Need your help locating a snake tattoo design...

I have been searching for a long time for a decent snake tattoo design. Every snake tattoo design I can find is extremely fake/cartoonish. They all have that same lame look to them and 90% of them are cobras or have fangs. I HATE this look! The few "realistic" snakes turn out quite bad and are always disproportionate. Does anyone have any decent realistic snake tattoo designs, preferably ball/carpet python, although I am open to different species, just no cobra/fanged snakes. Something that would go well wrapped around a person's calf. I'd like to incorporate this with a realistic skull and maybe some wilted roses.

Another design I am interested in is a realistic snake skeleton tattoo instead of the snake mentioned above. These are also hard to come by and the majority of them are very poorly done. Even better would be a 3D tattoo, similar to how a lot of quality tarantula tats are done these days.

I know I want something to this effect, it is just very hard finding anything close to what I'm looking for. If I can at least find something close I can alter it as needed.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

Tattoo artists don't like being told what to do most of the time you tell them what you want bring in photos of your snakes then they will draw you a few samples after your deposit(if they even make you do a deposit on sketches) and pick the ones you like best

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Originally Posted by Atherosdragon

Tattoo artists don't like being told what to do most of the time you tell them what you want bring in photos of your snakes then they will draw you a few samples after your deposit(if they even make you do a deposit on sketches) and pick the ones you like best

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Thanks, but not really the response I am after. Not to be rude, but I am not new to tattoos. I have quite a few actually and I know how the process works. No tattooist I've been to has ever complained when either my wife or myself brought in ideas and tattoos we drew ourselves to have them tattoo on us. In fact, I think it helps greatly so they know exactly what we want. The tattooist can then alter it how WE see fit, because it will be going on OUR bodies. Not every tattoo has to be free handed from scratch and only what the artists wants to tattoo. In short, if they want to make money, they will tattoo me how I want to be tattooed. If not there are many other tattooists. :rolleyes:

I am just looking for non-traditional, realistic snake and/or snake skeleton designs so I will have a starting point to work with since I can't free hand draw for crap. Most tattooists aren't going to know the difference between snakes and I don't want to waste their time trying to explain to them I'm not after a typical cobra tattoo with brown and black ball python markings. I know there is bound to be sketches that fit this description, I am simply not looking in the right place to find them.

My advice would be to find a picture you like. Something you could get tattooed. Maybe even try positioning your snake it the position you want and snap a shot - if possible.

If you are good at sketching, you can even find a picture and then revamp it to your liking. This is how I have designed most of my tattoos, and this may not be what you want to do. But like you said, there really isn't a great deal of tattoos out there.

I have found that BME.com was a good place to look.

I have a picture of a ball python tattoo out of a tat magazine I will try to scan it and post it on here. Its the best snake tattoo Ive ever seen. The most realistic one anyways

I always thought these would be cool as tattoos...

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...ngs/floyd2.jpg

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...tings/bnw4.jpg

This would be cool but I'm not sure it would translate to a good tattoo...

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a3...tings/meg2.jpg

Tattoo artists will not usually tell you they can improve on your idea.
"With all due respect", if you take some design IDEAS to a good shop (read reviews, ask around), and ask them what they can do with it, you will see the reason they are called tattoo ARTISTS and not tattoo tracers. Your shop might never have told you they HATE copying other peoples work, but they do. Every single good artist does. Ask one, and be blunt, and you will see.
On another note, ask to see the artists folder of tattoos they have done. You want to look at "photorealistic" designs, so you know you're being worled on by someone who can translate a pattern morph to your skin correctly, without an eraser!!

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Originally Posted by Jessica Loesch

My advice would be to find a picture you like. Something you could get tattooed. Maybe even try positioning your snake it the position you want and snap a shot - if possible.

If you are good at sketching, you can even find a picture and then revamp it to your liking. This is how I have designed most of my tattoos, and this may not be what you want to do. But like you said, there really isn't a great deal of tattoos out there.

I have found that BME.com was a good place to look.

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This! If you don't find a design you like, get a picture and have him/her try to redraw it.

