I’ve always been drawn to tattooing strong, powerful women — from valkyries and samurai warriors to heavenly angels. I'm also covered in them myself! It’s a theme that feels deeply personal, maybe because it reflects my own life with my wife and two daughters.
For my chest, I wanted something that brought together wings, flight, and feminine strength. Nat took that vision and turned it into something entirely her own — mystical, graceful, and full of movement. Her linework has this soft, fluid quality that gives her tattoos so much life.
Eight hours, a fair bit of pain (let’s call it an 8/10), and endless good The tattoo after 2 weeks of healing conversation later, I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out — or how quickly it healed!
Nat's process:
When Bryn originally raised the idea of getting me to do this chest piece for him, he thought a heron would be a good subject since he knew he wanted a design with feathers. Unfortunately, as I sketched out a few possible poses it became apparent that trying to fit the bird into the limited space of one pec just ended up looking very awkward and unnatural, and Bryn wasn't too keen on it taking up too much real estate - so we were forced back to the drawing board to pivot to something else entirely!
Two of the initial heron sketches that we trashed
After brainstorming, we discovered a common tattoo subject that we both really liked - female faces - which helped us to eventually land on doing a Valkyrie-esque portrait. All in all this piece was a refreshing challenge out of my comfort zone, and a good push and reminder for me to pursue more fantasy/surreal female portraits (where are you, potential portrait-getting clients?). Cheers!
The final design (left) and the tattoo after the 2nd and final session (right)
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