Getting a Tortoise Tattoo! Need your opinion...

So I have this heinous 13-year old tree-of-life tattoo from college on my lower back. Not a tramp-stamp...worse. Looks like a really quickly done rubber-stamp ink-splotch! Finally working up the nerve to get it covered but didn't know what with until soaking my Hermanns a week ago. Never thought I'd tattoo a pet, but also never thought I'd have a bad tattoo.

Question for y'all with pyramided, rescued torts. IF (and I know many of you never would! You should have seen my mother's face when I told her of my plans.)...if you were going to have your pyramided tort tattooed on your body for the rest of your life, would you have the artist try and minimize the pyramiding? Gretchen's pretty bad...

Posted a link to my Pinterest idea-board I put together for the artist, including pictures of my bad tattoo and very happy Hermanns(not my Hermanns). Think my Gretchen is going to be smiling on my back by the end of the summer!

http://www.pinterest.com/lauracurrado/my-tattoo/

If I were getting a tattoo of my favorite tort I would make it true to the animal it is meant to represent. But that is just me. I want to get a tribal like designed tortoise but done in white ink.

If I were getting a tat done of one of my very pyramided tortoises, I would get one showing all that lovely pyramiding, because that is part of who and what they are. My only tat is on my arm and is of a turtle... a bit of a comical one. I'd like one like Yvonne's signature turtle if I were to get another one.

I think it depends what you are trying to say with this tattoo. Are you saying, " I love tortoises" or are you saying "I love this tortoise." If it's the latter, include the pyramiding. If it's the former, I would want an excellent example of the species.
I do think the pyramided one could have an interesting meaning behind it (that only other tortoise-people might understand). Like that eventhough you may have had less than ideal "conditions" in the past, you are still alive and kicking! If that's a meaning that would apply to you...

I agree with doing it as the tort looks, otherwise it's not your tort, it's anyone's tort. I did one of the love of my life dog. It had too look just like her, or it wouldn't have been her, it would have been any black Shar-Pei out there, not mine.

---

I think mine says it all

Thanks all...
Grandpa Turtle...that's great! Very smooth shell!
Wellington & Kameo, I was thinking that too, about not having just any old tortoise on me but MY tortoise... Hopefully I'm going to have the tort being only a piece of the tattoo; she'll be under & in front of clover, cordyalis, and goldenrod...so those flowers may distract from her shell.
I don't mind some pyramiding on Gretchen in my tattoo, but too many people I show her pictures to LOVE the pyramiding...think it's so cool!
Insert eyeroll... So many lay-people think tortoises are supposed to be pyramided because they see so many that way. Do I really want to propagate that with a pyramided tort. Walking on the beach, not many people will comment on the tattoo at all....let alone inquire as to the pyramided tortoise shell. Not that this is a truly good justification...

There is a old saying about "keep it simple xxxxxx " maybe what you want is a pyramid with story to the front of it ! Then when some one says " what does a tort have to do with a pyramid " then tell them and you can put your flowers with it ! But good luck with your tat . Ps mine is a baby ADT

---

Not story but tort

Grandpa Turtle 144 said:

There is a old saying about "keep it simple xxxxxx " maybe what you want is a pyramid with story to the front of it ! Then when some one says " what does a tort have to do with a pyramid " then tell them and you can put your flowers with it ! But good luck with your tat . Ps mine is a baby ADT

---

Not story but tort

Click to expand...

---

Interesting, but no. I got out of my Egyptian-phase when I was in my teens. Appreciate and still enjoy Egyptian history, but I don't believe in the afterlife the way the ancients did, so putting one of their tombs on my back wouldn't apply to me.
Definitely keeping it simple as it's probably going to be a fairly large back-piece, going from my hip to below my shoulder blade. I've seen large tattoos with too much packed in, too many themes, and they look cluttered, confused, and compressed. I am totally with you, therefore, on simplicity! Sticking to the flowers, with the tort at the bottom but not being the focus of the work. I just want that simple, elegant tattoo...pretty, and not obvious.

My two favourite things in the world!!! Tattoos and tortoises!!!

Hi! Hope this thread is not that old to talk about turtle tattoos. One of the things I decided to do after talking a turtle was to get a tattoo (a small one on my back - just like I saw in one picture here). Time passed and I still haven't decided on the design.

One of the reasons I still want to get a turtle tattoo is because I think it means a lot (for me). It means protection, intelligence and fertility.

Now, some questions. Would you get a tribal turtle tattoo or a regular tattoo (I'm not an expert in tattoos, that's why I'm asking)?

Before you decide on what kind of design/style you want, where are you thinking of having it done?

Well I didn't want a tribal one when I got mine cause I'd gone off tribal & thought it wasn't very girlie. When I got this it was covering up an old tribal I'd had for 12 years & hated for nearly as long. If u like tribal there are some nice tribal tort designs on Google images but I chose not to go tribal.


I really like grandpa turtles tattoo he has posted though. Very life like.

JohnDear said:

Would you get a tribal turtle tattoo or a regular tattoo (I'm not an expert in tattoos, that's why I'm asking)?

Click to expand...

A lot of it depends on what design the artist comes up with. Going to Susannah Griggs here in Taylor, MI from Eternal Tattoo; I would say her style is more photo-realistic...very light outlines, not necessarily done in black ink. She has done birds, insects, a sea turtle even...a lot of flowers...and everything is very beautiful and very realistic. Some of her insects look like they could just fly off the skin.
I linked to my Pinterest page in my first post that shows not just the tattoo I need covered but a bunch of images for Susannah to work off of.
I don't want another rubber-stamp tattoo; I want something that has depth and texture, that isn't disembodied flowers (flowers with no leaves/stems) or more floating, black ink. Not sure how big the piece will be, but at least from my lower hip to close to my shoulder blades.

---

Barista5261 said:

Before you decide on what kind of design/style you want, where are you thinking of having it done?

Click to expand...

On my body or by which tattooist? On my back, and by Susannah Griggs in Taylor, MI.
I have a horrid tribal I'm getting covered, and the more I think and plan, the bigger the tattoo will be. We'll see what Susannah says. I emailed her a board I made on Pinterest and I'm very curious to find out what she comes up with. Because she's so good and in such demand, though, she may not fit me in until summer/fall.

---

JDM4 said:

Well I didn't want a tribal one when I got mine cause I'd gone off tribal & thought it wasn't very girlie. When I got this it was covering up an old tribal I'd had for 12 years & hated for nearly as long. If u like tribal there are some nice tribal tort designs on Google images but I chose not to go tribal.


I really like grandpa turtles tattoo he has posted though. Very life like.

Click to expand...

Very nice. I really like that your artist made it a tortoise...and not a turtle...meaning they understand the difference! As for what I want, I explained to John Dear (?) at the beginning of this post what I'm hoping for, but I'm not an artist and so will leave it to Susannah to design something. I've been haunting her site and trust that she'll come up with something far better than what I have.