My Dannii Minogue tattoo - The Process!

I'll take this entry in English so that everyone can read it. I just finished my Dannii Minogue tattoo 11 days ago and I am super happy with it. The detail is so amazing it doesn't even make it justice in the pictures. However, it started with an idea in May or June when I sat up all night and drew a sketch of Dannii using a picture from the "All I Wanna Do" video and turned Dannii into a mermaid with a little bit inspiration from her song from that same era "Everybody Changes Underwater". I contacted Laila Siamese XII the day after as I'd seen her work on people I knew and I went to see her and I gave her my sketches as we booked a tattoo session for July 30th. It was the longest wait as I was excited to start right there and then, plus I had an idea that she would send me a sketch back but that didn't happen.

On July 30th when I went to Laila she had made a lazy sketch of ideas that I wasn't supposed to see and it really looked nothing like Dannii so I was quite scared as other Dannii fans had already criticized me for doing a portrait like tattoo. As she'd talked me into making it rather big to get the detail better we were discussing if we we're going to put it on my back, the side of my ribs or on my thigh and what I had in mind didn't feel like it would suit my back and I was rather afraid to get a large tattoo on my ribs cause of how painful getting a tattoo there is said to be. So we desided to put Dannii on my thigh and to focus on her from chest upwards with a splash of waves around her and a rather soft ending at the bottom so that I could turn her into a mermaid in the future and add more things to this water landscape inspired Dannii Minogue. Laila used the same picture that I had used for my sketches and made a few marks on my thigh before she started to freehand draw on me for about an hour. Then we started with the tattoo process, session 1. I got so nervous and I felt like bursting out in laughter but as soon as I felt the needle I was like "I don't feel like laughing anymore" and I thought it was incredibly painful. In that session she used a little, little bit of red to make a so called blood line of the whole thing and she also did some of the shading to the waves. The tattoo session lasted for 1,5 hours.

On September 17th I had my second session booked where Laila would shade Dannii and add more to the waves. As the shading process is rather pleasant compared to the contours I was looking down during the process and I was amazed. She really captured the features beautifully and much more so than I had expected as I went into this tattoo with a realistic thought that I could end up with just some girl on my skin but it really looked so promising. I sat for 2 hours at that session and there were still more to do. First wait for the shades to heal to add more and create another depth. As it was really hard to photograph it at the time and not finished I didn't think I was going to share it online but when I got home and took the plastic off a few hours later I took a picture that I posted on instagram. It took about 5 minutes and I had a like and a comment from DANNII MINOGUE! Yes I tagged her in the picture so she would have gotten a notification but anyway. She wrote "@manric88 #ouchey! =D Lovin the 'Girl' blonde moment - thinking of going blonde again…" And to add to this, a couple of days later she actually liked 3 pictures of the tattoo that she wasn't tagged in on my account. So apparently the tattoo left a good impression on her. Or she could just have remembered me as her crazy fan who tattooed her on his thigh.

On November 19th I was back at Lailas studio again for more. This time to fill the painful contours with black (around the waves and some at some more places) and add more to the shades and some tiny highlights in some places. Luckily I was kind of used to the pain now and Lailas talented apprentice Marie was there also and we didn't stop talking during the process so it all went on smoothly until the last tiny bits of highlights on the already tattooed skin. But it was only for a very short time and then it was finally finished! It took almost 2,5 hours. So finally after 3 sessions and about 6 hours of pain I'm very happy with the result. I have put a picture of the last and final tattoo on instagram and tagged Dannii in it but I didn't get her attention this time. I hope that she will see the final one too one day.

As for the result and inspiration. Dannii not turning into a mermaid but her upper body appear in a sensual and feminine way through the waves, to me she's sort of an Aphrodite. And while some might think that draws your thoughts to her famous sister, Dannii actually played with the idea of Aphrodite in her big performance at Sydney Mardi Gras back in 1998 when she performed the 12 minute Trouser Enthusiast's Toys of Desperation Mix of "All I Wanna Do".

After the third and final session of the tattoo.

After the second session of the tattoo, the picture Dannii commented on and liked first.

After the first session, mostly done in bloodline and some shades on the waves.