Friday, January 19, 2007

LOUIS TAT

For the last few years I’ve wanted to get a tattoo but I could never choose am image to permanently adorn my body, but I really want this Louis Sullivan drawing applied at the base of my neck, just above my shoulders. I’m thinking it would be about 3 ½ by 3 ½ and the color of oxidized copper. The challenge now is finding someone capable of replicating it; however I have a friend who can do the initial drawing.

4 comments:

about a boy said...

thats going to be beautiful!

Hamilton said...

My friends and I are planning to get tatoos too. The picture patterns are not the top priority yet. I do not know where I should ink it! My parents are gonna freak out if they see it, so I Want to have it somewhere kinda easy to cover but still hot and I can show it off if I want to haha. I know so vain. But, where would you suggest? Other than the traditional spots like arms and lower ankle, etc. I really want to do it on my abs, but I still need to work on that area in the gym if you know what i mean. I will probably get it after i get a washboard abs later but for now where is a good place to get it?

JUSTIN said...

Go for the upper bicep..you can be discrete at work/around your p's but still can show it off when the moment is right.

UPDATE: I'm going to get a quote on Monday for it, we'll see how do-able it is and how much they want to charge.

Unknown said...

There is only one Louis Sullivan building in New York City. It's a few blocks from my home and I pass it daily walking to my office. It evokes Chicago, where I grew up, everytime I notice it.

I really can't imagine a sexier tattoo for the back of your neck; the only drawback is that you would never see it yourself. You'd always know it was there, however.

I know someone who could execute it.

Ten years ago, when I was much too old for this sort of thing, my trainer at the gym mentioned that he was getting some new ink, and since one is permitted an extraordinary level of candor with trainers and hairdressers, I said something to the effect that when I had been a kid, I thought tattoos were really sexy but that intellectuals and professionals couldn't do things like that.

He responded with an argument for which I had no answer. He said, "bullshit!"

I then found myself spending a lot of time working out what I would get and where as well as who would do it in the utterly implausible event that I actually followed through on the challenge. To my utter surprise, I discovered that although the only thing I know about my Scandenavian heritage is the word "Skol", if I were to wear a permanent mark, I wanted something deeply Danish.

By the time I got that far, it was no longer an option. I had to have a band of ancient Danish wood carvings around my ankle. I could even imagine it lifting my ankle, like a helium balloon, when I walked. And then I found a guy, Anil Gupta, whose incredibly detailed work simply floored me.

It turned out that this guy from Bombay worked free hand. It was perhaps foolish to entrust my one-of-a-kind body to his free hand, but I couldn't be happier with what I lightly walked away with.

I attach a section from his portfolio.

http://www.anilgupta.com/portfolio/portfolio.htm

If you ever do use the Sullivan design, I hope you place it high enough on your neck so that a bit of it peeps out over the top of a T-shirt. If you're going to be this transgressive, don't leave open the possibility of someday being able to hide what you wanted, and GOT.