Phase One: Imagine

This is Phase One.
I will be getting this tattoo on the inside of my left ankle, starting near the sole of my foot and going upwards, over my ankle, and up the start of my inside, lower calf. But not too far. I don't want it to be more than 12" long.

I've got my main design - an ambigram of the word "imagine", which i can't say i came up with myself, however, i did use a ref pic and incorporated some of my own ideas and a different font into the redrawing of this. The letters will NOT be just an outline as in the picture... They may be a little more fancy, like an olde english style of writing, with more flourishes and many, uneeded, fancy lines added hear and there. Or I may have it solid black with some shading that makes it look like it's glowing or pulsing.

I also used a photoshop brush that i got from 's dev page. It's most likely not exactly what the filigree is going to look like in the background, but it's just so that you get the idea. I wanted it to be more random and not just a mirror image, as the writing is. And i want it to be flourishy filigree... I was originally going to go with some sort of damask design, however, i couldn't find one that i really liked. And most had a pineapple or pomegranit design incorporated into it - which i really didn't want.

obviously, the copyright logo will NOT be part of the tattoo either... if you'd like to use this as a ref for a tattoo for yourself of someone else, be my guest, but please, change it a little to make it your own.

Coming soon:
Phase Two - a second redrawing.
I will be photoshop drawing the entire thing, as i drew it in my drawing book first and scanned it in. I will also be deciding on my final background filigree design, which i've been very undecided about so far.

I also have to make a decision about where (as in which tattoo store) i will be getting this done... i'm a little torn, as i've heard many great things about three local tattoo shops, however, i got my first done at one and sorta wanted to keep all my tattoos from the same shop... call it customer loyalty if you will. I don't think the guy that did my first tattoo will be doing this one, as he tends to do more colourful, japanese style tattoos... but we'll see. I'm going in there this week or next with my finalized design to see who can do it as close to how i want it, and for how much (the most important part!!)

Any comments or suggestions are very much welcome!!