First was the White Horse of Uffington on my ankle back in 1995
Obviously when I got to go to the UK there was no way I was gonna miss out on visiting the horse, so here is proof from 2004 (I'm sitting inside the head. Its eye and lips behind me, gives you an idea of scale)
Next to appear was what my parents called my big Give Way sign. Both this and the Horse were done by Sarah Tucker. She used to be at the Tattoo Gallery in Adelaide, but is now in Queensland. Probably 1996 when this was done. Placed on my thigh.
Sadly, even tho the tatt was done in 1998 (I think), the only decent photo I have online of my arm band is below. Its two celtic dogs and a symbol called the Three Rays of Awen. The arm band goes the entire way around my arm, and to date, this is the only one that's made me spew. This started my relationship with my current artist, Tribal Mike at the Tattoo Gallery in Adelaide (tattoogallery.com.au)
If you like the sound of tattoo guns, I made a couple of little videos while it was being done HEREand HERE
Fourth was my variation on the traditional Celtic Tryptic Knot. Again by Mike, and located on the front of my shoulder (there will be more pics below showing the placement better, just bare with me)
Cruise forward to 2003 and things start getting interesting.
For a start, I finally got my "backpiece" finished in April. Again Tribal Mike, and " marks because I didn't realise there was more to come. Heh. Really **** photo, but there is a better one later. I took the cover to the Crow soundtrack and made it fit my back (61 cm across back then), and then designed the knotwork myself to fill it in. Needed tweaks, and there are some errors, but no-one notices. To busy noticing the fuzz.
So I went to Melbourne in May that year for the australian National Tattoo Convention to enter it. Didn't win anything, but while I was there I noticed Suluape Patelo doing traditional Samoan tattoos. ie Bashing sticks together with turtle shell needles. I had to have one too. Its on my ankle, and is straight, just hard to get a pic of your own ankle like that! Its Ogham, the written text of the Celts. And yes, it is spelt wrong, but that has since been fixed.
This pic could have been me, but it took me a year to realise it was on the wrong side of my ankle, but at least you can see how its done.
Two months later and I flew to England for work. I'd always promised myself if I could get to Europe from Australia I'd go to Copenhagen to see Colin at http://tattoo.dk. So I was able to get 1 day of leave for the fortnight visit, so spent 7 hours in Copenhagen being inked. Scuse the nipple, but damn it hurts getting tattooed close to there.
A year later and I had a proper holiday in Europe. So this time I spent 3 days in Copenhagen seeing Colin again. 4 hours the first day, 4.5 the second. I was pretty drained after that, but still, definitely worth it.
Call it a day there tho? Nah, still got more real estate to fill. and it got to the point where I knew I needed to start integrating pieces together to make them flow one to another. Easier said than done. But for a start, I wanted to fill my back out more. So December 31st, 2005, after about 8 months of design by me, Tribal Mike started again.
Pretty much finished, but we need to re-ink the swan and make it more obviously white. And need to blend the stag in the centre more so it doesn't look two tone. Having said that, the current piece still scored third place Best Tribal/Celtic at last years 21st Anniversary National Tattoo Convention.
And thus ends the current telling of Sláine's magical adventure in tattooland.
Stay tuned for more.
