did this awesome phoenix rib piece on a young lady who was born and raised in phoenix, az, but is now going to school in the midwest. she wanted a piece to represent her hometown and also remind her of where she’s from no matter where she goes — what a way to mark new beginnings. 
this piece is on one of my toughest female clients, she’s a bad mofo, please believe.
you know what i’m talkin’ about, one of those hip, cool moms you always heard about as kid, the kinda strong woman that you want your own daughter to be. she’s a single mother raising a teenager on her own, recently moved back into the state to help with her ailing mother, and just a warrior in general.
she experienced what we call ‘the worst week ever’ and was STiLL going — kickin’ ass and takin’ names, you KNOW she deserved this tattoo!!!!
did this shield on a very cool client of mine. i’ve tattooed on both he + his wife and every time they come into the studio we always have great conversations that seem to end too soon. though he’s pretty tough dude, even he had to admit the inside of the arm wasn’t done soon enough – it’s tender in there! 
got this great client that is funny/friendly/well-mannered, just an all-around nice guy - did i mention he’s covered in skulls and darkness??? it’s pretty fuckin’ awesome.
his
a very cool couple who were referred by another client came into the shop recently (we love referrals!) (and cool people!!) and both wanted work done. after a few minutes of laughing and chopping it up with them, came to find out that these tattoos were gonna be wedding presents to each other. they got married last year and were now getting around to bestowing wedding gifts onto the other person – of course we were more than happy to help them out.
it seemed very fitting that the husband wanted to create his own family shield; he wanted something that was somewhat traditional, with classical imagery, but since his family doesn’t have a crest or anything, he wanted to create something that would be uniquely his and have that as a family emblem from now on — very cool for people starting their own lives + family together.
check back later for his better halfs’ piece!
a father’s tribute + love to his two sons — here’s the final session on this sleeve. check out the previous session here.
one kid was born in Phoenix, AZ and the other child was born in Las Vegas, NV. Now he wears both of them proudly at all times.
by Ernie Rojas aka Serv1
some cover-up action going on here – we all know someone who needs to get rid of that old ‘ex’ tattoo
skulls are huge in tattooing. as i’ve mentioned before, i don’t know any tattooer that doesn’t like to rock out a killer skull piece or make some badass skulls PoP — there are numerous reference books dedicated to that singular subject — “The Skull.”
[If you're looking to get a skull tattoo, skulls can serve a number of symbolic purposes. The most common being of death and mortality. But, one can use the image of a skull to symbolize various things.
Other Skull symbolism include:
