Braaaaaains (two awesome tattoos)

The end of the summer is the beginning of the slow season in the tattoo world. It seems counter intuitive, one would imagine that with the return of the college students business would go up, but for some reason that's not the case. The positive aspect of this drop in business, though, is that when someone comes in, a lot of the time they want a custom tattoo, not just a piece of flash (not that there's anything wrong with those!)


Last week Big Eddie spoke with two customers who came in with an idea for complimentary tattoos. Of what? Why, of brains, of course! They each wanted a brain on their respective inner arms, the girl's to be steampunk-y, and the guy's to be more retro mechanical. When I heard that he was going to do the tattoos, I was really eager to see what he would come up with--and when I saw them, I was not disappointed.

Zap zap zzzzzzap

For the guy's brain Eddie went with an atomic age, frankenstein-y, mental asylum vibe. The colors are a little difficult to see, but the green electricity coming off the spark plugs is super intense, as is the green in the cooling rod on the back.

The discomfort of an inner-arm tattoo is worth it when it looks like this.

I'm totally in love with the brain on the girl's arm. The steampunk feel of it is awesome, with the clockworks and the oxidized filigree leaves. The vacuum tubes up top, connected with those delicate wires, glow with a similarly creepy air as the guy's brain. It's hard for me to describe it, but there's a feminine gracefulness to this tattoo that seems totally at odds with the subject. I like it.

Hopefully it's not too selfish to say that I can't wait until it's my turn to get tattooed. I have so many ideas, and a couple of BIG pieces that need to get finished too. Once we figure out babysitters and times, man, I'll be in that chair so fast it'll make his head spin. And that will be one of the coolest things to happen in a long time.