Unique & Nerdy Tattoos
Head to Abbie France for all your geeky ideas and expect beautiful linework complemented with impeccable white highlights
If you’re a tattoo enthusiast in Sydney, you will have heard about Abstruse Tattoo Studio, a private studio located in Hurlstone Park. They specialise in all things nerdy, with each artist donning their unique style. You can book yourself in for a realism portrait, neo-tradition or even new school design. It was a pretty obvious choice for my next tattoo!
The watermark reads: Tattoo By Abbie France
I booked in with Abbie France after seeing some cool Witcher flash designs, so I thought she’d be perfect to design a custom tattoo to honour The Outer Worlds. I sent her some reference images of the classic Moon Man and was hoping for a traditional design that would have a ribbon on top and below with the phrase, “It’s not the best choice, it’s Spacer’s Choice!”. Then I also asked if she could design a shrink ray with a reference image from the game. She booked me in for January - and to be honest, that was a mistake. I do not recommend getting a tattoo in Summer!
Abbie is located in the old Abstruse studio on Parramatta Road, so the walk up was noisy, stuffy and too humid for Summer. When I arrived, we were still required to wear masks at tattoo studios, which I totally understood, but it was hard to breathe and I showed up a hot mess. She showed me the designs and I asked if the Moon Man design could have two ribbons on top, each ribbon would have one line of text from the unique quote. Abbie was confident that the one ribbon with the type of font and the size was enough to hold the entire quote. I also pointed out she forgot the apostrophes in “it’s” and she said she’d include them during the linework. I put my trust in the artist.
The watermark reads: Tattoo By Abbie France
Abbie is very light-handed during the tattoo, but also very quick. Each design was only about an hour and a bit each. The Moon Man was placed on the back of my forearm, under my elbow and yes, it’s true, the elbow is a stingy area! She used this lovely off yellow-brown colour, which had a vintage vibe to it. Then complimented the shape of the moon and the ribbons with white highlights which brought the whole design together. I did have to tell her a few times to correct the text on the ribbon, I’d spot an A that looked more like an upside-down V or… ꓥ
Then onto the shrink ray. She originally adorned it with some floral work but I wasn’t vibing with it so I asked for it to be changed to something earthy like mushrooms or leaves. It kind of had this organic vs technology theme to it, but let’s not read into it too much. She chose colours faithful to the original design of the gun with muted red and greys, then created this cool pattern to show the energy flowing through it. It had a combination of blue, purple and yellow and white electrical highlights. The mushrooms were coloured in cool shades to contrast the red and she gave them little white dots as spores. A charming finishing touch!
I feel like I’m gonna explore here!!!
However, these tattoos did not heal well over the Summer. I think it was a mix of heat, sweat, and exposure to sunlight as much as I tried to keep it covered. Locals will know that an Aussie Summer can be brutal and it showed no mercy on my poor tattoo. A couple of months later and the tattoos were dull in colour and some linework had disappeared. I was pretty bummed. I cannot stress how important it is to go back for a touch-up! Each artist has their own set of rules, but usually, tattoo touch-ups are free of charge within three months of getting the tattoo. If you repeatedly go back to the artist, they can also add a touch-up during your next booking with them.
I went back to see Abbie in April, she had a quick look at the tattoos to see what needed to be done and she mentioned that sometimes certain muscles can tense us during a tattoo session. It affects how the skin takes in colour and as tattoo artists, they can feel it when it happens. So basically, that was my forearm. I didn’t feel like I was tensing, but maybe it wasn’t up for being tattooed twice that day. Abbie kindly cleaned up the linework again, shaded some areas in then packed the white highlights back in for both designs. It looked brand new when I left.
Unfortunately, they are not my favourite tattoos that I have. Sometimes when I see them, I feel like the colours are a bit too muddy on the shrink ray and the text on the Moon Man design is messy up close. However, this does not diminish the sheer talent that Abbie has as a tattoo artist. Her portfolio showcases these wonderful designs with dark, bold lines and lots of contrast. Maybe she didn’t really enjoy tattooing exact replicas from the game’s concept art because I didn’t give her that creative freedom. Either way, thanks to Abbie for two new and very visible tattoos! I’m on my way to a pseudo-patchwork sleeve, I think!
Artist: Abbie France
Instagram (Main): https://www.instagram.com/abbiefrance.tattoo/
Shop: Abstruse Tattoo Studio
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abstrusetattoostudio/
Locations: Hurlstone Park, NSW