10 November 2002
Traditional tattoo designs have always appealed to me, so for my 4th tattoo I chose this classic Black Panther wrestling with a giant snake. Although it's a much-reproduced design, this tattoo is special to me because I earned it. My tattooist asked me to repair a burned-out power supply for one of his tattoo machines. (It was no problem for me, I'm an electronics technician.) He agreed to give me this tattoo free of charge as a reward for helping him.
TRIVIA : Black Panthers are found in Asian countries. They are a form of leopard whose black spots cover its entire body. The first black panther tattoo design was said to have been made around 1900 by an American wallpaper salesman called Lew Alberts. Many other artists copied his work, and my panther and snake design is based on one by Graham Townsend, the same person who designed my tiger tattoo. However this time I drew the stencil myself, so it is very personal. This tattoo is on my right leg. It's just under 6 inches high and took about 1 hour 15 minutes. Surprisingly I didn't find it very painful!
Below is the original 'flash' by Graham Townsend. I took this picture with a digital camera, printed it to the size I wanted, then traced the outline on a sheet of Hectograph paper. In this way I created a stencil for transferring the outline of the panther to my skin.
