On Large-Scale Tattoos: Where Fear Slowly Turns Into Pleasure

When I work on large-scale tattoos, what I feel is not fear in its simplest form. Beginning a full back piece, or placing the first line of a full sleeve or a full leg, carries a sensation that is closer to heightened awareness one that contains hesitation, responsibility, and at the same time, an undeniable sense of pleasure.

This is not a fear that pushes you away.It is a fear that draws you inward.

from end of 2024

Because large projects are never only technical challenges. They are spaces where human connection, time, and continuity become fully visible. People do not arrive for these tattoos for a single session; they arrive with a chapter of their lives. They bring their bodies, their patience, their emotional states, and their stories.

And I witness all of it.

As People Live, the Tattoo Lives With Them

Large-scale tattoos do not end the day they are completed.They move alongside the person who carries them. As the body changes, ages, heals, or breaks, the tattoo shifts with it. Skin lives. The body lives. And the tattoo becomes a quiet witness to that life.

Because of this, the responsibility I feel while creating large pieces goes far beyond aesthetic concern. I am not simply producing an image; I am placing something on a body that will continue to exist and evolve through the years that person has yet to live.

That thought is intimidating.But it is also deeply pleasurable.

The Source of Fear Is the Source of Pleasure

The fear here is not the fear of making a mistake.It is closer to a question:“Can I carry this relationship?”

A large tattoo is a silent agreement between the artist and the person receiving it. It requires trust, presence, listening, and the willingness to remain connected over time. This intensity naturally creates tension. And yet, that very tension is what draws me to these projects. Because where there is fear, there is attention.And where there is attention, there is life.

Tattooing as a Shared Experience

For me, large-scale tattoos are never one-sided acts of creation.They are lived together.

Across sessions:

• the body grows tired

• the mind opens

• conversations change

• silences deepen

And all of this seeps quietly into the lines.

This is why, years later, when someone looks at their tattoo, they do not see only a design. They see a lived state. The tattoo carries a fragment of their life but it also holds my own way of seeing, my presence, and my state of being at the time it was created.

Creating Work That Remains Alive

Perhaps this is why I want large projects to continue frightening me.Because when fear disappears, attention fades.And when attention fades, the work loses its vitality.

What I want is not to create finished, frozen images.I want to create living work.

Knowing that my tattoos continue to live as people live changing, aging, breathing with them leaves behind a sensation that is equal parts fear and pleasure, and entirely honest.

And perhaps for this reason, the largest works always begin with a slightly trembling hand.