I’ll tell you what I told Jon Reed at True Blue Tattoo. “The Argentine, Israeli and Chicago flags are all basically the same, but the object in the middle is different. I already have the sun from Argentina’s flag and want to add one of the Chicago stars and the star of David from the Israeli flag. The problem is that the Chicago and Israeli stars are flat colors and won’t look good next to the sun. What can you do to pull them all together?”
I pulled my laptop out and showed Jon photos of the three flags that I’d pulled from Flickr and a few images of the stars off the flags. I explained that I didn’t want a flat red star and a flat blue star. I mused over adding a blue banner to tie the three together, but Jon (and another tattoo artist) paused at the idea. He thought the three together, all done in the same gray as the Argentine sun, would be enough. Then we figured out a size and talked about shading.
I ran around the corner for dinner, while he got the stencils ready. I came back and went under the gun. An ho
ur or so later we were done… well… Jon was done and I was done being still. I know that the Chicago star isn’t as instantly recognizable since it isn’t red, but I’m happy with how the three look together.
Who knows, I might still get the blue banner one of these years. For now I have the central symbols from three of the most important locations that I’ve lived or visited. Thanks to Jon at True Blue for whipping this together for me.
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