St. Michael Slaying a Demon Tattoo...

I started my friend Johnny's full sleeve this week. He wants it to depict a Biblical good and evil theme with angels fighting demons. This first session completed the feature image of St. Michael slaying a demon with hell below and heaven shining down from above. There will be more work done to this portion of the piece to tie it in with the rest of the images, but this is a great start. Thanks Johnny for sitting like a champ!
I also laid out this Old E lettering on this guys back...classic.

Lowrider Job with Perfect Pete...

My buddy Pete asked if I would get down with some pinstriping on a lowrider he was working on. Pete laid out the flake paint job and patterns, and I striped the rest. The car isn't finished yet, but here are some photos of it so far...

Daddy's Girl Tattoo...

I put this tattoo on a girl who's father is a gun loving cowboy...
...and this small lettering on a mom's ankle for her son...
...and if you can guess where this guy is from, then you win a dollar

from: Kama
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 12:51 AM
subject: tattoo request

HanziSmatter site is amazing, great idea :) I love reading it. Chinese and Japanese characters looks great, but I still don't understand why people are tattooing their names in those languages, when they come from German, England or Poland, like me.

I guess they want to look cool, like my friend, who is 100% sure that he has "Julia" tattoo on his left hand.

Is he? Please, help me to translate it right (if it's not ok) because he is playing so smart, that would be a pleasure to prove him wrong ;)

Greetings from Poland,

Kama



珠丽娅 is an acceptable phonetic Chinese translation for Julia, however all characters were done mirrored.

from: Johan
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 9:41 PM
subject: Look at this Arrivals sign from Sweden

This is from Arlanda, Stockholm's international airport. They have a lot of these signs.

In Sweden, we pride ourselves on being way better than everybody else, by the way.

Johan, Sweden



It appears manufacturer of the sign did not have correct language and fonts pack installed. Instead of displaying 到達 (arrivals), the second character showed up as a rectangular box.

Green Lowrider Get the Silver Leaf Business...

I striped and leafed this ride for my friend the other day. I went with a more reserved and refined look to the design. We both liked the end results!

Help with translation - Faith, Hope and Love!

from: Erik F.
to: tiangotlost@gmail.com
date: Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 9:32 AM
subject: Help with translation - Faith, Hope and Love!

Hey there!

My friend went to Turkey and got himself a tattoo in chinese or japanese. According to him it says "Faith, hope and love", but being the sceptical person I am, I thought I should send a picture to you to verify.

Does it really say that, or is this another case of "Prepaid Public Transportation Card"? (A part of me is hoping it is!)

Thanks for your time!

sincerely,

Erik



To one that is only familiar with Chinese or Japanese, this tattoo would be gibberish.

A quick look via Google Translator, I soon realized this is Chinese phonetic translation of Turkish, where Faith is "inanc" (伊南), Hope is "umut" (乌穆特), and Love is "ask" (阿士克).

The irony is with current situation in Xinjiang, China, were most ethnic Turks reside, Chinese and Turks are not on the best of terms.

Why would anyone stupid enough to get a Turkish phrase to be phonetically translated & tattooed in Chinese? It's like begging to be the Lucky Pierre in middle of an ethnic conflict.

Infamous Choppers Lady Luck Bike...

This might be my favorite paint job I've ever done for my good friends at Infamous. It's simple, has an old school feel to it, and I really dig the way the girl turned out!