Totem sleeve tattoo

This Totem Sleeve is one of my latest projects. I'd love to take a moment to share some details about this unique project.

The main idea was to create my signature tattoo concept of a demon totem. But we had to incorporate a cover-up, and because of that, we couldn’t follow the classical totem sleeve composition. Instead, we went for the traditional ornamental sleeve flow.

The lower arm is a blackout blast-over cover-up. We used negative space ornament to avoid large black areas.

Big ornate flower mandala surrounded by Balinese Barongs. The wrist part of the sleeve was left empty to extend it to the hand in the future.

Balinese Rangda demons totem on the back of the upper arm and Elephant Barong on the shoulder.

When a tattoo project has a lot of different objects in it, it is essential to create flow in composition. To give the project a visible shape even when seen from a distance. Often you can break it into segments with negative space lines. Or create a flow with color contrast as I did in this full sleeve project. I made red line marks to show you the flow I based the design on.

Completing the whole sleeve took 4 full-day sessions, about 20 hours of tattoo time.