I've made my mark...(Tattoo Update)

Ta Da! Here it is... the healed tattoo, as you can see it looks a good deal different than my original design. When we met with Anil for the consult he made some very helpful suggestions, he felt it was too colorful and too feminine so I "manned" it up a bit, lost the flowers, distressed the banner, moved the names & dates around & left the color up to him. Since it was in honor of our 25th anniversary he chose to use red and blue, red to represent passion and blue to represent the calmness, a good mix for a successful long term relationship. It sounded really good, besides red is my favorite color & blue is Joes!
This photo was taken right after it was done, it took about 2 1/2 hours but that was because we had almost 20 years to catch up on! It was fascinating to watch it being done, I'm so tempted to get a little one myself!
I met Anil Gupta 20 years ago when we both worked for the same garment company. Over the years I heard a lot about him and his tremendous success in the tattoo business. I even saw him on several tv specials. One of the things he became quite famous for is his miniature reproductions of the old masters paintings, amazing work, as is his portrait and fantasy work (I could go on & on!). His place is not your typical tattoo parlor, there are no stock designs. He does all the art custom for each client ( some very famous ones), they either give him a concept or just leave it up to him. Because he also respected me as an artist he clearly made an exception by using my art but his suggestions made made all the difference. He has a tremendous following, which keeps him booked for months in advance but because I knew him he squeezed us in without the long wait! It finally paid off knowing someone! Check out his website (link attached), he's an amazingly talented artist and a really nice guy.Anil Gupta