From Feeling to Skin: How a Personal Story Becomes a Custom Tattoo. Read this before getting your next tattoo!

Every tattoo starts before the idea

Before the sketch

Before Photoshop

It starts with a feeling.

1. The Emotion Comes First

Many times when someone wants a tattoo, they don't think , “I want this exact image.”

They come with something softer and more honest.

Love for a person

Missing a place

Admiration for a figure

Grief

A memory

Sometimes just a strange thought that won’t leave them alone.

This emotion is the real starting point of a meaningful tattoo. The image comes later.

2. Turning Emotion into an Idea

In my case, this is where animals, or human-animal combinations, often come in. Animals are powerful visual metaphors. They carry movement, personality, instinct, and symbolism—without needing explanation.

Missing a place might become a migratory bird.

Admiring strength might turn into a quiet, grounded animal rather than something loud.

A person you love can exist through an animal that holds their energy, not their portrait.

This step is about finding the right symbol, not the obvious one.

3. Playing, Mixing, Trying

Now we move from imagination to visual thinking.

This is where we work together—actively. I don’t make one sketch and call it a day. We explore. I build compositions in Photoshop, mix references, break things apart, put them back together, and follow what works visually.

Some ideas fail.

Some surprise us.

Sometimes the image itself leads us to refine the original idea.

This part is playful by nature. It’s trial and error, again and again, until the design feels right—not just smart, but alive.

4. Letting the Body Join the Conversation

A tattoo isn’t finished when the design looks good on a screen.

The body matters!

Placement, size, direction, and flow all change how a tattoo lives. Muscles move. Skin stretches. A design can face inward, outward, wrap around, or sit quietly where only the wearer sees it.

This is where anatomy and intuition meet—making sure the tattoo works with the body, not against it.

Lastly, The Tattoo Experience Itself

And yes—this part should be as comfortable and fun as possible.

You can talk.

You can be quiet.

You can read, watch Netflix, zone out, or ask questions.

For me, the most important thing is honesty. If something feels uncomfortable, I want to know. The only thing that makes me uncomfortable is imagining that you are.

Clear communication, trust, and comfort are part of the process—not extras.

In the end, the tattoo isn’t just an image.

It’s a feeling that found a shape—and a place to live.