Legong dancer tattoo

Legong is a form of Balinese dance; a refined dance form characterized by intricate finger movements, complicated footwork, and expressive gestures and facial expressions.

At first, the client came to us, bringing a magazine with a pair of Legong dancer paintings on it. They are beautiful paintings, indeed, but in the picture, they're hanging on the wall decorating a cozy living room (yes, it's an interior design magazine). Imagine how small it is! To get more details on the dancer's flower crown and facial expression, we browsed through the web and find this beautiful photograph by Mr. Pius Lee

Eyeing (Legong Dance II), taken on May 30, 2009 by Mr Pius Lee, www.dailytravelphotos.com

Mr Pius Lee began his quest to backpack around the world in 2003. Travel and photography is two of his greatest passions. His website, www.dailytravelphotos.com contains his photography works during traveling, hopefully to relate the beauty and uniqueness of far-away countries that most viewers won't experience first hand.

We can support his cause this way (quoting from his website): "Daily Travel Photos is supported primarily by advertisements. To help ensure the site's survival, I request that you occasionally glance at the ads and clickonly on an advertisement that genuinely interests you. Clicking haphazardly on ads helps nobody in the long run. "

the Legong dancer tattoo, done by Dimas Praja

thanks Mr Pius Lee for the beautiful photograph as a great reference, and for visiting Indonesia, too! :)

a tribal Jesus and a cover up

One day, this guy, Adip came to CarpeDiem TattooStudio to get a tribal Jesus tattoo on his left arm, with a “Luke 19:10″ lettering. At first we consider to put the verse too but he decided only to put the “Luke 19:10″.   This tattoo was done by Lois.

Luke 19:10 ("...For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”), done by Lois

After this tattoo was finished, he showed his other tattoo on his right arm. It’s a cross with a kinda bad 3D perspective and he wanted it covered up. Dimas then did the sketch to start the cover-up, turning it into a black lotus with skull.

the cross which wanted to be covered up, and the preliminary sketch by Dimas Praja

the final result of the cover up: a black lotus with skull, done by Dimas Praja

so, on the same day, Adip got two fresh tattoos, done by both tattooists we have at CarpeDiem TattooStudio. Hope to see him soon again!  :)

The Lion of Judah tattoo

One day on June, we got Mr Marthin,  a guest from Jakarta, who already booked the slot to be tattooed by Dimas Praja a week before he came to Jogjakarta. He wanted a red lion, inside his ‘torn’ flesh. He also mentioned some letterings to be added, but hadn’t send the design until the day. It was Hebrew lettering, completed the Lion of Judah.

The Lion of Judah, done by Dimas Praja on Marthin Lumingkewas

The Hebrew lettering below the lion is ”yehochanan”, which means god’s grace or god’s favor (god’s supplication). After this was finished on his right arm, he wanted to add another lettering on his left arm as a pair for “yehochanan”. The other one is in Latin.

Semper Fidelis, the Latin for "Always Faithful", often shortened to 'Semper Fi'