| Prologue to the Interchange Below: The timeline for the countdown to Rich's tattoo actually began as early as 2002 – when his wife purchased a gift certificate for him, for a tattoo with Greg James (nice!). In the intervening time, Rich was making notes and small sketches and bouncing ideas off of family and friends. Having settled on the theme for his tattoo symbol, Rich began the interchange below. |
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1/25/05
Howdy Greg,
This is Rich. We met at the Pomona show, and earlier at your book signing. I'm ready to get serious about the tattoo at your convenience.
I've put together a document with some JPG images and some discussion as an initial idea paper.
If you want, I can email it to you, and then we can schedule a time where I'll come up to the shop and we can discuss it.
Rich |
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1/25/05
Hi Rich,
That sounds good to me.
Bye for now,
Greg |
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<snipped technical difficulty>
1/26/05
OK. I've attached the pictures.
Hope this works.
Rich
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I’m thinking of an upper arm tattoo. <snip> This is a patch from a unit in Vietnam. I want to use the beret from this image on a skull as the centerpiece of the tattoo. I’m not so much attached to the skull in the image, but I believe the beret is the most important piece of this image to be used. It’s the best looking one I’ve ever seen. The beret should be black rather than green.The beret’s flash should be cut diagonally from the bottom left to the upper right in a straight line with the upper left half in red, and the lower right half in white. I want people who see the skull and beret image to have no doubt in their mind that this is an image of death. It should be as fearful as possible. Children should run and hide when they see it.
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I would like the skull/beret image superimposed on the crossed sabers ...
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with the regimental designation (the “2”) something like in the picture (where the “2” would be used in place of the “A”).
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Another aspect I’d like to incorporate into the tattoo is a border tower. The photo below shows a typical tower along the portion of the border I used to patrol:
Here’s a diagram that may have a better tower (#12) in it:
The last aspect would be barbed wire to tie the whole image together.
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5/10/05
Hi Rich,
<snipped e-mails about e-mails, travel, and schedule>
I will have you a drawing to see by the end of next week.
I will get you in to do the tattoo ASAP once you like the design.
Thanks so much for being so patient.
Bye for now and Best Wishes,
Greg |
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5/10/05
Howdy Greg,
This sounds great! Have a good time and I'll see you when you get back.
Rich |
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5/22/05
Hi Rich,
Well finally here is a rough design for you to see.
If you like it, it will only take me a little time to polish it up.
I may have time this Friday afternoon-night ?
Thanks so much for your patience.
Best Wishes,
Greg |
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5/23/05
Howdy Greg,
This rocks! I LOVE it! I say we polish it up and go with it.
I can be ready whenever you are.
Thanks.
Rich |
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5/24/05
Hi Rich,
Thanks for the kind words.
I just got a cancellation for June the 14th at 5 PM. Do you want it ?
All I need to do is redraw the design carefully.... I am so happy that you liked it.
Bye for now and Best Wishes,
Greg |
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5/25/05
Greg,
<snipped stuff about schedules>
Do we need to do anything else, or make any other decisions (coloring,
shading, etc.) with the design before then?
Rich |
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5/26/05
Hi Rich,
So glad you can do the tattoo then.
I will have the design drawn and ready to go. We can discuss the colors at tattoo time. Sounds Great and looking forward to finally doing the tattoo for you.
Best Wishes,
Greg |
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July 7, 2005 – Rich Gets His Custom Military Tattoo
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7/7/05
Greg,
I just had to write and say thanks again for all the time you spent making my first tattoo the best experience it could have been!
The tattoo rocks, and I'm already planning some more :-).
Best wishes,
Rich |
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7/14/05
Hi Rich,
I hope all is healing well and that you are Happy with the tattoo.
Thanks so much. It was a pleasure.
Well bye for now and best wishes,
Greg |
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Many thanks to Rich and Greg for allowing me to use the text and images here!
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