Melon Skull Tattoo

Faith Broache said she is "a tattoo apprentice in Richmond, VA and today I practiced tattooing my favorite thing onto a melon!" When I first saw this, I thought it was a bald head, but a melon makes more sense. I love the anatomical sketch quality this tattoo has. Richmond (where Noah and I live) is one of the most tattooed cities, which is about how many tattoo shops per capita we have. This means tattoo artists aren't in short supply as a whole, but extremely talented ones are rare. I'm interested to see how Faith progresses as a tattoo apprentice, since this skull is a great look into her line work.

Super Punctured Skulls Saturday

As part of the celebration for Skull Appreciation Day 2013 and the opening of the FaceOff exhibit at the International Museum of Surgical Science, as well as the impending onset of Skull-A-Day 7.0, I figured this would be a great time to flip your wigs with a HUGE Super Saturday post featuring one of my personally new favorite artists, Dionne Marshall. Dionne creates handmade tattooed, tooled, and stitched leather art & artefacts, under the name ‘Punctured Artefact’.  Here's a bit of info that she was obliged to share....

"I live in a tiny, pretty English village, where I have a studio in my garden. Working as a designer/ maker is all quite new after ‘quitting the day job’ within the fashion industry to something I love."

"With a background in textile and accessory design, patterns and flowing lines feature strongly in all my designs. My main inspiration comes from tall things inky… the artistry & imagery of modern tattooing, mixed with a never ending love of death heads, geometry, Japanese motifs, natural & organic forms, anatomy, science, lines & patterns."

"I create using layers of decorative techniques, which are highly detailed and labor intensive. They give my work depth and a textural 3D feel. Premium untreated natural veg tan leather is the base for all pieces. The decorative and detailed line-work is tattooed onto the leather, usually with one needle (with a traditional tattoo machine)."

"To bring out the line-work and beauty of the leather, leather-working techniques are used. These may include; tooling, embossing, engraving, etching & repousse. Book binding techniques such as lacunose, Tudor style, onlay and inlay feature in some of the designs. Each piece is finished by beveling, dying and buffing the edges before being mounted and framed into a 'shadow box' frame made from worn reclaimed wood (created by us!)"

"I use the same processes on all my artworks, jewellery & accessories. I also do custom and bespoke ones offs, including tattoo ideas. So you can wear my designs on your wall or your skin!"

I'm still utterly amazed at the detail and design you achieve, Dionne.  I know how meticulous single needle tattooing can be and combining that with all of your other techniques really enhances the character and persona of each piece.  Keep up the fantastic work and the job you love won't feel like one.  Thanks again!

Tattooed Leather Skulls

Over in the UK Dionne Marshall is mixing styles with her "tattooed and tooled leather" works of art. She uses untreated natural veg tan leather which she decorates by tattooing individually(with a tattoo machine) before tooling, embossing, engraving, etching & repousse onto the leather. Dionne gets her inspiration from the artistry & imagery of modern tattooing, mixed with a never ending love of skulls, geometry(the first and noblest of sciences), Japanese, lines & patterns.

This is just a sample of the plethora of awesome skulls in her etsy store. Obviously I'm a huge fan of tattoos, but I've never seen anyone use a tattoo machine on leather. The results you achieve are amazing, Dionne. The tooling and embossing add so much depth to the colored lines. Tattoos are forever and well taken care of leather lasts a lifetime so these pieces could be around for eons. Thanks for sharing your artful works of perseverance, Dionne!

Ink & Flash Skulls

Pick your design, sit back in the chair, take a deep breath, and prepare to get inked. Christal Musser of Blacklist Tattoo is back(from here) with more skull tattoos and flash drawings.

Of course I love skull tattoos, and I really dig Christal's personal touch with the flowers.  The senorita skull is especially creepy.  A beautiful black widow waiting to rip your heart out....and devour it!  Thanks again for the great submissions, Christal!

Two Skull Tattoos

Kastro Sama in Waterford, Ireland did these skull tattoos.

We here are Skull-A-Day are partial to tattoos. Especially skull tattoos. At least 3 of us have 1 or more skulls tattooed on us...which is true dedication to skull love. Though both of these tattoos have skulls, the subject matter is very different. One is a colorful sprinkle cupcake with a skull cherry top. The other is a raven sitting on skull with spilled red ink, which is a tribute to author Edgar Allan Poe. Though very different, they are very beautiful and each have a special meaning to the wearer.

Skull Tattwosday

We're slinging ink today with a couple of skullacious scars that happen to bear a strong resemblance to art. Driven by needles and crafted with skill....Enjoy!

Jon Goad has some ink afoot at Born This Way Body Arts, in Knoxville, TN.

Jason Sheeler is rockin' some Southern pride all the way from Kuwait.

I love being able to post great tattoos of skulls. It makes me yearn to hear the buzzing of the machine again, leaving yet another artful mark upon my skin. We'd love to show more tattoos of skulls, but please remember that we ask that you be the artist of the piece provided so that we can give proper credit where it's due. Thanks, Jon and Jason!

[BONUS] Skull-A-Day Tattoos

Just wanted to share a couple more tattoos featuring my work!

The first was posted on our Skull-A-Day Facebook page by Cynthia Saldivar, who used my Seaskull as inspiration for her foot tattoo...

 

The second was spotted by me at this year's GWAR-B-Q here in Richmond!  I introduced myself as the creator of the Quoth The Skull artwork, but sadly did not get the owner's name...

Do you have a Skull-A-Day inspired tattoo? Please drop us a line and share it!  If you do you'll be joining the elite ranks of Skull-A-Day tattooed including our editor Abby, who has my Quoth The Skull on her arm; Thomas who has my Skulledelic on his arm; Deacon who got my Ornamental skull on his back; Denis who got a skull I drew for him when I signed his copy of my book Skulls; Kevin, GlobGlob & Drew who used the Skullphabet for their tattoos; Katrina who had a tattoo designed for her by Skull-A-Day fans; Danny who got the Rorschach Skull; Tammie who got my Acorn Skull; and of course Skull-A-Day editor Tatman and myself!