Michael DeMatty

In this session, we added soil around the roots and black shading. In the next session, we will add more gray shading and start more color. (Again, this tattoo features the beautiful Tibetan calligraphy of Tashi Mannox.)

The other morning i woke up and as i opened my eyes, i saw an image like a face looking back at me in the folds of the pillow case next to me. It was a sad looking face, like someone grieving. For some reason, it immediately made me think of the famine in Somalia happening right now, and something inside me felt i needed to create an art piece with this face. I searched on line for Somalia famine and i came across a photo of a grieving woman that looked exactly like the grieving face that greeted me when i awoke. That photo became a portrait in ink on paper which i call “Famine and cholera.” What i want for this piece is to find a charity auction for Somalia or a buyer, and donate the money to aid in Somalia. The piece is about 18 inches by 24 inches i believe, and still needs to be framed.

I took a photo of the folds in the pillow case i saw when i opened my eyes.

The client for whom i recently designed my first tribal decided he wanted a second one, this time right above his gluteus maximus. Again, he wanted it small, and again i tried to design it to fit his body well, accentuating his musculature.

I thought about putting Bulldog Tattoo SF somewhere on it since that’s where i work, but i decided to keep it simple.

I also made this picture to put in the front of my portfolio at the shop.

I’m not a big fan of “tribal,” mostly because i have seen so many horrible tattoos made of ugly, limp, noodley, (ok that’s not a word, but it means like a wet noodle,) haphazard black pointy bars. Let’s face it, most tattoo collectors have one they regret. Few are the lucky ones who have a tribal tattoo that is pleasing to the eye and fits the body. My client came to me and had a few pictures of tribal tattoos. He really liked them, but i just couldn’t see placing them on his arm. He also wanted to incorporate the letter ‘A’ into the tattoo. He also wanted it very small, not to wrap around his arm to the more tender side. I talked him into letting me design one to perfectly fit his arm. He said ok. I wrapped tracing paper around his arm and traced the grooves of his muscles and the shape of his upper arm. I had never designed a tribal before, but i felt up to the challenge.  Now he is entering it into a tattoo competition.

A couple from Canada came down to San Francisco for Gay Pride weekend and decided to get tattoos. One wanted two rings interlocked, saying “trust and faith.”  In my head, i saw a way to make it really beautiful. She loved the design, but she had quite a low pain tolerance and we almost didn’t get to the end of the tattoo. Her poor girlfriend chickened out.

A client from Hawaii came to me with a drawing of Poseidon he had found, and asked, “Can you make him Polynesian?”

Here’s a little treat.