Finally finished.

I've been working on this painting for tattooer Karl Hedgepath off and on for about 3 weeks in between the moving and unpacking I mentioned previously. I tried to attach some real meaning to this one. Each Animal represents the the Chinese zodiac animal for each member of his family including his own.

The "arm of doom" design in the center of the painting is a redux of a tattoo on Karl that Dan Higgs tattooed on him back in the days when he was still tattooing. I essentially called it back in to service for his family as a sort of new coat of arms for them.

The green background has a slight metal flake effect in it that I added to the paint I used. Basically I couldn't get the desired effect that I wanted on my test sheet so I resorted to mixing my own paint instead.In the end I feel it turned out to be a pretty effective maneuver. You can't really see it in the picture, but in person it manages to be subtle yet eye catching and adds to the whimsical nature of this painting. Karl expressed that he didn't want this painting to be scary or violent since it was for his family so I tried really hard to go for a more modest look.

Over all I'm very pleased with the outcome. Karl has been a huge supporter and collector of my work for a while now so it was an honor to do this for his family.

The skull and praying mantis tattoo is on a long time client and friend named Mary Heitzenrater.
I jumped at the chance to do this one. Super fun!