First of all, it should be mentioned that this tattoo is a cover-up, hence the dense colour on the lower arm. On the picture, the tattoo is very fresh, and the old tattoo can be seen shining through a bit.
A large part of the change this wyrm represents is in the cover-up part of the tattoo, but it is only a part of it.
As any of my followers would know, i have a love for tattooing hands, and the permission to do this piece on Don’s hand was a gift, as it allowed me to do the cover-up on the lower arm in a much more dynamic way, and of course it also meant i could do the fingers, which was great fun and a wonderful challenge.
Much of the design is tied with the transformative power of water, and the healing powers it represents. Using Celtic and Pictish inspired spiral-designs as a filler made a lot of sense in this, as the flow is both reminiscent of water, and calming to behold.
The head of the wyrm itself needed to be related to the intense flow and life of the body of course, as well as a feel of water, so i drew a lot of inspiration from eels, morays and pikes, and added the same seaweed-like flow to the tendrils.
From the back, it is quite easy to see the flowing seaweed dynamic i was searching for. I even wove it through the “skin” of the wyrm, which is not something i do often, but it felt right to weave this designs as much as possible.
I hope to add more to this text soon, and hopefully a link to you Youtube video as well, so you can get the full story about this project, but for now i will leave it as it is.