Sky McBean

My first tattoo is of a pair of tribal dolphins jumping out of water. The dolphins are in a circle while their tails form a heart and the water a butterfly. As you can tell many symbols in all of this. I see this as a representation of life (circle), intelligence (dolphins), love (heart), uniqueness (butterfly) and they are tribal as that is my heritage. I was born of the Columbia River Plateau People. I got this tattoo the summer between my Sophomore and Junior year of college at Sacred Art Tattoo in Corvallis. However, I don't remember the woman who did it as she was called upon to do it when the guy I had my appointment with had been fired. Not the best of luck with the artist situation, but I love it all the same.

My second tattoo is of a tribal turtle with a dream catcher on it's back. This represents Turtle Island, so that I remember that I don't have to carry the world on my back and the dream catcher allows my dreams to flow through into existence while keeping the bad things stuck. A reminder to myself to relax and let my dreams happen. My friend drew this tattoo up and we went and got it done at High Priestess Tattooing in Corvallis. Again, I really didn't know the artist and after he did a bad job I have learned my lesson. When I went back in to have it fixed he as well was no longer working at the shop, but another artist offered to touch it up and she did a great job.

I have many designs that I want to get put upon my body, but first need to find a tattoo artist that I can work with. I have yet to find a good Tribal tattooist. :( I think my next tattoo will be a feather around my wrist or a salmon up my side.

Courtney Nelson

Courtney got this tattoo when she was 20 and living in London. She had been sketching this design on a pad for a while and one night when she was a little drunk she decided it was time to make it permanent. She got it at a nasty little shop by Hyde Park and the next day she was more worried about hepatitis than what her parents would say. Instead of gauze they put plastic wrap on it and when she woke up the blood was smeared everywhere. She got it redone about four years later to touch it up and make it look better. She might add to it, but no plans in the immediate future. When she first got it, her friends all told her it would not hurt, but she still feels the pain today.

Monica Choy

I got the birds from Ren Sakurai at Blackbird Tattoo in NE Portland. He does really detailed work and has a really distinct style - kind of hard to tell with my tattoo since it's so simplistic. The tattoo represents my family; the first two are outlines because they're passed. The fourth birdie has a little heart left in it because i'm emo. I'd love to get more work from Ren one day, he tattoos all my guy friends and he does beautiful work.

The second tattoo is from Henry Lewis at Everlasting Tattoo in my native SF. He's really well known for his script and my friend was his assistant at the time, so she fit me in even though his schedule is crazy. It took him about 20 minutes to do and most of it was freehand. He even put some white in it for me to highlight the script. The message "never settle" kind of freaks some people out, but it simply means to not settle for less in life and to search for the best - something my dad instilled in me before sending me off to college.

I was planning on getting a half sleeve from Henry over christmas, but alas, WK12 didn't leave me much funds for extracurriculars like expensive tattoos. I'd really like to get a color tattoo from him though - his color tattoos are really brilliant.

Jeff Selis - Tribute to Otis

Jeff Selis is one of the biggest dog lovers I have ever met. In fact he has published three awesome dog books while working at W+K, the first was funded by a slime mold grant from Dan. A few weeks ago he lost his cherished dog Otis to cancer. As a tribute he got this awesome tattoo (the yellow circle by the right paw is a ball, it didn't come out very well in this picture).

If you want to read the saddest thing ever, check out his blog about the last days with Otis.

Oliver McQuitty

I got this done in 1998, it’s a T26 dingbat (T26 is a type foundry). When it was originally done, the guy who did it butchered me, it’s been re-inked once... about time for another re-inking.

Troy Valls

This ink symbolizes my birth sign – Capricorn. Created by our very own Liz Hepburn, now in our Portland office, back when we worked together at BBH. I had scoured the Internet for several variations on symbolic representations of the sign and provided them to her for inspiration. From them, she created this original. I marked myself in NYC. Next stop, another original depiction of the Phoenix.

Emily McDonald

The one on my left arm symbolizes my star sign. I got it in Israel when I was visiting my dad's family. My tattoo on my right was done when I was drunk in Soho, London. My next tattoo will be on my back, and a larger version of the one on my right arm.