Mel's Star Shines from Down Under

Earlier this month, I ran into Mel coming out of Penn Station.

She has amazing work, and it was soon clear why. Mel was visiting from Melbourne, Australia, where she works as a tattoo artist at Get Smart Body Art.

I was drawn particularly to one of her newer tattoos, this dot-style Tibetan-inspired design:

I told her it reminded me of the style of Thomas Hooper, an artist at New York Adorned whose website (here) showcases some astonishing work, including tattoos made from the dot-style technique.

Mel noted that it was an original design that was inked using a rotary tattoo machine, with the purpose of achieving this effect. Thomas Hooper's style, she acknowledged, inspired her to attempt this ambitious tattoo.

In all fairness, she collaborated with Mick Kelly, at Get Smart Body Art, who did the actual tattooing.

Thanks to Mel for sharing this lovely tattoo with us here on Tattoosday!

Mandy's Leopard Stars

I spotted Mandy on Seventh Avenue in Manhattan last month and I had to stop her to ask about this, one of her three tattoos:


She came up with the design and made sure to include the leopard print that she likes so much.

She credits the artist Eric Newby at Ink Xpressions on Ringgold Road in East Ridge (Chattanooga), Tennessee.

You may notice another tattoo peeking into the picture, so let me show you the larger perspective and a glimpse of the piece to the left of the stars:


Mandy informed me later, via e-mail, that the floral piece

"was actually a stencil I found, and I really liked the design a lot. I had two black and white tattoos, so I wanted bright colors and we decided no outlines would look cool. It was a long process to get the colors I wanted to absorb, but it was well worth it in the end. The artist was Shane Hartline at Evermore Galleries in Chattanooga".

Thanks to Mandy for sharing these tattoos with us here on Tattoosday!