Brief Interlude

Some thoughts

We have had 10 portrait sittings so far for the NZ Tattoo - Nothing but Skin & Ink project. So, how has it gone?

So far every person that has entered in to the studio has been a little nervous. Some have verbalised this, others have just cruised as if there were no nerves at all. We have not had many that have posed in nothing but skin in the past, in fact I think it has been a first for every model. But they have all been keen, not so much to get naked, but to show off their ink.

We have had predominantly women pose for the project, actually about 80% of the sittings booked are female. But we have had one couple come into the studio, and there are more booked. Soon we will even have some males pose for us by themselves. Unfortunately we have had one person not show for their sitting. This was disappointing as we have had to say no to a lot of people wanting to join in on the project (it did give me time to get into the garden though). Rick is sending out reminders to everyone before their sitting date, although one of our sittings is so keen that she sent Rick a reminder first. Love it!

Nearly every tattoo has had a story. Be it in the tattoo itself, or where they had it done, each tattoo is a memory. The tattoos themselves are of a huge range, from fairy tales to children's drawings. The two main themes are fantasy and family. There are some sad tales of bad tattoos, and all of these have been done by a 'friend of a friend' or something similar. When it comes to tattoos you really get what you pay for. I would never think of asking a plastic surgeon for a discount or their 'best price', and yet tattoos last just as long (a lifetime I hope).

The biggest challenge we have had is posing our models for their tattoos first, and their body shape second. This has been a great exercise in thinking outside the box and has taken me way out of my comfort zone. No matter how much experience you have, there is always new things to learn, and this has been a wonderful learning curve for me.

The most common comment we have had after a shoot is 'it was a lot of fun, and I am so glad I did it'. That makes us very happy.

Rick and I are working well as a team, with me as the main camera controlling the flashes, and Rick capturing the side images and the more relaxed, natural expressions. For sitting #11 we even managed to get outside, so stay tuned for these images. The alpaca photo-bombs were just hilarious!

10 down, 50 to go...