- Hi, I'm Jess.
Today I'm going to be asking two tattoo artists
to see if they can draw my dream tattoo.
Let's go.
(upbeat music)
- Hey what's up I'm Taka.
I'm a tattoo artist from Los Angeles.
I specialize in neo-traditional Japanese.
- I'm Denise, I also tattoo
and I don't have a specific style.
I just have to do whatever anybody wants
at any given moment.
- Let's see what's up.
- There's a little bit of backstory about this tattoo.
My best friend took my appointment to get it.
So now he's been walking around
with a version of these kind of components.
And I haven't come up with how I want to incorporate
my love for our relationship, my love for California,
and kind of just my own aesthetic.
Initially, I saw kind of a cross section of a palm.
So that's the tree.
I just aesthetically was really drawn to it.
The second I saw it, I was like, that's my next tattoo.
But I would love to kind of take
the image that exists of this palm
and incorporate then also like, a love for California,
which to me is like, a Joshua Tree moon, a mountain.
So like mountains or an image of the ocean,
something nature.
- This one's gonna be hard.
One because when people look at it,
I think great thing about tattoo when you look at the image,
you can tell right away what that is.
To me that's a great.
I think it's gonna,
like people will have a little bit of tough time
seeing what this is right away, you know.
So you might have to explain what they are.
- That's okay.
I mean, to me, for me, the way that I like tattoos for me
are kind of like reminders.
I'm totally open to like, whatever.
- I mean, like a subject matter,
it's gonna be really difficult, not necessarily difficult,
but just like really weird to try to incorporate
into like other, like regions.
Do you know what I mean?
- Yeah. - California.
- Challenge begins.
(upbeat music)
- I'm just gonna do what she wants.
We're just thinking about whatever California elements
will fit within diameter
and make sure that it's legible from a distance.
- We'll see what we can do.
(upbeat music)
- A lot of times what people want,
isn't necessarily always possible.
It is fun to play with organic shapes like this,
a lot more room for error.
You don't have to worry about anything being perfect.
I hope Jess likes it. - Yeah.
(upbeat music)
- I'm not sure I like the succulents,
it's tryna like,
- Oh yeah succulent, that's what I forgot, damn it!
- The whole border is like a palm tree.
So I'm trying to make that happen a little bit.
- As you draw you come up with all this new idea
but you can't even you know what I mean?
It's like okay, this is what I wanna do now,
you know what I mean?
It's hard.
- I think yours is way more legible.
It obviously doesn't even need to be shrunk.
You totally copied me dude.
- I did.
(Denise laughing) (upbeat music)
- They both did a great,
I love these saucy blobs up here.
Oh my gosh!
I'm really happy that like both have kind of like
have the circle that's there and like the initial shape
but like added a bit to it.
I don't know, it's kind of like exactly
how I did dream of it, but actually drawn.
This is my dream tattoo.
Okay.
- [Producer] So, if you had to choose.
- So I like this circle incorporation
of like the two flowers
and like kind of like the wild flowers of California.
But I like, I love that there's either a moon or sun
whatever kind of,
I pictured it as like the sun setting
but I kind of like the inside of this better
but I like the incorporation of the outside better.
I think I'm gonna go with this one.
Only because of the succulents.
This was such an awesome experience
because like I've been kind of sitting on this
for such a long time
to like have people who are really, really talented
just kind of map out.
Is like super, super cool.
So thank you guys so much.
- You're welcome.
- You're welcome. - Yeah.
Do I get to keep these?
or do you want to keep--
- [Taka] You can have it.
- [Denise] Do what you want.
(loud laughing)
(upbeat music)