About two weeks ago, I woke up to a text from my best friend, Brenna, saying "Urgent! Help!" sent at four in the morning. At the time, she was on the other side of the world, by herself in Israel. Oh my god, I thought, rubbing my half-open eyes and frantically texting her back, "ARE YOU OK?!" Luckily, the response was: "Yes. I need you to design me a tattoo!"
Whew.
After a cup of coffee and giving her a talking-to about what should be defined as "urgent," I got started.
Brenna wanted a tree of life to commemorate her trip to Israel; to highlight her Jewish heritage and love for her family. She gave me the above screenshots as reference.
I came up with three designs, in order from left to right. I liked the composition of the flower tattoo reference, and the loose connectivity of leaves in the tree tattoo reference. Brenna decided on the last design, which is my favorite as well!
Brenna got her tattoo in Tel Aviv, at the Psycho Tattoo.
I was also inspired by the simplistic linework of Brenna's other tattoos, like the bird on her arm. It appears to be flying out from the tree!
I am so honored to have designed something for someone so incredibly beautiful, inside and out.
All photographs taken by me.