A Body Without a Fixed Shape

The Snake book is dated 2013: thirty-eight pages of snake flash in black and grey, shaded sheets and line work side by side. It was published in print and as a digital edition, the digital one dated 2016.

A snake has no fixed silhouette. It takes the shape of whatever it holds. On these pages it wraps an anchor and its rope, slides through a pierced heart, coils around a dagger driven through a peony, rests in roses and smoke. The animal stays the same; everything it touches decides how it moves.

Between Languages

The dragon came to me already carrying one tradition. The snake did not. The pairings in this book come from different tattoo languages, Western and Japanese, and the book does not pretend otherwise. It is not irezumi and was never meant to be.

In those years I drew wherever the composition led, and the snake was the subject that let me go furthest without breaking. Read now, the book is a record of a hand working between languages before it chose one.

For Other Hands

Like the dragon book before it, this one was made for other artists to use, sheet after sheet. Why I do not tattoo from it myself is told on the Dragon page.

Where to Find It

The digital edition is available through the link below, and the book is also on Apple Books. The designs remain under copyright and are offered as reference for tattooing, not for resale.