To a Blackbird

About three years ago my older brother asked me to design a tattoo to commemorate our mother who passed away when we were teenagers. 

Our Mother was the most beautiful woman you could imagine, auburn hair, high cheekbones - she could have been a movie star and her heart matched that beauty ten fold. So designing a tattoo that could live up to her was a hard ask to say the least. However my drawing always tells a story and this is what I aimed to do. 

Blackbirds always surrounded our garden in Milngavie, Glasgow. However there was one feathery friend that always came to our back garden to sing with our Mother. It was her blackbird. Yes it sounds like something out of a Disney movie... but my Mum could whistle like a bird and there they would sing together in our garden - which she tended to religiously. Roses also had to be an element to represent our garden and our home we grew up in together. Our grandmother taught my mother and myself how to tend to these beautiful flowers and the thistles were an element that Steven and I had discussed to represent our home Scotland.  

This is the tattoo design I came up with below. I can't tattoo sadly so my brother searched New York for a tattoo artist he could trust that could retain all these elements. I was very excited to see the final product and only recently did I see it in the flesh!

My brother discovered South Shore Tattoo in Amityville NY and the owner and artist Mike Nomy. If you have the time have a look at their website they really are a talented collective of artists.

Mike and my brother discussed elements of the tattoo that had to remain and how it would best fit to his desired location on his arm. The picture was a guide and I love how Mike interpreted the design and re-worked it to suit the posterior muscles on my brother's upper arm.

The colours brought the whole picture alive and ofcourse, tears procured from my eyes when I saw the first photograph from my then home in Singapore. 

Whenever I see or hear a blackbird, I feel an immediate connection to this small winged creature.

 Thank you to Mike Nomy and South Shore Tattoo for all their amazing work. 

Posted October 23, 2015 14:03

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