Deep Sea Tattoo Adventures

Today should be the final sitting of an octopus and antique diving helmet tattoo I started a couple months ago. It's a black and grey piece starting on the arm and rolling up onto the chest, the image sets a scene where the octopus has perhaps found the helmet in the deep and is about to hide inside. Octopus are amazing creatures and are so much fun to draw and tattoo. Having bodies that can stretch, compress, bend, twist, and contort in a seemingly endless variety of ways allows us tattooers to really push the boundaries of what a layout can be. Combine that with a mix of almost any texture you can imagine and you've got yourself one hell of an exciting tattoo design!

I might throw a pic on the ol' instagram machine but no promises. Black and grey tattoos are better photographed after they've healed, especially if the tattoo has been done in sessions, due to the redness of the freshly tattooed areas. So, until then enjoy these fun cephalopodic factoids compliments of OneKind.org

• Common octopuses will collect crustacean shells and other objects to construct fortresses, or "gardens," around their lairs. Other octopuses carry shells for protection.

• The common octopus has a wide array of techniques it uses to avoid or thwart attackers. Its first—and most amazing—line of defense is its ability to hide in plain sight. Using a network of pigment cells and specialized muscles in its skin, the common octopus can almost instantaneously match the colors, patterns, and even textures of its surroundings. Predators such as sharks, eels, and dolphins swim by without even noticing it.

• They have been found to play with a ‘toy’ and to have individual responses and individual temperaments, with some scientists believing they have individual personalities.

• All octopuses are venomous, but only the small blue-ringed octopuses are known to be deadly to humans.

• There are around 300 recognized octopus species, which is over one-third of the total number of known cephalopod species.

• Octopuses have four pairs of arms.

• Octopuses have three hearts. Two pump blood through each of the two gills, while the third pumps blood through the body.

to continue reading on the wonderful world of octopi click HERE