Battle.

Frenchie has been a busy bee!  I've had lots of exciting things to work on, which has been awesome. I've had a few ongoing pieces too which is great.  It's really cool to watch things progress and grow... 

I started this piece on Pamela, a friend of the ever-returning Katie.  This was Pamela's first tattoo!  No holding back!  This was a really fun piece to work on, I could have fun with the placement and really make it flow with the body and make the bats look like they're flying.  I'm getting a bit more confident with the placement, and really liked the idea of having some of them overlapping.  I've been having a few issues lately with how deep to take the needle, taking it too deep will make the lines blur out over time, and being too tentative makes it difficult to get a line in at all.  I seemed to get it just right with this one and Kev seemed really happy with my lines! The original plan was too have all of the bats filled, but now Pamela's been thinking about it, we might leave a few just outlined, which I think will look awesome, and a bit different!

I got this little walk in, another first tattoo!  I seem to be doing a lot of these!  I felt a lot better about doing the solid black shading, which I've been finding hard, but it came together on this one! 

Mrs Cherry Blossom, ie Honor, was back for some more.  It's lovely to see people coming back for more!  I must be doing alright!  The trickiest thing about this one was the placement of the stencil.  Kev had to step in because I was getting so frustrated.  Wrists are funny things, they're not the shape that you think they are. They tend to be wider on one side than the other, and getting something positioned straight and centered was SO HARD.  After about a million attempts, Kev came to the rescue, but it did take him two attempts!

Honor also let me check out her cherry blossoms now that they're all healed up, and I think they could be my favourite tattoo that I've done.  They've healed really well, and quickly too. She's already thinking about adding to them!

     

Next up was Callum, a friend of John who I tattooed the skull and lightning bolts.  He wanted a little love letter with the lettering underneath.  I was a bit nervous about this tattoo as it involved quite fine, straight lines, and I was desperate to get the lettering spot on.  I was really happy about how it turned out, I love old school stuff like that.  I don't think I could have done the lettering any better!  Lettering is one of the things I want to be really good at, so hopefully this is promising!! 

Our fabulous friend Iona, and fellow Vivienne Westwood enthusiast, asked me to do this Westwood logo on her while Kev was tattooing her friend.  Of course I jumped at the chance.  We decided to do it in the red rather than solid black, and I love the way it's turned out, it's like it's been stamped on.  I'm very happy with my lines on this!  Also, note Iona's ripped tights... Instead of taking them off, her genius told her to just rip a big hole... I don't know whether it's genius, or just mental...?

I've been looking forward to this one for aaaages.  I love skulls and skeletons, especially ones with hats on.  There's a lot of shading in this, which was a bit daunting. Even though you're trying to cover a large area, it's important to make sure you're concentrating on a small section at a time, ensuring that's filled properly before moving on, it's not at all like using a pencil!!  I feel myself getting quite impatient when filling in large sections. I had so much fun doing this though, I'm really enjoying shading, especially black and grey, and am getting much more confident with it.  Before, I would always make a copy of the stencil, and shade it in before hand so I had something to follow and would know exactly where I would be putting each tone or colour.  Now I'm just enjoying working with it, and trying new things out! I suppose nothing looks the same on skin as it does on paper, so it's good that I'm getting used to doing it more freehand.

Katie and Alexis were back for some more, surprise surprise!  They wanted these awesome bat-swallow-devil-guys... These were super fun to do, and gave me a lot of practice stretching skin etc, and I got to play with colours, yay!  Yellow is a funny one.  It's really hard to see where it's going and if it's actually going in, a little challenge!  I'm amazed these girls have any space left!!

For a long time, I've been fighting with what's going on in my head... getting too nervous, freaking out, worrying about everything... I'm pretty much over that.  But now I'm fighting a bigger battle... with my body.  Excuses excuses, but I'm just so wee!  Everything so much harder.  My hands are little, so stretching the skin is tough.  I have no strength whatsoever, which causes problems pretty much all the time.  I get really tired, and strained, every bit hurts!  It's hard, because it's not something I can fix overnight.  I don't have time or money for a gym membership, so I'm working out using tins of beans as weights, oh dear.  I'm trying to find ways of making my hands and wrists stronger, especially my left which is so weak.  It's really frustrating! 

There's lots of exciting things about to happen for Lucky Cat... I'm keeping quiet for now but watch this space.  Our merchandise range should be ready soon, which is very exciting.  There's some really cool stuff, so start saving your pennies!  We're getting all geared up for the Scottish Tattoo Convention at the end of the month, which I can't wait for.  Kev is now fully booked for the convention, and will be working on some awesome pieces, so make sure you come and check us out!

As always, I'm on the lookout for some skin to tattoo...  Get in touch with us if you fancy it!  You can email me at: info@luckycattattoo.co.uk

Until next time,

Frenchie xx