A skull with a Japanese dragon on the back: a healed graphic tattoo

A skull in a Japanese-style helmet fills the whole back, with a dragon winding over it. Ropes run around the jaw, and black strands of hair flow down from the skull as far as the lower back. The main photo and the next two frames show the work healed.

From a pencil sketch to the back

The project started as a hand-drawn pencil sketch on paper. You can find it in the gallery: the skull, the helmet and the dragon are already drawn there, with the shading worked out. Many decisions are made right there on paper: where the dragon coils, how the ropes sit and where the hair travels, so that the back reads as one composition.

The back as a surface

The skull sits in the middle between the shoulder blades, and the dragon climbs onto the helmet and reaches toward the shoulder. The hair at the bottom spreads out and thins, so the design does not end in a hard edge at the lower back but fades into the skin. That choice comes from the shape of the back, not from a need to fill every inch.

Why I show the healed work

The gallery has the same tattoo right after the session in the studio and three photos after healing. The comparison shows what stays after healing: the black, the contrast and fine details such as the dragon’s scales and the weave of the ropes. I write more about this on the healed tattoos page.

See also my other graphic tattoos. I work in Warsaw at Good Sign Tattoo. To begin, get in touch.