Here is what I couldn’t show. Or at least the start, it’s not finished yet.
But now for once, I’m not the one drawing, I’ve handed over the rest of the work to Felicia.
It’s a bit too difficult to draw on my own back.

It actually started with lots of sketches, but this story starts here, whit this watercolor painting and a visit to a tattoo shop called Buzzstop28.

Oh, no thanks, not no gears, way too fussy, said the guy I first spoke to at Buzzstop28. He even said that gears had been the worst day of his working life.
It’s a good thing to say no when you really don’t want to do it , it will never turn out very well when forced… That is, at least, my experience from my years working as an illustrator, not be the same profession, but close enough.

He referred me to his colleague Felicia who wasn’t there at the time. So I left a copy of the painting and my phone number. A couple of days later it was decided, Felicia would be happy to make gears bur she wanted to redo the text.
This is what I got back as the first suggestion:

Very nice, but I thought the text was a bit too big, and a bit too tattoo-styled for my old gears. I returned it with smaller text and a few other small things and we agreed to tis:

After almost 4.5 hours on my belly, my back now looks like this:

Nice lines… It was a bit of a challenge for me, my first tattoo and being scared of needles. Felicia did it brilliantly. And it didn’t hurt much either… Not until the end, anyway.
In about three weeks there will be more heavier lines and color.
Looking forward to it!

Ps. The text means “Nothing is impossible” and that it says 2012… it is no mistake.
Last year, 2012, everything seemed possible!

Now, can I keep that feeling?