Hand Tattoo:

For our next assignment we were set the task of designing a tattoo for our hands using Photoshop. the brief was fairly broad, in that we had to use an image of our hands, and write a list of words/sentences that basically sum us up as individuals, the text all had to be written at angles of 30 and 40 degrees in tolerance. That was it, so we all had a huge amount of play to work with in designing this tattoo. Immediately I was all thinking about skating and how I could focus my whole design around this, as well as summing myself up in the image as a whole.

Below shows the tattoo that i managed to come up with:


As you can see there is alot going on in my tattoo, and below is the explanation of how I came about producing this.
I began this hand tattoo by changing the image of my hand to generate a lot of colour. This is because I love bright and strong colour, eye sight is a gift and should be utilized. I then began to list things that identify me, such as my name, date of birth, hometown and family members at the top of my hand. This is because people read top to bottom, and by positioning them here this is likely to be the fist thing people see when viewing this, the reason this is important is because these things are out of my control and I am unable to change.
I then wrote in large font things that have an influence on me such as family and friends including some of my hobbies. These are in green as green has been programmed into us as being a positive colour, many natural and living things are green, as well as traffic lights standing for good to go. The reason for this is because these things are something I care about and have a positive effect on me and how I live.
I then listed down the fingers in the image the result of these influencing factors. Skateboarding for example is the reason I am a very determined person, it has taught me that commitment and dedication can lead to success, not only skating but in all areas of life.
I then listed some of my characteristics in a light shade of blue, in a font that looks like it has been literally written on. This is because these words describe the way I feel, and describe me.
Skateboarding has been a huge factor in my life since a young age, so I added the LOVE park sign from Philadelphia where many professionals skated. I also skate in a team called No Pain No Gain Skateboards back home, so added the name to my hand, aswell as abbreviating it to NPNG and making it appear like the LOVE sign, placing many along the vein lines to show its something in my blood.
I then left a small section on the thumb for the future. This is yet to be told, even though i feel you should live everyday like its your last, Id still like to live a little while longer.
Finally to finish I changed the background to play on the phrase 'state of mind' changed to Skate Of Mind. This is to show that no matter how much I have going on, stresses and problems life throws at me, as soon as I skate they all disappear and allows me to look at things in a new perspective.