Rose

Samurai Armor Full Sleeve Tattoo Design

I got to do this very cool project for an awesome client of mine. He challenged me to create a samurai armor full sleeve with a twist of fantasy. I was actually very intimidated by this project because it's something I have never done before. I researched a lot, but there's not many things I can grab on to. So I decided to look at some samurai armor photos from a museum, and combined it with some western patterns. I also looked at Japanese house symbols and incorporated that into the armor. In the end, this is what I came up with. I think the icing on the cake was that my client challenged me to create his own version of the caduceus, by using intertwining japanese dragons and the naginata. I liked this idea so much that I had to make this into a focal point, and built the mood of the design around this.