I've had friends or my brother draw all the initial sketches for my tattoo designs, and then I sit down with an artist whose style fits with my vision for the sketch and we polish the design. Artists know far better than anyone else what they are capable of an what translates well to ink. You have to respect that. Why would you want generic body art anyway? It is way better to be a piece of art than to be a walking copyright infringement.

Not to mention, a lot of tattoo artists really don't like copying another artist's work directly. It's disrespectful to the original artist's work and never looks as good!

But that's a good thing--if there is a tattoo you like, but don't like how they added fangs or it's cartoonish, tell them. Say "I like this, but I want to get rid of this and change the pose a little more to this" and they can work wonders. You don't need an exact perfect image. They'll draw it up for you and you can say yes or no and have them keep designing it until it's perfect!

All good advice so far... So you have had a tattoo "artist" take a drawing you did and brought from home and slapped it straight on your body with no alterations. No offense, but I would hesitate to call someone who does that an "artist" of any kind. As Family Jewels said, they're not called tattoo "tracers" for a reason. Someone who will take just anything that anyone draws and will slap it on their body for the right amount of money doesn't care about the quality of the tattoo, they only care about the money you're paying them to do it. Someone who really cares about the quality of tattoos that they do will openly offer suggestions as to how they can improve the drawing. The ones who REALLY care, especially about their name and reputation, will often refuse to do a piece you bring in off the street without changing it up. A good tattoo artist knows that his or her best form of advertising is word-of-mouth, and will come from people asking someone where they got that KILLER tattoo. They wouldn't put that reputation on the line by inking something that isn't well drawn, or by inking something that could be blatantly stolen from another artist.

EDIT: Here is another post I've made on the same subject... I do know tattoos and MANY tattoo artists, so I hope this advice helps...

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Originally Posted by Inknsteel

You'll have a lot better luck searching for an artist in your area who does the style of work that you like. Once you pick the artist for the job, they will generally include drawing and designing the tattoo in the price of the piece. Then you can talk to the artist who will be doing the work and either work out a time to bring the animal in for him to draw from, or find a pic of the animal to take for reference. No matter who you find on the internet who is willing to draw something up for you, any tattoo artist worth his salt will end up redrawing the whole piece to fit the flow of your body and to make the design appropriate for tattooing. Not every picture or design works as a tattoo and nobody would know better than a tattoo artist what works and what doesn't...

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I really don't have any advice on where to find a pic of a realistic tat of a snake. Most of my tats are my own ideas. I can't draw worth crap but I'm lucky I have a tattoo artist who's great at hearing me describe what I want and he will draw it out for me. The only time I ever used a picture is when I wanted my motorcycle inked on me. He went through my pics on my facebook of my bike at his leisure and messaged me a few days later saying he had a drawing he wanted me to see. He got it right the first drawing and the ink turned out much better than I anticipated. I know he was happy with it :D (it's realistic, all done in reds and shades)

From my own experience all I can suggest is find a picture of one of your pets you like (or even a random one) and ask your artist about doing a realistic design of it and get his or her creative juices flowing!

Thanks, but again I guess I am asking the wrong questions because the answers are way off from what I'm looking for. :(

I am NOT looking for an EXACT picture of what to get. I am looking for a specific STYLE. There are many STYLES and I don't know what the STYLE I want is called. I can only envision it in my head. It is not traditional/cartoonish and it is not quite realistic. I don't want a portrait as many seem to think. Kind of somewhere between the three. If I could find the name/examples or the style I want I would have the artist use this to draw what I want in the style I want. What I want I don't want in just ANY style. We live a long way from our preferred tattoo artist (couple hour trip), so I want to have these ideas and styles all lined up so they can work with them and put them together to create what I want. I don't see how this could be considered tracing when it is just giving them a better example of what I want. I believe me asking this is on here a lost cause. So mods, please close/delete/whatever you do this thread. I will ask this on a forum dedicated to body modification.

