my tiki tattoo story...

I had this traditional tahitian tiki canoe tattoo on the leg for a few years, and I was always wondering where this canoe was going...I thought they needed a destination.

As I'm really interested in polynesian mythology, the evolution of the race...I was happy thinking that this cannoe was hoping for a new land to live on, as the polynesians used to do when they conquered the islands.

Anyway, I wanted to make this island on my chest, and of course, I wanted this island to be a tiki island, already garded by the gods.
And I thought it could be nice to have a wahine waiting for the tiki cannoe on this tiki island. And as I'm a amateur uke player, I wanted her to play the uke.
And I also wanted to have a sailor jerry kind of tattoo, as I love the old school style, and so it would make a nice evolution of tatt through my body, from the traditional tahitian-marquesian tattoo to the modern, with plenty of colors.

After looking for the right person to do it, I found out that Sunny Buick was living in Paris. She's a really talented artist (having arts on Otto's exhibition), from SF, famous for her back tattoo photographed by Pierre & Gilles, her publication on Juxtapoz magazine, her tattoo style...so she was perfect for the job and her style is definitly the one I was waiting for. And she's a tikifan and loved the idea.

And here's the result :

pics by mogambo

Some details pics by me :

[ Edited by: virani on 2004-09-16 14:21 ]

Verrry nice. She captured it all. Love the Jerry sailor look. The red Tiki is cool too. My congratulations.

Hey virani, let's see the canoe on the leg too. If your gonna show us the destination, let's see the transportation! She did a way nice job on ya!

Cool Story Virani and what a super Island paradise to sail home to. Yes I would love to see the canoe too.
Beautiful

I updated with the tiki canoe tattoo. Also, the tattoo looks much more better today, as the pics were taken the tattoing day. The color are a bit less flashy...and I love living with it.

Nice ink, bro.

Hey Virani, that developed well. It is great how the colors settled now and once the skin has recovered, the whole beauty come out. It was a pleasure to watch how it was masterly don by Sunny. My respect to Sunny - great job. And my respect to Virani - great choice. Thank you for the wonderful Paris experience again.

For those of you who would love to see (live) how Sunny did Viranis tattoo - look out for the our "DVD of Tiki".

The DVD of Tiki
http://www.armchair-travelling.com

[ Edited by: Mogambo on 2004-11-26 04:46 ]

Beautiful work man. Great choice of design and colours.

.

Sweeetttt

Very nice. Congratulations!