Friday, 9 March 2012

Body Art: Ahoy Sailor! I like your Temp Tat.


Mont Marte takes a look at another form of art which is often an extreme form of expression and always a lifetime commitment, tattoo art. Tattoos are a globally accepted form of expression and even incorporate symbolism in order to tell stories. Now, we weren’t going to go and actually tattoo a person for the blog, but I decided to replicate the imagery of a popular tattoo design in a TEMPORARY fashion using Mont Marte Body Art.

The focus, as you can see in the images below, is old-school sailor tattoos. Sailors and Tattoos are often seen to go hand-in-hand. Sailors would get tattoos every time they traveled on the sea and to also commemorate voyages and places. Their development of this nautical style of tattoo art is due to their cultural background and meanings they created around their tattoos. Mermaids, ships, stars, anchors, roses, pin-ups and swallows each have their own meanings.  It is safe to say that in the last decade sailor tattoos have also made resurgence in popularity and more copy-cat sailor tattoos are appearing in societal fashion trends.  

I personally have caught the nautical style bug and loved getting painted with Mont MarteBody Art. Mont Marte Artist Lily created these designs for me (knowing very well I love pin-up styled characters too). Lily went with pin-up, anchor, swallow and diamond designs. 

HOW TO:
1.      Drafting/ Sketching & rendering
 Lily drafted and sketched the outlines with black pen on paper first, making each temporary tattoo design, then she coloured and rendered the sketch to map out how the finished design would look. Keeping to the sailor tattoo style, she made bold outlines that were cartoon-esque and very simple. 

2.      Applying the outline
Lily used some of our finer brushes and a detailer to apply the black outline first. It is best to wet the brush and prepare a small palette to use for mixing colours. 

3.      Applying Colour.
By following her design, Lily painted the anchor with yellow and blue and highlighted with white, the sparrow she filled with black, the diamond with blue and highlighted with white. The lovely retro pin-up (I named her Maude) was painted with red lips and shoes, yellow for blonde hair, and a blue and white striped shirt. Even though skin colour is already there (my skin), to get a more cartoon look she mixed orange, white and yellow to get a tan tone.  

MORE TIPS:
·         You can apply with fingers or a sponge
·         Body art dries quickly and stays on for hours (or until you have a shower or get super soaked - in this case you may need to reapply!)
·         Soapy water is good for taking paint off, but Wet Wipes are a god send!


QUICK FACT:
·         Swallows were tattooed for every 5000 miles traveled by a Sailor. It also represented the ‘return’ of a Sailor and finding his way home.
·         Anchors are a means of security and stability for a ship; the anchor also became a symbol for being grounded. Tattoos emblazoned with ‘Mom’ or a loved one’s name represented the people that kept them grounded.


See us also @
www.youtube.com/user/MontMarteArt


What body art design would you like to see next? 

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