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Tattoo

A couple of looks at my newest featured tattoo with the story that comes along with it.

Please enjoy!

Take Your Mask Off

A tattoo designed, and applied by Lana Kane

I can’t stop looking at this tattoo. I did it back in May and still, I keep coming back to it. Just staring. This piece was done on one of my regulars. Someone with a lot of my more favored tattoos. Outstanding pieces if you ask me. This one is different though.

She asked me to do whatever I wanted. So I did what we often don’t quite get to in tattooing. I got to tell a story, a bit of my own story. I was allowed to make a truly vulnerable piece of art in my favorite medium. I’d like to take a moment to tell you more about it.

As humans we don masks. Deeply, daily, and a lot of the times, unconsciously. We often let our egos bolster themselves up with them. I’ve worn plenty of masks in my own life. Called it “survival”, “confidence”, “fake it til you make it”. Some masks were placed on me at birth. “You’re a boy”, “Man up”.. ya know? And I’m not alone. You have likely had to don a mask of your own. Your neighbors, parents, friends, enemies, abusers, the best and worst people you know. All of us. Wearing these heavy masks. But at some point we gotta come to our senses. Realize that this mask isn’t you. It’s your ego. My ego. Our collective ego. We’ve gotta let that thing go. Let the mask set fire as it falls. Never to return.

Nailing that feeling with this tattoo, at this moment in my life. I think that’s why I keep coming back to it. The ambiguity of the ropes, beg the questions “Are they connected to the mask?”, “Can that hand let it go?”

The tiger, a representation of strength, courage, and protection from evil and misfortune. When made into a mask it is a potent representation of the ego.

The heavy use of green not only plays into the color theory present on her whole leg, but serves as a motif. The color green is rooted, from Greek culture, in envy. My personal heaviest struggle. The hand, rope and flames, all connected. One and the same but different.

Then the eyes. Chaotic. Notice they’re nearly the same. But intentionally different. The eyes in the tiger start with a red pupil. A feeling of anger cascading into a colorful spiral. However the eye in the hand lends a more vulnerable and tender expression. This pupil is blue. A more tranquil color, rooted in peace. It continues to cascade as the tigers eyes. Connecting them. Notice the eye in the hand is not quite all the way exposed. Not quite there yet. I’d say that that’s where I am.

Thank you Elise for trusting me to express myself in such an important and vulnerable way. And thank you for reading. Please enjoy the full view of this piece, along with some progress sketches.