The most insane Chiefs tattoo ever: An analysis

"This beast has lots of line work... Really it is the logo that is the problem (and it really could be either style). The KC lettering is not done well and the arrowhead is slightly off. I've made my share of mistakes like this.

"I'll attempt to explain how to attack this piece or how this artist attacked it. The artist started on the bottom right or left feathers depending on if they are right or left handed. The artist continued to work there way up the head and towards the center. The reason why this was done was when you spray and whip the area with ink the stencil will not get whipped off.

"One thing to consider is that this work is on a rounded surface (the head). A stencil is a flat piece of paper. In order to get the stencil on the clients head you have to make relief cuts into the stencil. The spaced areas between the feathers are good places to do this. The feathers are the easy part to get looking correct. The problem is the linework in the region right after the skull on the headress. That needed to be drawn in as these lines are not uniform. Which these new stencil lines had thicker lines from the felt tip marker and part of the arrowhead probably had be redrawn.

"As the artist got to the center of this piece his material that he is working on has swollen greatly. There is also the off chance that the stencil had a little thicker line around the arrowhead (or from redrawing it with a felt tip marker). Anyways the arrowhead got cut off about an inch. Then the artist decided to squeeze the KC lettering in there. That is really what throws the piece off.

"I know all this sounds hypercritical and I'm not being hypercritical (just trying to explain the reasoning and methods of the industry). This is a VERY VERY difficult piece to do, on a VERY VERY difficult part of the body part to work. This artist did an admirable job. Most of the stuff that I've pointed out can be touched up. Which is typical of a piece this large and on the head."