Hannya Back Tattoo

Large scale tattoos have always been my most favourite type of tattoo. However unfortunately I haven't had the opportunity to do that many throughout my 10 year long career. Which means that every occurrence is very special to me, as I get to design and express myself in the scale I feel most comfortable in.

But wanting to create such a piece is one thing, and finding the person that shares the same vision and is willing to commit to it is another. In this case I happened to meet the perfect companion in this long and arduous process. My wonderful friend and client Neil, shares the same passion for the art of tattooing, was willing to show a commendable sense of commitment and gave me complete artistic freedom.

I've talked about artistic freedom offered by the future wearer of a tattoo before, because its something that will be tackled varriably between artists according to their character. It is a lot more mentally taxing, albeit creative, when I'm given a carte blanche, because I feel a huge responsibility to go above and beyond in order to honour the faith in my abilities.

But enough introductions, lets jump right into the process! What follows is a breakdown of each of the 8 sessions it took to finish this large piece. Each session varied between 4 to 5 hours and were done on a average of two weeks apart. All process pictures are either unedited or have minor edits to resemble the true lighting of the studio.

Session 1: Full back outline

Placing a stencil of that size is a whole endeavour on its own. The process I use is I think the most common. I print out the design on the stencil machine in pieces and then tape them together. Then I place the stencil on the body without stencil stuff to find the right spot and tape the top on the shoulders. Then I will lift the whole stencil up over the clients head (or another person can hold it). Also rolling it helps a lot. Then apply the stencil stuff all over the skin. Finally by making sure the middle of the stencil aligns with the middle of the back I will slowly roll it down.

As you can see in this photo there is a cover up on the upper right shoulder blade. The original tattoo was a cover up of an even older tattoo. Just like in every cover up the new design needs to be at least double the size. In this case since the new tattoo is 10 times bigger, cover up was an easy process, making the old tattoo essentially invisible.

Some times when I lose a little bit of the stencil during application, I will correct it with a marker. That can also be done to correct details that might not look right after the design is applied on the body and embraces its curvatures.

The goal of the first session was to finish the entire outline so that the stencil wouldn't have to be reapplied in future sessions. It's a bold goal that cannot be taken for granted. Sometimes it's possible and sometimes, it ends up being unrealistic due to the physical and mental stress the client is going through.

In our case, Neil managed to push through 5 hours of intense lining, with a 14 round shader, my go-to liner for large scale, and some minor details with a 9 liner.

Session 2: Black out and shading

After the outline session we took a short break and continued a couple of months later, when we did 6 more sessions every 2 to 3 weeks.

In the first shading session. I focused on filling in the hannya's hair since its solid black and shade part of the cord and horns on both sides on the top.

I prefer .30 curved Magnums for shading black and grey and in this case I believe I used an 11 and a 15.

Session 3: Shading the mask

The mask itself would be mostly black and grey, with red accents. So even in the parts that I was planning to tattoo in red, I layered the darkest shading in grey.

I did the same for the cord. I first layered the shading in grey and then added the dark turquoise colour in a later session.

I live that technique of colouring, with grey shading underneath when I want the darkest areas to be really dark, or when I want the colours to have a more desaturated hue. This is why I did that in the eye area where I wanted the black to be really black despite the red, and the cords where I wanted to have less colour intensity.

Session 4: Fiery chrysanthemum

Red to yellow gradients are I think my favourite colours to tattoo. I use a variety of ink brands but when it comes to those specific shades, I will only use Crimson red/Navel orange/Golden yellow/Canary yellow by Dermaglo. Those two yellows are the only ones that work for cover ups for me, so I'll just keep using them for as long as they exist.

Over the cover up area the coverage is not perfect but it didn't matter in that session as I was going to add blood spatter over the entire mask later.

Session 5: Colour in the cords

In this picture you can see the result of colouring over already shaded areas.

Due to the cords covering a large area of the ribs on both sides, this was a bit of a shorter session, as ribs tend to be very painful to tattoo. That's being said, I chose to add in the white highlights too so that i wont have to touch that area again in any of the following sessions.

You have to always consider the well being of the client when a choice is possible to be made.

Session 6: Red

As we were reaching the finish line of this massive project, it was finally time to work on the mask details. Having already added in the black and grey shading layer in a prior session, I used one single red shade for everything you see in the picture. (Dermaglo Crimson red)

As for the fading of the red on the cheeks and forehead, I did a combination of whip shading and watering down that one shade of red.

I know that diluting colour with water is considered a wrong technique but I've been doing it for years without issue.

Session 7: Back for more fiery chrysanthemum

This was probably my favourite session as I got to tattoo my favourite colour gradient and my favourite flower, in the biggest scale I've ever done.

For the chrysanthemums I didn't layer with grey underneath as I wanted the colour to be the brightest in the whole composition. . That's why i kept the cords desaturated so that their colour contrasts the flowers as much as possible.

For colouring I used 0.35 curved magnums in groupings of 15 and 25.

Session8: Final session

This was a very challenging session, because due to scheduling, we continued only 10 days after the previous session. This is not recommended because it puts the clients body under too much stress. Not to mention that the previous parts weren't properly healed.

However because I was finished with those parts and wasn't going to touch them at all, we proceeded to tattoo in such a short interval.

Finally after 8 sessions of 4-5 hours each and a total of approximately 35 hours, we had finished this massive and bloody Hannya mask across an entire back. The goal was to make a design that is emotionally intense and expressive beyond a doubt. I love designing pieces that are recognizable from a distance and judging from peoples reactions when the wearer shows it off, I believe we succeeded in that respect.

I'm very invested into designing tattoos and paintings that convey intense feelings and exist in their own little universe that feels real and alive. So when I was tasked with such a project I designed with this in mind. Hopefully I did it well, although the opinion that matters the most is that of the wearer and he has assured me he is immensely proud of his backpiece! Also, I should add that we're not done, because now we have future plants to expand from that backpiece up to the neck and the front, so stay tuned!

Watch the timelapse video of the whole process.

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Technical details for tattooers:

I use an adjustable stroke pen machine. I work at 4.2 for colour and lining and at 3.5 for shading. I don't like sharing voltage because its misleading since each machine runs differently. But what I can say that is indicative is that I work my machine in fairly high voltage and with the needle sticking out a little more than the usual (I have been told).

I mostly work with Demaglo colours, but i also use Solid ink, while my absolute necessity for black is Panthera Liner (yes even for shading)

Needles used for this piece:

• 0.30 11, 15 and 25 curved Mag

• 0.35 15 and 25 curved Mag

• 0.35 14 round shader

• 0.35 9 liner

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