I've waited a long time for my tattoo from Billy Hill, owner of Envy Skin Gallery. And like anything good in life, the beautiful rocket on my back was totally worth the wait (how long has it been? Thr... Read More
I've waited a long time for my tattoo from Billy Hill, owner of Envy Skin Gallery. And like anything good in life, the beautiful rocket on my back was totally worth the wait (how long has it been? Three years?). We've been talking about him doing work on me forevs, and never quite gotten around to it (although we have gotten around to many instances of consuming adult beverages and whatnot in the meanwhile, of course). Wellllll now I can finally write a well-deserved stellar review. I've changed my mind about 97 times about what I want Billy to do on me... at one point I was looking for examples of Cyrillic script, which derailed the whole process for a while, but it became apparent that what needed to happen was basically just freestyling. I went to BH with a quickly drawn sketch the boy had done on a napkin, to show the perspective of the rocket that I wanted. Billy literally just drew directly on my back for about ten minutes, and came up with something quite amazing. No carbon paper, no waiting around while he painstakingly drew something original... no, Billy Hill is the most professional, efficient artist I have ever encountered. Direct to skin sketch and rocket/flames color tattoo (which stretches all the way across my shoulders) took under two hours and is very high quality original art work. I was pretty much dumbfounded. I'll post a picture when it stops peeling (eww). It should be noted that Billy Hill studied in Japan, Europe, and all over this crazy country - he is extremely well traveled and well taught. His studio has a vaguely Japanese aesthetic and is incredibly clean, with a calming color of green on the walls. Billy himself is hilarious, crazy, and ultimately geniune and down to earth - a completely amazing guy. He and his West Virginia accent had me in stitches, as usual, the whole time he was tattooing me. Even more awesomely, BH has a collection of YouTube videos about tattooing and about his exploits... just look up IAmBillyHill on youtube, or go to his website iambillyhill.com. He also has an iphone app. Just saying. I highly recommend checking out Billy Hill and the other talented artists at Envy Skin Gallery. This was a pretty mind-bending experience. :D Read Less