Colourful peacock tattoo: a forty-hour back piece

Hello everyone!

I have always loved peacocks. Their way of standing, their colors, their very proud yet not aggressive side… there is something about them that I find completely fascinating.

So when I drew this project in color on the back, I already knew that I wanted a very present peacock, with lots of movement in the feathers and a composition that really takes up the whole space. This was clearly not the kind of drawing that someone would come and do in a short two-hour session.

The project started with a simple Instagram post

I had posted the drawing hoping to be able to realize it one day. Then a man identified his sister under the post, saying something like: "Isn't that exactly what you wanted to do?" And in fact, yes.

We started exchanging very simply. The project was clear: a peacock in color, on its back, large. We quickly scheduled the first sessions and the work began.

About forty hours of work

In total, we spent about forty hours on this back. And forty hours, of course, aren’t just forty hours of tattooing. It’s several appointments, long days, moments when the pain becomes really present, others where it’s much easier to talk, where we laugh a lot and where we also end up getting to know each other very well.

On a project as long as this, the person who gets the tattoo is really part of the process. You have to go back, continue even when you know exactly what awaits us, and accept that the result will be built slowly.

The color was built one session after another

I didn’t want the back to become a mass of colors without any breath. It was necessary to keep the peacock readable from a distance, give the feathers depth, and ensure that the whole remained balanced even before it was completely finished.

The feathers gradually opened up, and the colors really found their place over the course of the sessions. It’s also about projects like this that you understand how important it is to think about a large tattoo as a whole from the very beginning.

Present it at the convention

At one point in the project, we presented it to Vaison Ink Festival, In Vaison-la-Romaine. To see it performed on stage, under the lights, amidst other projects, was quite special because it suddenly went beyond the confines of the studio.

It was no longer just the back that was evolving from session to session. It became a complete piece, visible from afar, confident and truly carried.

Why this project still matters today

I think what I remember most are the forty hours we spent together. A project like this inevitably ends up becoming much more than just a drawing: there’s everything that’s talked about during the sessions, the moments of fatigue, the breaks, the follow-up appointments, and that very simple satisfaction when you finally look at the finished back.

That’s exactly why I love big color projects. They take time, but they also build a real story.

If you’re wondering how this type of piece evolves afterwards, I’ve also written an article about it. The aging of colored tattoos.