Here is a brief overview of the process taken to design my shoulder tattoo.

Back in college, I drew a design for this tattoo and only recently (months after getting the tattoo) did I come across the original sketch. If I happen to scan it, I will post it here.

Here is the final product on Renaissance:

So, I wanted this image of a shark and a dolphin forming a circular image.

Think duality of nature. Think good and evil. Think intelligence and strength. Get the idea? That, and I grew up living alongside the ocean, surfing, etc. Plus, I wanted something unique. OK? OK.

So, I went online and found some images that would help me to develop the template. I found the following:

I used Adobe Photoshop to greyscale the images, crop them, resize them, slice them up, and arrange them as needed.

After correcting the image as needed, I created a shadow layer of the image, retaining the originals for reference.

In a new layer on top of the shadow image, I drew my blackwork designs, trying to take into account the physical features of the animals (eyes, gills, etc.) as well as relative shadowing.

I removed (hid) the shadow layer.

Below is my final design, as sent to my tattoo artist (he was my roommate in college, an art major, who ended up opening his own tattoo studio) for clean-up and rework.

Following my design, is the version my tattoo artist sent back.