Kurt Vonnegut Tattoo Design

Art & Design

Left-arm tattoo

Kurt Vonnegut Themed Tattoo This tattoo will cover my entire left forearm with most of the art on the underside of my arm where I do not have hair. I have included a picture of my arm marked up with a pen. I used a blue ink pen, but the tattoo will be all black. The two circles in the photo of my arm represent the two illustrations I want to include. The squiggle lines will be quotes. The layout I drew on my arm is something I did quickly. I'm not set on any specific layout. I do like the idea of most of the art being on the underside of my arm with some of the fills wrapping around to the top. ELEMENTS 1) Kurt Vonnegut illustration (see attached image) 2) Good luck piece illustration (more info below) 3) Three quotes (more info below) GOOD LUCK PIECE The Kurt Vonnegut illustration is easy because I want to use the attached self-portrait from his autobiography. Vonnegut never illustrated Chrono's good luck piece in The Sirens of Titan so there is room for artistic interpretation for this illustration. It also gives us the ability to work the illustration into the overall tattoo however we want. The self-portrait is more restricted because I want it to be identical to Vonnegut's drawing. The only description of Chrono's Good Luck Piece is the following... "The history of the good luck piece was this: One day the school children were taken by MIss Fenstermaker on an educational tour of a flame-thrower factory. The factory manager explained to the children all the steps in the manufacture of flame-throwers, and hoped that some of the children, when they grew up, would want to come to work for him. At the end of the tour, in the packaging department, the manager's ankle became snarled in a spiral of steel strapping, a type of strapping that was used for binding shut the packaged flame-throwers. The spiral was a piece of jagged-ended scrap that had been cast into the factory aisle by a careless workman. The manager scratched his ankle and tore his pants before he got free of the spiral. He thereupon put on the first really comprehensible demonstration that the children had seen that day. Comprehensibly, he blew up at the spiral. He stamped on it. Then, when it nipped him again, he snatched it up and chopped it into four-inch lengths, with great shears. The children were edified, thrilled, and satisfied. And, as they were leaving the packaging department, young Chrono picked up one of the four-inch pieces and slipped it into his pocket. The piece he picked up differed from all of the rest in having two holes drilled in it." THREE QUOTES I do not like when people have long quotes as tattoos. My idea for using the quotes is to make them the fills for the rest of the tattoo. Often people use something cliche for sleeve fills, such as a random tribal design. I want to use fonts and layouts for the quotes that will make it so they cannot be read or even recognized as lettering. The way Vonnegut used his signature for the hair in his self-portrait is something to look to for inspiration. I want to do the tattoo in all black with a focus on working with negative space. I want the art to be clean and precise while incorporating Vonnegut's illustrative style. I don't want to completely cover every inch of my arm the way many people do with traditional sleeves. The quotes aren't going to legible so it gives us more freedom to avoid clutter or the art getting too busy. CLEAN, MINIMALISTIC, NEGATIVE SPACE Each of these quotes is from a different book. I like the design of each quote to look slightly different but still cohesive. I'm picturing using a font(s) that might not even look like lettering. I want to turn quotes into design elements. Quote #1 (Needs to be near the good luck charm illustration) "I guess somebody up there likes me" Quote #2 (Location does not matter) "God damn it, you've got to be kind" Quote #3 (Needs to be near Vonnegut illustration) "The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music"

CLEAN, MINIMALISTIC, NEGATIVE SPACE Let me know if you are a Vonnegut fan and/or are familiar with his illustrations. Thanks for considering my project!

Every design category has flexible pricing for all budgets. Tattoo starts at $299.