Brio Tattoo - Hong Kong

I went down to HK this weekend to link up with a friend of mine from college who was in town. It was a pretty wild night as always, but more about that later. On Saturday I accompanied Dr. Niles to get some touch up work done on his tattoo. Well you cant really call what he has a single tattoo, it is more of a collection of tattoos that he has collected over the years to form a sort of vest. All the pieces have been stitched together extremely well and the inks have even blended perfectly as you can see.

Although the good doctor has had work done all over the globe, from Hawaii to Europe, he has had more than one piece done at Brio-Tattoo in Kowloon. There are loads of tattoo parlors all over Hong Kong so it is hard to know which ones are legit and which are not. The only thing I really trust is my own personal experience and that of close friends.

Even though the tattoo parlor is located in a small building in a very crowded part of the city, the space was actually quite large, very clean, and extremely professional. And the working artist is young lady from Hong Kong who goes by the name Brenda. She and her associates were extremely friendly and approachable. Doc had sent them his pictures a while ago and come in for a consultation earlier last week/ Brenda was familiar with the Polynesian style with which he likes to work. She was to come up with a design to complete the front right side of his vest. After showing him some sketches she proceeded to freehand her drawings straight onto Niles.

This process is not as easy as one may think. When working on a vest, although the designs themselves may not be symmetrical, it is essential for the place meant of the designs to be as proportioned as possible. Brenda took great care in making sure her designs we well placed. These are attributes that I can immediately respect in a tattoo artist, as opposed some others that might just rush into the job. It is important to take time after the image has been sketched on you to get a feel for it. After all you will have to live with it forever, and ever, and ever…

The Doctor was under the needle for a good 2 hours, and I must say he handles the pain quite well. I do not know if it was just to impress me but I do not see him flinch or wince even once. The final result, in my opinion, was off the hook. I think Brenda did an awesome job sticking with the style of all the surrounding work and even incorporated elements of the older tattoos so they fall into place as one large piece of work. I understand that this kind of work is more challenging than it may seem. Also notice the keen shading work around the AUM sign that they added in. Also I implore you, keep your tattoos original and do not copy any of the stuff you see here.

Take your time to check out the Doctor Niles website at Gravity Cartel. Its got a funky flash interface and there is loads of music, photographs, and videos to check out. Thank you for letting me post this and good luck, ill catch you on the other side. Aloha.