Collaborating with Clients for Large Work

By Madame Lazonga

Here I am writing under the full moon. The moon is in Scorpio right now and thick in my own blood. Just kidding. Yes, it’s been quite an invigorating full moon. It’s the first really hot spring day of the year and Seattleites are finally reveling in the warmth. Driving home, I caught a glimpse of some guy on Capitol Hill walking across the street in his silk underwear. Oh well. It was kind of cute, Something for everyone, I guess.

Today, though, I would like to take some time and talk more about working with people and creating custom pieces. So much of my career has been built on doing custom pieces, even before it became very popular in the ’90s. Quite a few people that come to me with a couple of ideas or sometimes too many ideas and they just don’t know how to start the process. That’s where I come in as an artist and a tattooist. I help them develop their visions and together we create sculptured body work. I find that this process takes more time and energy then tattooing pre-designed work, but the end product is infinitely more gratifying for both the client and me.

At the beginning of this process, I will ask what part of the anatomy they were thinking of having tattooed. It gives us a place to start the conversation. It leads me to take tracing paper and mark off that part of the body and some other anchor points so, when I lay it out for designing, I will know how it’s going to fit. This way, I have a blueprint of the body structure and I can customize the design to every curve. This part of the process reminds me of what it was like when I used to make my own clothes, as far as making a pattern that will fit the body (as you can tell by the photos of the arm piece I will talk about later, it looks like a sleeve pattern you would use to cut fabric).

Once I have a pattern to start with, I start talking to the client about the main theme they want to convey, what feelings they would like to evoke or simply what particular style of art. Usually, people have a general idea and will often bring reference materials but, for those that have too many themes or ideas, I usually like to give them my point of view on how things look, visually, on the body and help them narrow their scope, concentrating on the most important feelings and themes. I have found out the hard way that tattoos don’t look that good when there is too much going on, too much small detail work. I try to be patient and explain, so they think about how this will look in their skin ten or 20 years from now, and not just today.

Sometimes I get e-mail from a client who confides in me very personal material, because they think that, in some way, is going to help me in the creative process. I totally honor their intentions, but while it helps me know the client better, I’m no further ahead with the design. To get down to the real nature of the creative process, I always like it when a client can explain what particular style they are drawn to or what kind of visual effects they like. Sometimes, I have to spend time questioning them. This allows me to narrow down their thinking and get a better idea of what they are looking for. Often, these conversations are a matter of helping the client organize their thoughts and feelings. Mostly they are not artists or artistic and need all the professional direction we can give them while, at the same time, honoring their own vision.

If the client does not know where to begin with their design, I suggest exploring for visual material. I tell them that going to bookstores and browsing through Dover Publications and other art books is a good way to start. Or I suggest they look at books of fine art, or cards or tattoo magazines as a good way to stir up their creativity and help them narrow down what they really want for their body art. This also really helps point me in a direction when I have to sit and draw. I always look at it like having a map of where you are going. I explain to the client that this part of the process is the most important. It is laying out the foundation for their bodywork. I know from experience that, without a foundation, the whole process can become very chaotic. This is probably one area that the general public is not familiar with. It really is a sharing in the work and the client is taking responsibility for helping the artist to be a better conduit for their tattoo.

For this article I have chosen to show a layout, some sketches and photos of a sleeve I’ve been working on. The sleeve is not quite done yet, but this gives a general idea of how most of it is going to look. I have just one more flower to add in the underarm area.

This client came to me and wanted several types of flowers to represent all of the family she is close to. Of course, I was thrilled to be able to do something that organic. It’s right up my alley. When she gave me a CD with photos of floral possibilities and a list of which she definitely wanted, I have to admit that I was a bit overwhelmed. Mostly because I thought How am I going to do all of those without it getting so busy that it’s going to be hard to look at? So, I simply explained my thoughts on the design and the problems I was having and asked her if I could narrow it down a little to maybe half of what she had given me. She thankfully said that I could use my discretion, so I began to work on the layout. You can see in the photos how I took all those images she presented and sketched them into my pattern. Once I started the actual tattoo, she and I discussed the colors for each section and we trusted one another enough to just keep moving through this creative process together.

I almost forgot one more important thing. This kind of collaborative process is not something that can be rushed. Clients must be made to understand that this kind of designing will take time and it is worth the time it takes. Also, you will definitely want to take deposits for your drawing time. I know I spend almost as many hours designing as I do tattooing, sometimes, and, as an artist, you just can’t give all that time away for free. I usually ask for a $65 deposit for something small and can charge as much as $300 deposit on the design time for a backpiece. Drawing can become time consuming and this time is as important as the tattoo time itself.

I hope by seeing these visuals and hearing how I go about collaborating with my clients, I can help other artist in some small way. I’m also always interested in what others are doing or any problems or glitches we all run into. Feel free to write me.

See you the next full moon.

Your sister in tattooing,

Vyvyn (Madame Lazonga)

madamelazonga@hotmail.com