Tribute Tattoos... with a twist!

Today I'll be starting a Princess Mononoke thigh tattoo. Normally I'm a little hesitant when taking on reproductions of other artwork because there tends to be very little wiggle room for creative suggestion. Usually if your a big enough fan of a film or cartoon or whatever, to permanently mark yourself then you want that tattoo to be spot on to the original and thats totally understandable! This tattoo however is a bit different. Adam's tattoo is inspired by a friends drawing/interpretation of the film with a neat mandala twist in the background. Now, Adam's friend did a great job but isn't a tattooer so in order to make this into a tattoo-able design quite a few changes would have to be made which means, I've been asked to do my interpretation of HIS interpretation of characters from the film. THAT is way more exciting! My client is already intrigued by the idea of someone else's vision or interpretation of the original film. This concept allows me to really have fun with these characters and gives me freedom to put my own style into Adams tattoo even though I'm reproducing someone else's character design. To me, this is the absolute best way to pay tribute to a pre-existing work of art. Due to the fact that I'm a fan of the film and because I'm familiar with director Miyazaki's body of work my client can rest assured that his tattoo will will be respectful to the original, but because Adam has given freedom and creative liberty I can work more comfortably and tattoo in the methods and styles that I tattoo best... It's gonna be a fun day!