Custom Tattoos – Brooklyn, NYC

Custom Tattoos
Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

Designing custom tattoos is a collaborative process

Collectors looking for custom tattoos might have an idea in mind or will ask me to develop a concept with them. In both cases, creating a custom tattoo design is a collaborative process.

Custom tattoo design of a flaming sword on an upper arm.
Custom tattoo on ribs of Pegasus taming Bellerophon with bold linework.
Custom tattoo of the myth Philemon and Baucis on a hip.
Side custom tattoo of the myth of Philemon and Baucis.
Custom tattoo of a bull skull in an engraving fine line style on a chest.
Fine line tattoo of a Leviathan dragon snaking around a chest.
Custom tattoo leg sleeve of a grim reaper skeleton riding a horse in a fine line style.
Fine line tattoo of pyramids with shading.
Custom panther tattoo on a leg with in blackwork and fine line style.

Trusting the custom tattoo design process

Recently, someone asked me to make a custom tattoo design inspired by a poster I wheatpasted in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The idea for my illustration came from a woodcut of Albrecht Durer’s Four Horseman of the Apocalypse ca. 1497/1498. As a printmaker, Durer’s series of prints illustrating Revelations made an impression on me. If I could go back in time, I would give Albrecht Durer a tattoo machine and tell him to do whatever he wanted on my back.

Wheat pasted tattoo back design of four surfers riding a wave through the Manhattan skyline.
Photograph of a wheat paste tattoo design of a grim reaper surfer riding a wave through the Empire State Building and the Chrysler building in NYC.
Photograph of a wheat paste tattoo design of apocalypse surfers riding a giant wave past the Empire State Building.
Photograph of a wheat paste tattoo design of apocalypse surfers riding a giant wave past the Chrysler Building in Manhattan.
Photograph of a wheat pasted back tattoo design of surfers riding a giant wave past the Chrysler Building in Manhattan.

Here was the prompt they gave me for their tattoo custom design…

Screenshot of a custom tattoo prompt from a client: For the tattoo design, I have some thoughts on themes to use, but I don't have a specific visual in mind. I will say that I really liked your Four Surfers of the Apocalypse!

Our first step was to schedule a consultation. I gathered references and made some sketches to show at our consultation. I wanted to connect surfing to the idea of entering another dimension and remembered one of my favorite woodcut illustrations from Camille Flammarion’s L’atmosphère : météorologie populaire ca. 1888 by an unknown artist.

Reference image collage for a custom tattoo with a giant wave, a surfer, and a galaxy.

I made some preliminary sketches to show how we could translate the design concepts into a blackwork tattoo style. During our consultation, I mapped out a composition and showed how we could weave together our ideas into one custom tattoo design.

Custom tattoo sketch in an engraving style with a gate, fire, angel, and clouds.
Preliminary drawing on an upper arm for a custom tattoo at studio in Brooklyn.
Custom tattoo design sketch of a whirlpool and a black hole with stars and waves.
Preliminary drawing on a scapula for a custom tattoo design at studio in Brooklyn.
Blackwork tattoo design sketch of a two waves colliding.
Rough drawing on a shoulder for a custom tattoo at studio in Brooklyn.

I spent some time working on the drawing and emailed my drafts. We chatted over FaceTime to discuss the sketches and made a few adjustments.

upper-arm-custom
ribs-custom

We completed the piece over the course of 7 sessions and scheduled some of the sessions back-to-back 2 and 3 days in a row. We tattooed for at least 6 hours per session and sometimes more when we wanted to keep going. We allowed at least 2 weeks to pass for healing—if a tattoo has heavy color or blackwork, I will normally recommend 3 weeks between sessions. 

When we were all done, I had my sitter check back in 2 weeks later to confirm that the graywork had healed nicely. Gray will often heal lighter than it appears when you first tattoo it, so it never hurts to check the healing.

Photograph of a upper sleeve custom tattoo healed on a smiling client in a tattoo studio in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.
Photograph of a tattoo artist working on a custom tattoo in a studio in Brooklyn.
Custom tattoo design of a spiral galaxy with stars and a curling wave.
Photograph of a half sleeve custom tattoo in process with lightning.
Custom tattoo drawing of a wave.
Healed custom shoulder tattoo of a swirling star nebula.
Healed upper arm sleeve tattoo.
Upper arm sleeve custom tattoo of lightning.
custom-tattoo-healed-inner-arm
Healed triceps tattoo with lightning and clouds.
Custom tattoo on ribs of a tube wave.

What’s so great about custom tattoos?

Creating your own reality is one of life’s rewards. Getting a custom tattoo is like having a tailor make a custom garment that fits perfectly, having an architect design a space that perfectly matches your daily habits, or having a perfumer create a unique scent for you. Most people in Brooklyn, New York can’t afford to live in a space much bigger than a shoebox, so getting a bunch of custom tattoos is like carrying a little art gallery around with you. It’s nice to show your tattoo collection to everyone you meet without having to take up wall space in your apartment or ask someone to climb the stairs to your walk-up apartment to see art on your walls.

Film still from the movie Wild at Heart by David Lynch.

Some people prefer the convenience and element of chance that comes with collecting flash tattoos. As you collect more tattoo flash, you’ll probably start noticing gaps that you want to fill, but it might be hard to find the perfect flash tattoo puzzle piece to tie everything together.  Even if you like getting flash tattoos, you might eventually need a customized gapfiller tattoo to harmonize your collection.

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Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York

 © 2023 Derek