Hi, just lookin for some ideas maybe even some drawing if anyone has a spare bit of time on their hands . Basically this is one of my tattoos as it is:
Where the smoke is I want it to be filled in/ covered, I want to improve the background and fill in some more shading but at the same time I dont want to take away from the original piece. I asked my tattooist and he couldn't really come up with much...
Sorry mate - wasn't trying to be unhelpful about your question, but if I were in your position that's exactly what I'd be doing. If you can find the right artist who can interpret your ideas creatively then you'll be a happy chappy.
I'd just color the shit out of it... it's pretty well constructed as is. You could incorporate a lot of old school images with that subject matter too, like snake eyes dice for the bad times with "Born to Lose" type imagery... For the good times some Pinup Girl type work... Hot Rod flames...
i'm not tring to sound rude, but i 'd rec seeing a diff tattoist. it can easily be jazzed up well! a good tattoist could have a lot of fun making a sleeve out of that!
Cheers for all the responses. Nah that doesn't sound rude... i just wanted to get some ideas from other people. I think my tattoist has done quite well with it, i just wanted abit more built in without taking away from the piece. When Iasked him he said I needed to think of some imagery to put in, but thats not neccessarily what im after.... I just want a nice background to bring the piece out more.
Your artist did a fantastic job on that piece. Heres an idea, since you already have nice flame shadow tones around the piece, I would reccomend adding flames to the background, Maybe start out at the base in bright vibrant full color and about halfway up have it start fading into B/G all the way to the top.