This was my present to myself for my 24th birthday, and the only design that I have requested to be made as exactly like the original image I brought in as possible. The elemental emblem is from the back cover of the 1974 solo album by Yes singer Jon Anderson, called 'Olias of Sunhillow.' It's kind of a fantasy epic, about a guy who builds a spaceship and saves his people and they all sing and live happily ever after. I was just really drawn to the design. I once saw an embroidered version on a shirt, 13" inches in diameter at a convention: it was stupendous.
Mandy Flynn did the work, and the armband she was tattooing ahead of me ran about two hours later than she originally thought. She asked if I could come back the next day, but I told her that I had come up from Santa Cruz, and couldn't come back. We went out for dinner and she raced to complete the guy's armband. She worked extra late that night to get my appointment in, basically doing my tattoo after hours when the shop was usually closed. My friend Jayson was with me, and he roamed all over the shop as she worked, looking at everything and asking all kinds of questions about what kind of weirdos she saw as a tattooist. We spent the night sleeping on a friend's floor in the Mission (ouch, that felt good on my new tat; but thanks, Brian!) and took the Caltrain back down the peninsula the next morning.
If you like YES, you might like some of the Roger Dean-inspired work that I have on my right arm. I have a flowering branch from Dean's Morning Dragon and the background that has been added to my right arm is a Dean-inspired surface design.
