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Tips for planning a half sleeve

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  • 20-09-2008 7:56pm
    #1
    Molberts
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,560 ✭✭✭


    Never one to do things by halves, my lovely man has decided he wants an half sleeve for his first tattoo :D

    Any tips for planning out/designing a half sleeve?

    I don't mean what content, rather how to structure it. For example is it best to always have one main element and design around it, or can you have several complimentary elements working together?

    At the moment he's just looking at loads of portfolios to get ideas.

    thanks! :)


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    #2
    Will
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,183 ✭✭✭✭Will


    It's really up to him at the end of the day what way he wants it, I've seen lots of sleeves in varying styles with 1 main element or lots of lil mini elements floating about.

    Probably depend a lot on what style of tattoo he chooses


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    #3
    Molberts
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,560 ✭✭✭Molberts


    Cheers Will, might drag him to the convention so he can get some ideas. :)


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    #4
    Will
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,183 ✭✭✭✭Will


    Might be the best place, loads of international artists, try get in contact with a few of the guys so maybe he can book some work. perfect opportunity tbh


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    #5
    Molberts
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,560 ✭✭✭Molberts


    good point, He likes a lot of different styles of tattoo art so he just needs to keep looking until he picks what he really wants. He's quite a quirky sense of humour but a lot of those type of ideas don't translate well onto the body IMO


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    #6
    Calf- rubber
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1 ✭Calf- rubber


    I have a nice knitting pattern if he wants it.


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    #7
    eviltimeban
    Registered Users Posts: 5,100 ✭✭✭eviltimeban


    It depends what style he wants to go for. Japanese? Old School? I was in a similar position a while back when I decided to get a half sleeve too. I had various ideas but decided to go in and speak to the artist first. He had a portfolio and I showed him what elements I liked, what I didn't like, and then when I came back for my appointment he literally drew the whole thing on my arm there and then, then tattooed the lines.

    I went for Japanese style and have actually decided now to go for 3/4 length sleeve. I got my ideas from the web - I literally Googled "Japanese half sleeve" then had a look through hundreds of images to get ideas of what was out there. I saved the ones I liked so I could refer to them. Because I went for Japanese style it was pretty easy as they all tend to have similar elements - koi fish, dragons, waves, flowers etc. I opted for just flowers and waves rather than dragons and fish.

    Mine is two main elements - a chrysanthemum on one side and a Lotus flower on the inside. I have a tattoo (a sun) on my upper arm so he designed cherry blossoms and petals around it, and the whole lot will sit on a black background with 'crashing' waves (Japanese traditional ones are black). I'm extending it with more waves as I want it to look like its building up to the flowers. So I would say two main images would be good, but if its something like a dragon then just one as he could get it big enough to cover the whole upper arm.

    Where are you based? I would recommend Michele in Dublin Art Tattoo, which is where I'm getting mine.


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