{This is a story about "My First Tattoo" - I have other ink as well}

Backgrounder... I never thought I'd get a tattoo.. I have a couple of piercings and those are fun.. I figured that I stick with that art of body modification. And then Bob Moog died (1, 2). I wasn't ready for him to go. I've owned Moog synths since 1976... he and I became friends around 1994. I asked Bob to give away the bride at my wedding in 2001, and he did. Nope, I really wasn't ready for Bob to go. The thought to have a memory of Bob with me for the rest of my life happened shortly after he left us. I was a wreck, I didn't know what to do. I had been to a tattoo convention here in Seattle the week before, and was surprised as to how drawn I was into the art of it all. There are some incredible artists in the world... I found myself drawn to colorful things like tree frogs, and came up with an idea for something to end up on my calf. Then something smacked me across the face, and I started working on ideas on how to always have a memory of Bob with me. I went through a couple of thoughts of various designs... A picture of a Mini ("Minimoog"), a picture of a System 55 (a classic modular synth), a melding of the two, a depiction of the famous "head shot", a schematic of the 904a ("the sound of Moog")... Argh. I was thinking like an engineer... Literally the last artist who's work I had looked at when I went to the convention was a local dude named Jerad Shealey. I was flipped out by some of the organic stuff that was in his portfolio. His edges were soft, he blended colors, his work had life. Life is cool. Jerad and I met, and I had left him with a general idea of "the head shot", but minus a lot of the stuff around the edges. It would be hard for that level of detail to "pop" given the target space of my shoulder. I later had second thoughts though, figuring something "that big" would be a lot for my first ink. So I flipped an email to Jerad and went with choice #2, which was a stylized image of the 904a. The image in my head was something soft around the edges, knobs floating in space, basically just the general configuration of the 3 knobs and 5 jacks. If you knew the module, you'd "get it" on sight. :) "Thank you Bob" needed to be in there somewhere as well. I went in for my appointment, and Jerad had done a nice drawing... But it was... I dunno, "engineery". And it had roses on it... Jerad knew this was to be a "remembrance tat", and he had in fact drawn what I had thought I wanted, but... ewww... It wasn't right. We talked for a while, and he started drawing. He had picked up on my using words like "life" and "organic". He also picked up on my saying that I saw tree frogs as an incredible example of how nature can provide color to life. I didn't get started that day... but Jerad had a plan. I loved the direction he was going, so we rescheduled and I let him be. This is a documentation of the progress... bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (oh how I've tired of that sound!) Above all and everything else - Huge kudos and thanks to Jerad, now at his own shop Rabid Hands Tattoo Studio. While I provided some thoughts & ideas, Jerad is the artist here - I'm just a canvas. Thank you man... You do incredible work. 11.15.2005, The First Sitting... 4 hours of needle time got the outlining done and most of the black shading. The original stencil... This is what the knobs and jacks represent... Side by side in one shot   Stencil on Black 1/3 done... Frog detail   The morning after A movie of the First Strike! Step 2 - Added color on 12.28.2005 5 hours of needle time brought on some background color, and the begining of the leaves. Full Shot Leaf detail Step 3 - Added color on 1.11.2006 Another 4+ hours of needle time to finish up the leaf details. Green, green and more green was the target of the day Step 4 - Finished up on 02.07.2006 5 hours of needle time to get the frogs, the branch, and most importantly... the Thank You There's life amongst the frogs and the leaves "Thanks Bob" Touch-ups scheduled for 02.28.06

Love and Peace to you Bob. You'll always be with me.

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