Sorry for the trouble. :(

Mike Devries is one of my favorite tattoo artists. He has a few snake tattoos on the website, but you can see his skill with realism in a few other tattoos in his animal gallery.

http://www.mdtattoos.com/tattoos/ani...oos_16575.html

A girl on DeviantART does REALLY good tattoos, a lot of her work is tribal (but that's because so many people want tribal tattoo designs!) but she does snakes, and she does a good job on them. Plus she's pretty versatile; I'm sure if you talk to her, she can make whatever you wanted. :)

http://wildspiritwolf.deviantart.com/

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Originally Posted by AK907

I am NOT looking for an EXACT picture of what to get. I am looking for a specific STYLE. There are many STYLES and I don't know what the STYLE I want is called. I can only envision it in my head. It is not traditional/cartoonish and it is not quite realistic. I don't want a portrait as many seem to think. Kind of somewhere between the three.

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And what I'm trying to say that is possibly being misunderstood is to call or email your tattoo artist EXACTLY what you just posted. That will be enough to get him/her started on some ideas, then you can collaborate to come up with exactly what you want...

If you're looking for a site dedicated to tattoos, run by a great one where the majority of the forum participants are also tattoo artists, try www.tattoodles.com. I will warn you though, even if you get some responses that aren't exactly what you're looking for, just thank them for the ideas and move on. It's pretty tacky IMO (even on this site) to go on a public forum asking for responses and balk at the people trying to help you, calling it a lost cause and stomping off like that... Just say thank you and move on...

Thinkin myself about putting my logo on my arm. Still 50/50 on the idea.http://img.tapatalk.com/56141cee-000d-2f23.jpg

Without the PP and no gradient

This is one of the better ones I've seen:

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l2...pm8xo1_500.jpg

I understand and have been looking for the same thing. Most snake tattoos are very poorly done and many artists don't know the difference between a ball and a boa.

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Originally Posted by Don

This is one of the better ones I've seen:

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l2...pm8xo1_500.jpg

I understand and have been looking for the same thing. Most snake tattoos are very poorly done and many artists don't know the difference between a ball and a boa.

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WOAH!




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by Don

This is one of the better ones I've seen:

http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l2...pm8xo1_500.jpg

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Amazing! I'd love something like this! Great quality :)

I'd start looking through the work of tattooists in your area or ones that come highly recommended and see if any of them do the style you're envisioning. See if that style has a specific name and then look for artists that do a good job in the style you like and maybe specialize in animals. There are so many tattoo styles and it's hard to find the exact name of the one you like. Good luck!

Just as a side note: The reason most of the photoreal snakes you see look so bad is because they're done by bad tattooists. I've also seen some INCREDIBLE ones but they are done by the best of the best. Of course the great tattooists are more expensive and have long wait lists but if it's going to be on you for life so isn't it worth the extra money?

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Originally Posted by babyknees

Just as a side note: The reason most of the photoreal snakes you see look so bad is because they're done by bad tattooists. I've also seen some INCREDIBLE ones but they are done by the best of the best. Of course the great tattooists are more expensive and have long wait lists but if it's going to be on you for life so isn't it worth the extra money?

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Ain't that the truth. I'm on a waiting list (since November) and my first appointment is at the end of July. I searched and searched and found someone who does excellent work (but is not cheap). The really good artists are not easy to get into.

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Originally Posted by Don

Ain't that the truth. I'm on a waiting list (since November) and my first appointment is at the end of July. I searched and searched and found someone who does excellent work (but is not cheap). The really good artists are not easy to get into.

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Who? If you don't mind me asking.

Found this thread alittle late,being a tattoo artist,i must tell you when coming to an artist with and idea is great but if you cant't explain what you want than how can you expect anyone else to know what you want.
I believe what you are trying to describe is a combo of new school and asian tattooing,so if i where you i would find a artist that works with both and see what they can come up with.
As far as finding a design online(good luck)you could search for ever and not find exactly what you are looking for.Try finding pictures similar to the style you want and have the artist start from there,but having a solid idea will help in the long run,just telling and artist(including myself)a vague idea or saying inbetween this or that 90% of the time you will get my idea not yours(we are artists not mind readers)i will not be able to draw what you want if you cant tell me what you want.
Good luck on your tattoo and i hope it turns out well for you.
If you have any pictures similar to the style you are trying to describe send me a message and i will try and tell you exactly what style it is and then you can find an artist who does that style.
hope that helps.