Rough Trade Satyr

I should gather all my satyrs in one place, lol. My first year tattooing a client gave me a resin statue of a Satyr with a big boner, which I still have. I had always been a mythology buff, but this was my introduction to the randy satyr, which was a big part of its lore up until modern times, which sanitized mythology and made it heteronormative. Satyrs are usually portrayed with erections in ancient art. The name is also the root of the term satire. Satires were popular ancient greek bawdy plays.

This sketch was for a tattoo.

Going through stuff at the shop as I pack it away, I am coming across a lot of art from the past 25 years that I did for people which entailed dozens of hours of design work for people who just disappear on you or string you along to work on it more hours and ultimately never get the tattoo, all work done on a minuscule (or no) deposit and the promise of payment for the actual tattoo which never happens. It happened a lot more than I cared to think about and is very embittering. *

This drawing is from one of those, a very involved piece that I did a lot of design for until the client, someone I had working with previously, changed his mind and never spoke of it again.  After decades of this sort of thing it became difficult to get into doing all the free work necessary to be a successful tattoo artist.

I like this drawing though, I hope you do too. I will be sharing a lot of similar drawings as I go through them. I think some will go on to be repurposed as stickers and such.

*Now that I am on the cusp of retirement from the tattoo business, I don’t mind speaking out on the worst aspects of the job, which soured me on it and pushed me to seek artistic fulfillment elsewhere. I am leaving it OVER it. I appreciate the good clients over the years, but resentful over all the work done for people who ghosted me, done with all the half assed jobs because the client doesn’t want to sit still long enough to have the work be the best it can be after micromanaging the design process, and the betrayals by people who asked to come work in my shop only to turn against me when I hold them to shop rules. Being safe and sanitary isn’t optional, ffs.

Sorry for the grumpiness, but I am glad to be putting all of the above behind me.