So, I’ve been planning to get a half sleeve for a while now, years in fact. But what I couldn’t figure out, was what I wanted.

I have a chinese dragon on my arm from when I was 18, and even though it wouldn’t have been my choice now, I didn’t want to cover it up. It’s a nice memory, and it represents that part of my life. Not quite knowing who I was, hadn’t found myself and all of that clichéd stuff.

Then I came up with the idea of a tree, something that reminded me of my childhood, running around in the forest with my best friend, pretending we were living in a fantasy world where we lived in the trees, and nature was our god. A tree was something I wouldn’t get tired of, something that isn’t just in the moment; trendy (like my chinese dragon was), but timeless. I’ve always been facinated by trees, I find them beautiful and mysterious. It was perfect! I started researching tree tattoos and started sketching like crazy. I wanted to draw the tree myself, and I made it curl around the dragon, almost merging them both.

After a few months of sketching (and dwelling on the idea of getting such a big tattoo), I felt it was sort of ready, and I went to The Family Business Tattoo (very renowned tattoo parlor in London), and was instantly referred to Joao Bosco, whose style was exactly what I wanted. He had done a couple of trees in the past and I love his work. I gave my sketches to him, and from that he came up with a design I was happy with.

I got tattooed on the 9th of June, it took 3.5 hours, and it was painful. But worth it! Joao is such a talented tattooer, and he loves Norwegian metal! \m/

I’m booked in for a touch-up of my dragon, to match the ‘colour’ of the tree, as the dragon’s been fading for 10 years now. In the meantime, I’m enjoying every second of my new tattoo, I can’t stop staring at it and it’s details!

Hope you like it, too!

(Sorry for the bad image quality, I will get a better photograph soon).