Phoenix Tattoo Design and Application

Let's get this out the way first and foremost... Unless you are my wife and it is a milestone birthday, I do NOT design tattoos for people out of deeply felt personal reasons.

Okay, now with that said let's get down to the subject at hand, the tattoo I designed for my wife for her birthday. As a particularly noteworthy milestone birthday approached for my wife she asked, implored, and insisted that I design a tattoo she has been wanting for some time. She knows about and understands my feelings about designing tattoos but she being my wife and her birthday I agreed. She wanted a phoenix for her leg and she wanted a phoenix that was not the typical Asian inspired and influenced creature.

During out trip to Italy and England we looked for elements that would work well for a phoenix so that I could weave our trip into the design. I will get to some of those reference in a moment, but first let's have a look at the design from concept to final drawing...

Phoenix tattoo - initial concept without reference, revised post trip reworking with reference, Revision 3, cleaned up red line final.

© 2013 Christopher Burdett

Final phoenix tattoo drawing

© 2013 Christopher Burdett

My wife was involved in every step of the process to make sure she got what she wanted and needed out of this design. The overall body arrangement was her request to work best for the placement on her leg. Now let's talk reference. Here are some of the images that played heavily in the design of the phoenix...

Assyrian eagle guardian - British Museum - London, England

Wood carvings - San Pietro Martire church - Murano, Italy

Now that the wife had signed off and was thrilled with the design it was only a matter of it getting permanently applied to her body. For that we went to Alain at Euphoria Tattoos her in Tallahassee. We were both extremely happy with the job Alain did, here are some images of the tattoo in process...

The stencil in applied and the tattoo is about to begin.

Alain is hard at work.

I was impressed with how quickly the tattoo took shape.

Almost done!

All done! Alain did an amazing job and was extremely faithful to the original design. Thanks Alain!

Not to beat a dead horse but many people has requested that I design tattoos for them and I am just not comfortable doing so. This may change at some point, but for now, I am not available for such ventures.

That is all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, I will see you back here on Friday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

In search of Monsters - London, England (Part 2)

Today I have for you a look at the second part of London, England... or should I say I have for you a handful of the hundreds of images that I took while visiting London.  The British Museum is jam packed from one side to the other with amazing artifacts from human history. You want to see the wonders of the humanity all in one building? Head to the British Museum! The items are all astounding, but as a reference resource I was just floored. My eyes were opened time and time again to what the actual artifacts of our history look like. Here is the second part of London...

Canopic jars in all their glory - London, England

A detail of one of the many sarcophagi on display - London, England 

I can haz mummy? - London, England

Sarcophagus close up - London, England

Detail of ceremonial bronze shield found in a river - London, England

 "I'M HUGE!" - London, England

Amazing and gigantic Lamassu (RAWR!) - London, England

When centaur attack - London, England

Now showing in London... ancient Greece - London, England

Disapproving Devil disaproves of his hot pocket - London, England

I think they could fit a little more detail in there... - London, England

SO much inspiration and beauty - London, England

Chinese plate with phoenix and dragon - London, England

Red Japanese monster means business! - London, England

Indiana Jones was looking for the wrong skull - London, England

RAWR! - London, England

Needless to say, all images are...

© 2013 Christopher Burdett

This concludes the overview of my international monster investigations. I hope you found these images as inspiring as I did. I will be bringing you more in the fullness of time as it relates to specific projects.

That's all for another exciting Wednesday on the blog, see you back here on Friday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com

In search of Monsters - London, England (Part 1)

Today I have for you a look at the first part of London, England... or should I say I have for you a handful of the hundreds of images that I took while visiting London.  I finally found a whole ton of monsters all in one place... convenient! The British Natural History Museum has MANY amazing specimens and displays. Hopefully I will have a chance to share more of the images I took while visiting all the dinosaurs, reptiles, mammals, birds, invertebrates, and other monsters.  Here is the first part of London...

"Dippy" the apatosaurus  - London, England

Monkey skeleton  - London, England

A terrible lizard monster, I never get tired of seeing these skeletons in person  - London, England 

Some of the skeletons were displays 12 feet off the ground and there is an elevated walkway to see them as well as a walking path below - London, England

Tyrannosaurus Rex teeth - London, England

One of my favorite mammals, the scaled pangolin - London, England 

Another of my favorite mammals, the deadly hippopotamus - London, England 

Earth's largest mammals all in one giant room, elephants, whales, and their ancestors - London, England

FINALLY, a coconut crab in the flesh (as it were), love these things! - London, England

Needless to say, all images are...

© 2013 Christopher Burdett

That is a taste of the cast archive of natural history to be found in London, England. On Wednesday I have a taste of the human history that is contained in the walls of the British Museum!

That is all for another exciting Monday on the blog, see you back here on Wednesday! Until then...

For more samples of my work or to contact me regarding my availability head over to my website: www.christopherburdett.com