My brother-in-law Joe spent years developing an idea for a tattoo to pay tribute to his 3 daughters, Kalie, Macy, and Zoe. As my relationship with Joe's sister Lindsey progressed (we got married last fall), he felt he had found a trustworthy artist that could turn his idea into reality. We sat down late last fall and started working out the design.
His daughters' Zodiac symbols:
3 signs: Leo, Libra, Capricorn
3 elements: Fire, Wind, Earth
3 ruling planets: The Sun, Venus, Saturn
The imagery would be worked through the design in a cohesive, continuous flow. The designs would not be completely separated, each influencing the next, as his girls do as they grow. Not individual, but not inseparable. The Zodiac symbols, represented as medallions, would overlap one side of their corresponding planets, with their respective element completing the other side. Each element would work into the next sign completing a chronological flow of the signs.
Joe's experience, in his own words:
"I've always thought of myself as a spiritual person, and I've always known at some point in my life I would get a tattoo. Well in 2010 you could say that my stars were aligned. It seemed to start with a dream I had in which I was thinking about Steve Vai's epic album 'Passion and Warfare.' I envisioned the album cover as if he was a scale, and is holding the zodiac signs of my youngest and oldest daughters, Zoe and Kalie, in his hands. Since Macy is my middle child and her and I are both Libras, I thought we would be perfect in the middle as the scale. But after days of thought, the idea of having an actual scale didn't appeal to me. After brainstorming, I came up with the idea of three separate "spheres" for each girl. Each sphere would have each girl's Zodiac sign, the planet the rules the sign, and the element of each sign. And for a little extra touch, add the element symbols as well. At first thought I wanted to incorporate the birth flowers too, but it would have been too crowded, and would have taken away from the 'hardness' that I wanted for myself. I gave my thoughts to Amory and he ran with it. I will forever have my girls with me and am so grateful for the work Amory did! I have realized in this whole process that my dream was a big factor, but having the right artist made it all come together into one amazing spiritual experience. You could say Amory completed the circle for me. With that being said, I am so in love with my tattoo and what it stands for... the Girls! As great as it is to have my girls with me at all times and forever on my arm, I am just as proud to have a fine piece of art on my body by Amory. Thanks Bro!"
Close-up: The phases of Venus above Saturn's Earth element:
Close-up: Leo's Fire element, fed by Venus's Air element:
The original sketch:
The final color mock-up:
