Manuel's New Tattoo

I'm going to tell the story while Manuel exercises on the Wii Fit...

For his 30th birthday, Manuel's sister, Cassie, gave him a gift certificate to her favorite tattoo shop, Fallen Angel Tattoo. Manuel's been talking about wanting a new tattoo for a while, so thanks to Cassie, he was forced to be a doer, not a talker.

Manuel has always been a comic guy, as you guys already know. His favorite character of all time is Wolverine, so he had the idea to get Wolverine's claw tattooed on the back of his calf.








We went to the shop Monday the 26th to talk about pricing and stuff. We were greeted by an extremely nice gentleman (who we later learned was the owner.) Manuel showed him the picture and he said he wanted to refer us to Brandon, who is their comic enthusiast. He told us to come back tomorrow when Brandon would be in the shop. We were very impressed that instead of doing the tattoo and taking the money for himself, he referred us to someone who would enjoy doing the tattoo, and do it right.

The next day Manuel went to the shop, met Brandon, and talked about what to have done. Brandon really wanted to do this picture of Wolverine and told Manuel he'd discount his usual $100 per hour rate if he let him. Manuel likes Wolverine and he likes zombies, so it was a perfect combination. That is, it was perfect until I got home from work. I didn't like it. It's too creepy, his face is too skull like. It's not Manuel at all.






I never told him not to do it, but he really wanted something both of us like, so he called Brandon and said he changed his mind, could he come up with something else? Brandon, being the genius he is, mentioned this picture, which is funny, because this is the one Manuel always had in mind but was afraid to have done for fear of having it messed up, but now that he had a comic enthusiast doing it, he felt more confident about it.





So Manuel agreed, but asked him to put his own spin on it, so it's a true original. This is the sketch Brandon came up with and the rest, as they say, is history.










Friday the 30th at 1pm Manuel met Brandon at Fallen Angel and it began:

The outline to trace.











Manuel getting inked.











Brandon working his magic.











About 3.5 to 4 hours into the tattoo.










Putting on the finishing touches.











At 7pm, 6 hours later, there it is, the finished product.











A close up of the detail of Hulk's face in Wolverine's claws.











A close up of Wolverine's face.









The coolest part of the whole thing is that Brandon LOVED the finished product. He was totally into it, making it exactly what he (and Manuel) wanted. His attention to detail was phenomenal, his skill matched by none. He is so proud of this tattoo, in fact, that he encouraged Manuel to go to the tattoo convention coming to town mid-June and enter it - he's positive it will win. How cool would that be, to have an award winning tattoo?!

Now Brandon and I are working really hard for the super hero sleeve...