Colour Realism Tattoo in Manchester - Client Story/01
I thought it would be interesting for you to see how a large-scale color realism tattoo project with me comes to life. In this post, I’m breaking down the time and effort we put into Sonia’s full-color back piece. She’s one of my regular clients, and I love working with her. We have already completed two arm sleeves for her (see pictures below).
She likes the dreamy look, nature, and she LOVES cats. I was very happy when she decided to get her back done, as I knew she would follow my guidance throughout the project. I like to start a large piece with two consecutive days, as it is manageable pain-wise and allows us to cover a larger area. Anything beyond two days, in my opinion, is pushing it. Some people are fine with three to four days in a row, but that is a lot for the body, and the healing can be challenging. However, knowing Sonia’s pain threshold and scheduling issues, we decided to start on a Friday and continue the following Monday and Tuesday.
As you can see, we had some old tattoos to cover. I had to make sure the design we chose would cover that large bat, so that part of the design had to be dark. We decided to go with a large cat, a butterfly, and sunflowers in a dreamy background. It works well, as it’s striking.
Here is an important thing to consider if you are thinking about getting a back piece: usually, people think about the back from the waist up. Of course, this can be done, but it limits the possibilities and breaks the flow of the body. I always advise going lower, extending down to the bum and below, as it looks much better and the design naturally flows with the body.
All stencilled up—time to tattoo.
This is how the first day went. In about 8 hours I’ve managed to do the background, get it ready for the cat portrait.
In the first two photos, you can see the result of a long day connecting the cat face to the background. In the last photo, you can see the outcome of three days of tattooing. The total tattoo time so far is about 20–24 hours. We took a break of approximately six weeks, and Sonia booked another three-day session.
I feel it’s important to mention that Sonia’s pain threshold is very high, allowing her to manage the three consecutive days; however, this is not the case for everyone. Be sure to discuss this with your tattoo artist.
In my opinion, slow and steady wins the race.
Anyway, well done, Sonia! :)
In these photos, you can see the healed part of the tattoo we did without any filters. It looks awesome in person, and I’m very happy with the healed result. We spent a challenging three days on this section of the tattoo. It was a difficult part to tattoo and also to get tattooed. Totally worth it, though :)
And here we go—six long tattoo sessions on this dreamy cat back piece. The total tattoo time is about 40–45 hours.
We’ve managed to win a 2nd place at Tattoo Tea Party - Manchester 2025 with this back tattoo :) Happy days…
So, what do you think? Would you like to get a color realism back piece? Let me know in the comments, or please fill out the contact form if you have any questions you would like answered.
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Kind regards,
Tibor / August 2025