Sean has lots of ink on his arms and neck. With all his ink, he's never sat for more than two and a half to three hours of needle work at a time.
One especially nice piece of Sean's is a bee and chrysanthemum blossom, shown below. This work was done by John Joyes of State of the Art Tattoo Studio in Winchester, Virginia. The flower was done first, the bee later.
Why the bee? Sean remembers a frantic rush to the hospital in his dad's car when he was about 5 years old because of a bee sting he got biting down on a cheesburger with a bee sitting on it. Ouch!! Guess this ink is his effort to get the last word on the bee.
Sean got his first tattoo when he was 18 years old...a spider web on his elbow, shown below.
Sean's second tattoo was the eagle shown above...also by John Joyes. The eagle stood alone on his arm for a long time...John filled in around it with flames and water later. He also touched up the eagle following some minor damage to Sean's arm.
John Joyes also did the shamrock on Sean's wrist...note the drop of blood at the tip of the stem. Sean woke up with the idea one day, called John, and John free-handed it on his arm with a ballpoint pen. When Sean saw the drawing he knew that was what he wanted and told John, "Go for it!"
Sean got this tiger after he got his eagle. The eagle had gotten him to thinking about endangered species...the tiger carried that theme further. Tommy Painter of Jungle Jim's Tattoo Studio in Winchester, Virginia, did the ink work. Sean had the tiger recolored later by Eric at East Coast Tattoo Studio, Arlington, Virginia.
Another nice piece of Sean's is a dream catcher, shown below. This was also done by John Joyes of State of the Art Tattoo Studio. Sean got the design from a deck of medicine cards John had in his studio, although John adapted the design somewhat. Sean says he just liked the coyote...no particular thought other than that went into selecting it.
James at Jungle Jim's in Winchester did Sean's dragon. The skull was added at the 1991 Pittsburgh Tattoo Convention by Gary Hoag, from San Diego, California.
Close up of the dragon...
The design for Sean's knight on horseback was borrowed from a menu at the Old Brogue restaurant in Great Falls, Virginia.
This sexy lady came from airplane nose-art...minus the bombs she had surrounding her in the original design. Sean hasn't decided yet, but he may have the bombs added at some time. He got this tattoo at the 1991 American Motorcycle Jamboree. The ink work was done by Darrin Rosa, who works underground in New York City.
John Joyes did the wizzard. Sean was looking for a piece of ink with bright colors. He had confidence in John's color work, and John didn't let him down with this traditional off-the-wall piece.
John Joyes also did the demon in the picture above. Sean got this work done at the same time as the chrysanthemum blossom shown earlier. The original black and white design came from a book of Japanese art...John added the color.
This picture shows the creative fill-in John used around some of Sean's major pieces. Sean had an idea in his mind about clouds and lightening. John took his idea from there.
This wolf was done by John Joyes also. It carries out more of his endangered species theme.
The picture below shows the Celtic band on Sean's wrist...the design for the band with shamrocks was also borrowed from the Old Brogue restaurant menu.
This picture also shows a tattoo on Sean's hand. It's a small dragon climbing a wall...Rick at Rick's Tattoo Studio in Arlington did the ink work. Sean wanted a hand tattoo and thought this made more sense than having his fingers spell out "hate" when he put them together.
John Joyes did the ink work on this coiled snake. He added the skulls on the wrist and flames free hand as he went along. Shown below is some flame fill-in added by John at the 1997 Richmond Tattoo Arts Festival.
Flaming skull on neck...
Having ink on the neck is moving into pretty public space...why on the neck, Sean?
Sean says ever since he'd had his first piece of ink...the spider web on the elbow...people looked at the web and would say, "Where's the spider, Sean?" He got sick of the question, so he added the spider on his neck so people wouldn't ask him anymore. Sean added the flaming skull to the other side of his neck as "just something to even it out...to provide some balance." John Joyes did the needle work on both the spider and the flaming skull. Sean wanted John to put them higher on his neck, but John wouldn't go any higher than he did.
Here's a picture of Sean getting some final fill-in on his arm from John Joyes at the 1997 Richmond Tattoo Arts Festival.
And here's a samuari warrior that John Joyes added to Sean's arm at the 1998 Richmond Convention.
To no one's surprise, Sean was ready for more ink by the time the 1999 Richmond Convention rolled around. This time, though, he began to focus on his less-covered arm. Sean didn't lose focus on his favorite tattoo artist, though...you can see John Joyes working on Sean's arm below.
Grind that needle, John...
Here's a closer look at the finished work...with a lovely tattooed lady, skullage, and firey sky.
Thank you for visiting Tattoo Talk.
Back to Tattoo Talk's HomePage.
Sign Our Guestbook
View Our Guestbook
Get your own Free Home Page