World Famous Tattoo Lou’s Presents Tattoo Tuesday

For the uninitiated, Tattoo Tuesday is a weekly blog feature where a single tattoo done by one of our staff the week prior is spotlighted. Here you’ll get to see a new tat and hear a little something from the artist responsible for creating it.

This Tuesday we take a look at a good-looking piece done by Joey Smallz from our Huntington location.

Last week Smallz had the opportunity to tattoo his father, who requested that his son do a coverup.

“Basically my father watched me get better [at tattooing] and he came to me and asked me to do a couple of tattoos on him,” said Smallz. “He’s had tattoos from the Vietnam era…and stuff like that, and he wanted to do the coverup in a traditional manner.”

The tattoo itself incorporates a sparrow, a heart, a rose and the name of Smallz’ mother. Smallz notes the significance of selecting the sparrow as one of the elements used in the tattoo.

“The sparrow I put there in symbolism. It shows the beauty in life, the beauty in my mom as being the sparrow always flying over my dad and looking after him. And that’s why I did it that way,” said Smallz.

The passing of December marks Smallz’ one year working with Tattoo Lou’s and he admits that he’s been dealing with cover up tattoos for about three years, while also emphasizing the need for using carefulness and tact during the cover up process.

“You have to design the piece that way the lines that were there previously can basically be the lines that are involved with the new tattoo,” said Smallz. “You can’t just smack a tattoo on top of another one…otherwise it’ll show through the color.”

The new piece Smallz designed for his dad was completed in a two-hour session and everyone was thrilled with the final product.

“It was a cool thing. It was something I was very proud of, being able to tattoo my father,” said Smallz.

Come see Joey Smallz at our Huntington shop for a consultation and for more examples of his work, click here.