Ever since I was young I took quick note of tattoos, I loved them! As someone who has loved art from the moment I could understand what it was this was not shocking.

I grew up in Philadelphia, which is a city full to the brim with diversity and people of all shapes and colors and personalities. I was able to see sleeves of tattoos when I was walking to school, teens who parents signed off on a small tattoo here or there and when I was in high-school one of my best friends was allowed to get his own. A tattoo in memory of his father, a former Navy officer who passed away, and so he got an anchor with his fathers name on it.

I loved it, I thought it was beautiful, so a few months later when I turned seventeen I asked my mother to allow me to get a tattoo, which she did on the condition that it was small. I was ecstatic, over the moon even, but I didn’t want a template tattoo from the many books in the shop. Instead I drew my own, it was simple line art. No details, no shading. Small and cute, and I loved it.

Since then I have developed the habit of sketching out small tattoo designs, always line art, very rarely any shading.

For my brother this is fortunate as he is planning on adding to his up and coming sleeve of tattoos and asked me to sketch out a general design for it. He gave me two things he wanted, roses and a fox, and I got to work immediately. It is not done yet, I have just gotten a few sketches down and am still in the process of shifting through references until I get the perfect design down but I am more than a little excited to see this tattoo come to life on my brothers arm.