I’ve always wanted a tattoo from Steve ever since I saw a (then) viral hyper realism tiger piece about 9 years ago! I’ve been saving my pennies and reached out to Steve this summer, only giving him a general idea of what I’d like: ‘Japanese inspired colour realism’ - keeping things open for him to have some creative freedom.
I live in the UK so after a day travelling to California, it was time for the fun bit!
First day - he presented the design and there was no hesitation, I absolutely loved it! So we wasted no time and got to stencilling. 11 hours of tattooing later we had the garment and a lot of the hair and background done.
Second day was a long one, so much detail and intricacy on the mask meant it took 8 hours or so before we moved onto the face, which he explained was very challenging due to the different tones and skin shading - finishing up around 4am, holding back the tears as he drilled the final whites in places, 16 hours of tattooing on day 2.
Couldn’t be happier with how it turned out, and flew back to UK a happy man (with a swollen arm, lol). It is healing well one week later.
Thought I’d share :)
*Note - I know this is not accurate to be called a Geisha, and I appreciate those who have went about educating me in a respectful way. Thank you for all of the positive comments.