Tuesday’s grey…

There’s something inherently beautiful about a greyscale tattoo.  Especially one as well done as this lion that Metalmegan uploaded, which was done by Kyzer from Mainstreet Tattoo in Ohio.

The shading, particularly around the mouth is incredible.

I think part of the appeal of a well done portrait/greyscale tattoo, is the ability to really capture the essence of the subject matter.  It’s often possible to see a portrait done that appears to have been done with charcoal, and not a needle.  Obviously in the close-up of the middle image you can see the stippling from the needle, but in the image on the right they’ve disappeared as it healed.

Now we’ve all seen those bad tattoo blogs where there’s the image of a portrait side by side with a picture of the subject and they look nothing alike, or worse, they look like the subject only made ugly.  Thankfully this isn’t the case here.  It does make me wonder though, what would happen if I got a portrait done, and it turned out horrible.  As is the case with a tattoo like this, it really is in the hands of the artists to bring the image to life.  It’s one thing to look at the stencil in the mirror and see it look like a perfect outline of the picture, but it all depends on the artist to really bring it to life.  The shading and detail work are the things that really matter, and by the looks of the image, it’s something Kyzer has managed to pull off.

If you head over to the nature and wildlife galleries you can take a look at the full sized image, to get a closer look at some of the finer details.