Ricky asked for an “under the sea” themed tattoo with that also included dagger. My first thought was to do a pirate skull and treasure with the skull being stabbed by the dagger. After a few emails back and forth, brainstorming ideas, we settled on an octopus. I took to my sketch book and started doodling tentacles in different angles and positions to get loose and learn a few things. Once I felt like good about those practice sketches, started laying out a design Little does Ricky know, the first version of the tattoo design actually had a human eye in the center with the octopus tentacles wrapping around it. It looked pretty cool but my gut was telling me that it wasn’t going to get the final approval. I drew over the human eye with the octopus eye and added the shape of the head to it and it made so much more sense. Ricky came in to NYC from North Carolina for this piece. We originally had booked for 2 sessions as I thought we would need about 8-10 hours for the back of his calf. But we were able to bust this one out in just a single 6 hour session, saving him another trip up north. What do you think about our choices?