Sun and Cross

just finished another tattoo last sunday. i was still nervous but not as nervous as tracie's. i started using the metal grips and tubes. i doubted using these grips at first because it will add more weight to the gun. but these grips are a lot more stable compared to the plastic disposables i was using. the weight of the grip balances the weight of the tattoo gun so i can have a lot of control. the plastic disposables were too light and i had to literally lift the gun while holding the plastic grip so the weight is heavier on top which makes it harder to control

i was also planning to get the 1/2 inch diameter grips but nancy and ariel adviced me to get the larger ones. good thing i followed their advice because the larger ones are heavier and i think this makes my lines more accurate.

thanks again nancy plew and ariel cruz for advicing me to use these grips.

rene is tracie's husband. he liked tracie's tattoo and that's why he had me do his first tat. i was excited that he was letting me do this but i cannot celebrate until i did the actual tat.

i did the tattoo at cruz creations in san jose and i'm happy with the result. the metal grip helped a lot and i think i will not go back to those plastics unless for small works.

i also practiced on pigskin the day before doing the tattoo. i added the outline around the design just to get used to the new grips and i noticed it kind of looked good with the outline but decided not to include it because it might make the the design look cluttered.

i used a five round (nancy's advice) needle for the whole tat including the shading around the cross. the shading might look a little dark because it's still not healed. that area should appear lighter once healed because i used gray wash. here are some pictures...