This is an unused commission for a full arm piece, I don’t really do tattoo design, I turn it down a fair bit and I‘ve never consciously allowed my existing work to be used, (although I know there are few unofficial ones floating around). I’m not anti tattoo, far from it, I just think the possibility of something being lost in-translation is very high, and what I have drawn for one thing, being re-appropriated for another is a bit weird for me.
Why was it unused in the end? Well that‘s another story.
The client wanted a ‘Day of the Dead’ inspired piece, not content in just churning out some half assed cultural appropriation I did a some digging into the background of the holiday and learnt that it has it roots in an Aztec festival dedicated to the goddess of death Mictecacihuatl, so its her I chose to represent. Dolores del Río inspired her face, and the rest of the composition is comprised of various other folkloric death related imagery.
tokyojo 