Realism
I treated the face like cracked porcelain. The butterflies sit where the breaks are, so the damage and the thing coming out of it are the same shape. One is landing, one is covering an eye. The lettering carries the meaning, so it needed to be readable at a glance and not fight the portrait for attention.
Everything is black and grey except the eye. One point of colour in a grey piece pulls the whole thing towards it, which is exactly what you want when the eye is the subject. The porcelain edges and the tears are worked in stipple to keep them from reading as hard black. I kept the letters open and the spacing generous to leave room for the lines to soften as the tattoo settles. The completed piece took 4 hours in one session and was photographed at the end of the session.
