What’s a Pal to do After the Sydney Lockdown? Get Ink, Of Course!
As soon as bookings for one of my favourite places opened, the tattoo urge was real and Jessie was ready to take on the design for an anime tattoo.
Don’t trust one’s tired and bored self after lockdown, you’ll end up with another tattoo. Oops!
I thought about getting something a little different when I booked with Jessie. She specialises in black and grey and fineline, is a mother of two boys and is a kickass tattooist who packs a punch. I’ve seen her do many anime pieces on her and Thirteen Feet Tattoo’s Instagram, so I decided I’d get a Bleach tattoo!
As a teenager, my life was consumed with anime and Japanese culture. You could say, I was a massive weeb. I particularly loved Bleach; Ichigo was one of my favourite leading characters and when Shounen gets their protagonists right, what’s not to love? I also adored Grimmjow, his charismatic recklessness turned him into a bit of an anti-hero. Grimmjow was also brought to life by one of the best Japanese voice artists, Junichi Suwabe- a voice and character that’s hard to forget. I eventually outgrew the weeb, but anime tattoos were still a pretty cool idea to get!
Instagram: @32tattoooo
Calf tattoos = squishy, fatty pain D:
The references I sent Jessie were two images of Ichigo and Grimmjow, just kinda standing there, looking cool. I wanted to keep that manga feel, focusing more on shading, textures and linework, with minimal colour. The colour was selective, Ichigo and Grimmjow’s brightly coloured hair and eyes. When I first saw Jessie’s rendition, I was initially taken aback by how different it was from my initial idea. Her explanation was that my concept would not fit on my calf as well as I thought and something a bit more contained, e.g. in a circular shape, would compliment the placement better. As I am not the professional, I put my trust in the artist, because above all, the tattoos are still going to look cool on my body. My only compromise was that I still wanted the colour because that is unique to my memories of being a Bleach fan.
The entire session was about 4-5 hours and boy, I could not sit still. If the side of the calves hurt that bad, I can’t imagine what the back of the calves would feel like. Weirdly, I sit much better when the tattoo is closer to muscle or bone and has fewer squishy or fatty parts of my limbs. So I was very relieved once the session had finished. Jessie didn’t provide second skin like Saniderm, understanding that some people reacted to the product, but I still wanted it covered because I was heading out after. The cling wrap was butchered within seconds because of how much plasma was leaking from the tattoo and I found that recovery took a bit longer than what I was used to.
Overall, I wouldn’t say it is my favourite tattoo, it’s a bit different to how I imagined it would fit with the other pieces on that leg. Maybe she was right that it did look better without the colour. But y’know, I can’t complain. People who have seen the tattoo still say it looks awesome. Thanks, Jessie!
A very angry, just finished tattoo
Post-tattoo feed!
Artist: Jessie
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/32tattoooo/
Shop: Thirteen Feet Tattoo
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thirteenfeettattoo/
Locations: Newtown and Haymarket, NSW