Reaper Over the Church

Austin asked for exactly this: "a grim reaper looming over a burning church." My response was something like "hell yah."

This was the first backpiece I did at Slave to the Needle, so it went through a lot of revisions. My boss Aaron Bell gave me several rounds of notes before we decided I needed to scrap the original design and start over. That was hard, but it pushed the piece to the next level.

The lines on the reaper's cloak are greywash brushstrokes, done like the garments in a Japanese print. The color is just one super powerful red, packed line to line. The spirals and clouds in the background pull the eye toward the center focus.

It's an intense statement for a large tattoo. It was an honor to be trusted with something that needed such intentional care to hit hard without feeling vulgar.