Portrait Tattoo

I did this portrait a few nights ago. I enjoy doing portraits, but they're not my focus, (most people come to me for color work) so I probably do one every few months or so. Memorial portraits especially tend to be pretty intense experiences. I feel very honored that people trust me to share in what they go through, as motivations for tattoos like this tend to be extremely personal. This portrait in particular, though, got me thinking about tattoo tv shows and the way that they focus on parading the story behind tattoos for a national audience. When it comes to memorial pieces, a part of me has always gotten rubbed the wrong way with them being on TV. The experience of doing this tattoo solidified it for me, I think. In a way, I can't help but think that making a public spectacle through television of the process of mourning and the resulting emotional healing inherently cheapens itself. I'm not asserting blame, I just identified why that bothers me when I catch it on tv, and thought I would share.

I partially desaturated this portrait to make the black and gray more viewable.