tattoo inspiration - part 1

I made an appointment to FINALLY get my sleeve finished for October 2nd. well, at least I'm hoping to get it finished. sometimes I puss out during color sessions, because that shit hurts. either way, I'm excited to get more work done and I'm aimingb to have a finished sleeve before the end of the year.

with another piece close to being completed, I find myself already thinking about what I want to get next. I'm thinking I definitely want to get a half sleeve on my right arm, and something on the back of one of my calves. I'd like to do the other side of my ribs (left side), and I was actually considering getting my favorite quote there, since it has so much personal meaning to me. aaaand, I'm also tossing around the idea of a chest piece, but I really need to do a LOT of research before I take that jump.

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now, almost every single one of my tattoos has special meaning to me, but I'm thinking I want to go in a different direction for my right half sleeve and get something purely aesthetic. I've always loved mermaids. ALWAYS. up until I was about 13 (oh, who am I kidding... I still want that!), I wanted to be a mermaid. to this day, every time I find myself in a swimming pool, I do my best mermaid impersonation. mermaids fucking rock.

also, several men on my mom's side of the family were/are members of the Coast Guard, and if you know about mermaids, you know that the myth says they flirted with and intrigued men at sea. okay, so maybe this one has more meaning than I thought.

so while Sean was in Atlantic City over the weekend for a bachelor party and gambling our money away having a fab time, I stayed in and searched for some mermaid tattoo inspiration. I haven't decided if I want to go the route of old school pin-up style or if I want to do something more modern with a lot of shading and detail. either way, I felt myself drawn to these images.

NOTE: my tattoo will not show a mermaid's bewbs. totes not my style. 

I like this one because of the clean lines and the vivid colors. if it were more detailed, it would be better, but I like the use of other sea life in the tattoo.

this one is my favorite of all the images I've seen. the colors and the shading are wonderful, and I love the water swirling around her. I'd probably exchange the flowers for something different, though.

I really like how real this one looks. I could do without the nudity, but I really love how detailed the water is with the bubbles and the shadows/light on her body.

I'm diggin' the anchor in this one, and the more I see anchors incorporated in these types of tattoos, the more I lean towards adding it to my list. I'm also loving the red hair!

the shading on this piece has me drooling. I think it's really important to remember how muscles really look in real life, and I'd like that to be a main focus of how my mermaid looks.

obviously, this isn't even close to the scale of what I want, but I think it's amazing. I love, love, LOVE her tail - the scales, the shading, and the color are impeccably done. 

absolutely gorgeous - the girl AND the tattoo. I like that it's kept in mainly black and grey, but I definitely want color. I love the background on this piece.

so, that's about all I've been able to find as far as well done mermaid tattoos go. I like to do a lot of research before putting an idea together, so I'll be searching for more images and flash drawings until I come across a few that I can incorporate into one solid piece. I tend to find a bunch of different things that I like and then mis-match them all together to create one magnificent tattoo.

stay tuned for another tattoo inspiration post! I've got a lot of ideas going on for future pieces! if you happen to be surfin' the web and come across a badass mermaid tattoo (because that's incredibly likely?), send it over to me! 

if you have any opinions or suggestions, feel free to leave them for me in the comments!

PS - I'm really pulling for a Ravens win tonight... it sucks having a pissed off husband!