Bike Project and Tattoo Defect

Winter has decided to stick around for a while longer.  Yup; those record setting warm temps we had a couple weeks ago are nothing more than a fond memory at this point.  We had snow yesterday/last night - only a few inches, but ya see...there's this thing called a Nor'Easter that looks like it's going to hit us on Tuesday into Wednesday and is bringing a whole ton of white fun with it.  Good times, good times.

So what's a guy to do when he's going stir crazy inside?  He sets his mind to dreaming of things like his long-overdue bike build project, and also on a new tattoo piece.

First; the bike.  I pulled the trigger and am meeting with Stu (The Harley Healer) this morning to get a plan moving.  I've got all kinds of components picked out (frame, engine, transmission, oil bag, rims, primary, etc.), and will discuss other things like wiring, hand controls, oil/brake lines, etc. with Stu.  I want this to be an experience where I learn the process instead of him just doing the work so we'll see what kind of schedule we can line up.

Secondly; the tat.  After getting the last one, the ink itch was renewed and I've been thinking of what to get to fill in the rest of my lower leg with to make it a complete half-sleeve.  I wanted to tie something in with the Elric image, and a dragon seemed the obvious way to go.  I've been looking fro cool dragon drawing ideas for a couple months now, and had found one that was amazing;

I loved the snarling face, the back ridges, the sweeping cloak-like wings...it was perfect!  Just needed a little modification to it's positioning to make it fit the space I had, and we'd be in business.  I had an appt with my tat guy this morning to get some appointments put into place.

And then yesterday morning, I was fiddling around a little more, gonna print some close-ups of the face and the feet so the detail wouldn't get lost in the transition from paper to skin.

I'd found the image once, and had copied it to my PC, and had been working off of that.  But to get some close-ups, I wanted to go back to the original image, so back to the interwebs I went.  It took me a while but I finally found it.  This time, instead of doing a screen grab, I pulled up the actual photo.

And that's when I saw it...

Down in the lower corner was a title/tag.  What the...??!?!?

Back to the interwebs...I need to see if this is true....

Dammit...it WAS true.  This tattoo...the one that had the length to fit what I needed, had the perfect look...was from a movie.

What movie?

*Sigh*..."Girl With The Dragon Tattoo".

Son of a bitch.  :-(

I obviously couldn't get this for my tattoo now, so it was a mad scramble back to the interwebs to try and find a suitable replacement.  The clock was ticking - my discussion appointment was in 24 hours!  I looked, searched, hunted the corners of the interwebs, but found nothing that both fit what I needed and which caught my eye.  I had no choice.  I let my tat guy know what had happened and that I needed to postpone. (If he was laughing, he didn't let on.)

So the search continues.  I still love many aspects about that image so I may wind up using it as the template and changing some aspects to make it more "mine", but I don't know how well that will go.  I'm not an artist by any means.  Hell, stick figures give me a hard time.

So one project is moving forward, the other is on temporary hold.  Better than nothing.

Ride Hard, Take Chances