The NorthWest Coast Indians chose totem animals for each tribe, and the hummingbird must have been an especially lucky one to have been born to. This pattern uses the traditional forms to create a new portrait in skin that closely resembles a traditional tattoo, using the motifs so popular in NW art.
Haida Style Hummingbird Tattoo by Pat Fish
In honor of National Moth Week, here is a Luna Moth I tattooed on a friend of mine a few years ago:
Luna Moth Tattoo by Pat Fish
Luna moths are one of the most unusual and beautiful of the North American moths known as Saturnidae. With a 5" wingspan, lustrous green color, and an adult life of only one week, they are a rare and splendid vision in the night.
The daughter of one of my esteemed clients turned 18 yesterday and she wasted no time, she was in the studio TODAY to get her first tattoo. It has become something of a tradition in their family, and it does my heart good when happy parents tell their kids to patronize my skills. With this heart and triquetra pattern she celebrates her Irish heritage and her love of her family. My kinda gal!
Faithful Heart Celtic Tattoo by Pat Fish
A few weeks ago I read about the Fish Reef Project that will be placing large cement Reef Balls in a patch of ocean floor just off the Santa Barbara coastline and thereby encouraging the formation of a kelp forest. I was immediately enthusiastic and contacted http://www.fishreef.org/ and offered to donate a tattoo as my symbolic way of supporting this wonderful work. One of the principal volunteers took me up on it, and together we came up with this tattoo design that I installed on him today. The reef ball is shown in dots, as befits its surface of aggregate concrete, the better for marine life to take root on. Coming around the side is a mako shark, and I give credit here to the fabulous artist Guy Harvey whose shark t-shirt design i used as inspiration. Then I added kelp gently waving above, to give a feeling of how the balls will be the static root for the living forest to anchor on. On the reef ball are two starfish and a limpet. Last I added a tiny calico bass peeking out through one of the openings, safe in his home, watching as the shark goes by. All in all, a lovely way for the medium of tattoo to bring this vision of a restored ocean to life in skin.
Shark and Reef Ball Tattoo by Pat Fish
