Ryan’s Steadman Sleeve

I spotted Ryan in my local laundromat, a surprisingly good spot for finding tattoos in the neighborhood. As I mentioned a long time ago over on BillyBlog here, Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is one of my favorite books, and the illustrations of Ralph Steadman only enhance the volume's sheer brilliance.

So, once I realized the theme of Ryan's sleeve, I hoped he'd agree to share his ink with us here on Tattoosday. Thankfully, he did:

Ryan is a native Brooklyn resident, and is a huge fan of Steadman. And this iconic image above graces the cover of Thompson's best known book.

The tattoo artist that Ryan is working with on this sleeve is Cris at Puncture Tattoo Studio in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn.

The figure at the top of this piece is the Steadman-imagined Hunter S. Thompson.

The image below Hunter is from the cover of Steadman's America:

Ryan says that all of this work spans "about a year and a half, altogether, session by session, [over] five or six sessions." He adds, "it’s not done yet, it’s gonna go all the way up ... I’ve just been at this stage for a little while now."

I was particularly interested in the piece with the American flag, which Ryan told me was from America, referenced above.

Ryan's work is certainly ambitious and the fact that he intends to continue the work into a full sleeve is certainly intriguing. I'm looking forward to seeing what's next!


Thanks to Ryan for sharing his work with us here on Tattoosday!

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