I’m sorry posts are a bit light right now, I’m busy and Rob is temporarily away — we are being joined by some new writers soon that I’m greatly looking forward to. But tonight I wanted to leave you with a few tattoos from one of the very first French art tattooists I met, and still one of my favorite, the wonderful Lionel Fahy (who is also an extremely talented musician and author — his veins are just pulsing with creativity). I want to being by mentioning that you can follow his adventures and work in great detail at lioneloutofstep.blogspot.fr, and today I’m going to post just three recent pieces that caught my imagination. The first one, this charming and funny octopus, was tattooed at this year’s Nantes Tattoo Convention.

This endearing backpiece, as many of Lionels pieces, evokes memories of childhood and loves. The swing set reads “a vous tous” or “to all of you”.

Finally, I was especially struck by the strong graphic design in this wrist/palm tattoo, one hand a hanging lantern light, and the other an electricity tower, with a power line connecting the tattoo. I love the way that the lines extend onto the hands, powerfully integrating the piece into the wearer’s anatomy and also adding a sense of symmetry to two otherwise graphically unbalanced elements. Take the time to zoom this for a better look.