Allison's Journey...

Allison has a very old tattoo of a tribal unicorn on her lower back. It's still there... but you can't see it any more ;)

I met with Allison over a year ago about her tattoo cover-up/rework plan. She wanted to incorporate a tree, and the runic symbol for "journey" (the R-shaped symbol on the top right). Here's the first design I worked up for her last fall:

 She was unsure about the design, and we lost contact for little while. Over the course of a year, tragedy struck in her life and her brother suffered serious injuries from an accident. He continues to make a miraculous recovery, and when Allison and I reconnected about her tattoo idea, it had taken a new direction. Her idea had focused on the journey she had been on in life, and the gratitude she felt for the course it had taken. She asked me to incorporate the respective phrase in Sanskrit. I took the phrase to my good friend Michael who is fluent in Sanskrit for an accurate translation. Here's the final sketch for Allison before we put it on her:
 

Below is an alternate design I came up with for Allison during the time between meetings. She liked it, but wasn't set on keeping with the original unicorn theme.