Shaina's Back Piece Blooms

A post-work errand had me walking down 6th Avenue to 23rd Street where, to my delight, I ran into Shaina, whose large back piece stopped me dead in my tracks. Lucky for me, and all of our Tattoosday readers, she had no problem sharing it with us here:

This piece is a cover-up (more on that later) and initially was born out of a desire for a large bunch of purple flowers. Shaina explained that, at six feet tall, her size can sometimes take the edge off of her feminine side. "I try as hard as I can to be girl-y," she said, and she embraced her floral design as "a sign of girliness".

As time passed, the whole tattoo, which Shaina estimates was composed in five four-hour sessions totaling twenty hours, took on additional elements. When her grandmother passed away, she added a memorial line for her ("In Loving Memory of Eleanor Vespie) along with the red carnations, which were her favorite flowers.



She later added the additional memorial on her neck, for her cousin Tasha.



The tattoo was created by Cliff Evans at Fuzion Ink in Norfolk, Virginia.



Of course, I had to ask about the tattoo she covered up. Shaina looked at me, and I'll give her points for honesty, she confessed, the original tattoo had been a portrait of the Icelandic singer Björk.



She looked at me. I looked at her. "Don't take this the wrong way," I cautioned her, but what would possess you to do that?" Shaina had good humor about it. Like a lot of eighteen-year olds, what seemed cool at the time, in retrospect seemed ill-chosen. But there are many amazing tattoos out there that might not exist had they not been needed to cover up an earlier, less memorable piece.



Thanks kindly to Shaina for not only sharing her lovely back tattoo with us here at Tattoosday, but for taking the time to chat so candidly about her body art.

Floral Tattoo Designs

As the popularity of tattoos has spread to include the female members of society, you can bet your bottom dollar that floral designs have always been one of the most popular choices for them. The reasons for this are absolutely obvious: floral designs are pretty; they can rely on the use of plenty of colors and they can add a tasteful and elegant definition for any woman.

Floral Tattoo Designs

The most popular species of flowers that are used in tattoo designs include the rose, orchids, lilies and daisies. These will always be able to represent a piece that is dainty and feminine and this is what definitely seems to appeal to many women.

Floral Tattoo Designs

There are definite trends wherein women seem to favor having their pieces placed. These choices allow the wearer to expose the piece when she wants to, but be able to cover it at all other times. The shoulder and lower back area are probably the most popular locations nowadays; but the underside of the wrist, lower ankle and even the foot itself are also fashionable. A quick word of warning here though, if you are looking for a tattoo to be done on the foot itself - this can be a notoriously painful location as there are a lot of small bones in this region.

Floral Tattoo Designs

It is funny to see how fashions change and adapt as far as tattoos go, as around twenty or thirty years ago, floral tattoo designs were quite restricted for men. Of course, you had the ever popular and 'old school' choice of a rose with the name of a loved one associated with it, but today floral tattoos are becoming increasingly popular among the guys.

Floral Tattoo Designs

In fact, men think nothing of opting for quite feminine-looking designs and will even go as far as full sleeves worth of this body art. The youngest generation to come onto the tattoo scene are especially keen on this style.

Floral Tattoo Designs

Floral designs can come in any form you choose. In fact, they can even be a part of a very masculine piece if the surrounding artwork is able to tone the flower's beauty right down. A good example of what I mean here would be Japanese water flowers that are incorporated into awesome large pieces that scream masculinity, but include these flowers amazingly well.

View full post on Japanese Tattoos