tattoed, imagine finding the perfect comic shop, it's very elusive...

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Not*Sure*

Not*Sure*

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Nice placement of it too. It pays to be selective when going for a nice tat. Tattoo parties and "some guy from down the street" can make some hellacious mistakes.

 

A friend of mine ended up after a night of drinking with a jail house type tat from a party. Says " This" Across her knuckles spelled out with all the letters and " That" across her butt. She is a very cute 19-20 yrs old. She really regrets them because she is having a hard time finding a job. It has to suck when you are filling out an application and you have the Fbomb tatted on your hand holding the pen...

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rob_allan

rob_allan

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Well-- it's freaking fantastic. The thing most notable to me is-- I like the tat better than the original piece. The moon is nicer, moon placement is better, linework in her hair is nicer, and I like the look of the clouds too.

 

You won't regret it. It's a great piece and you've got it in a location where you can disguise it when you feel it's not appropriate to show off.

 

-Rob-

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