JOSH MARIO JOHN
M
y first tattoo was what
eventually became a sleeve. It
is a collection predominantly of
flowers. My grandmother passed away
last year at the age of 96; throughout
her life she worked continuously on her
artwork. She loved to work with water
colour, and was an avid gardener.
“She loved to sit and paint
wonderful landscapes and
natural settings.”
Later in her life she suffered a stroke,
which significantly impacted her ability
to paint; yet it didn’t stop her. It was
around that time that I decided to
put together a concept for my arm.
What I did was take a bunch of
her old sketches from before her
stroke, and had the artist capture
some of the flowers and other
elements and mold them into
one flowing piece.
Most of my other pieces
have been traditional, and
are more or less pieces that
had caught my eye, or artist
choice; so lots of them
don't have a particular
"meaning". At this point it
means more to me who
tattoos me as opposed
to the actual imagery
attached to the piece.
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Photo by: Oz John Tekson