I promised to tell you something about one of my latest tattoo projects, so here it is.
Normally my main part of designs consists of shoulder pieces, but for this design a customer
asked me to do a shoulder AND chest piece in one.
It's really tricky to get it all on a flat sheet of paper, so I needed some sort of body template.
The tattoo only covered the outer side of the left arm (from shoulder to elbow) and the left pectoral muscle.
My customer used a sheet of tracing paper and simple traced the shape of his body. The total template looked like this:
![shoulder chest tattoo template design](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_gjPN6EH3avk/SrOOjJd9HQI/AAAAAAAAAVQ/NJwustHTGcE/s320/shoulder-chest-tattoo-template-design.jpg)
The design had to be maori style and have some nice flowing curles/koru. First I drew the outlines of the maori shapes:
![maori style tattoo drawings](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gjPN6EH3avk/SrOPKc_6FiI/AAAAAAAAAVY/knQQJek2LKk/s320/maori-style-tattoo-drawings.jpg)
Then I filled the shapes with some traditional lines, triangles and other tribal design stuff.
![sketch maori tatoo designs](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gjPN6EH3avk/SrOPK-KoO2I/AAAAAAAAAVg/192scfuHQtM/s320/drawings-maori-tattoo-designs.jpg)
I take pictures of the design with my Canon EOS 400D and send these photos to the customer. It's a lot quicker than scanning it, because it is on A3 size paper.
The final design is ofcourse scanned in high resolution.
Here are a few shots of the tattoo sketch in progress.
![photos maori designs and sketches](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_gjPN6EH3avk/SrOQm2nMtyI/AAAAAAAAAVw/Flx7GOE52ZQ/s320/tattoo-designs-maori-style-images.jpg)
![pictures maori kirituhi tattoos](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_gjPN6EH3avk/SrOQmmBG2UI/AAAAAAAAAVo/nrhHNaM_1bc/s320/maori-tribal-tattoo-sketch-photos.jpg)
I just received a comment from the customer, that he wants the fills a bit more intricate, instead of the traditional tattoo lines.
So I'll get back to you soon with an adjusted tattoo design.
Kind regards, Mark