Diving
Custom Tattoo
swallow and cherry blossoms

Color
Color		 Black & Grey
Black & Grey		 Cover-Ups
Cover-Ups
Flora
Flora		 Fauna
Fauna		 Elements
Elements
falling petal
falling petal
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Marie Wadman
Welcome Welcome to my online portfolio! The thumbnails on the left will take you to my most recent color, black & grey, cover up, flora, fauna, and elemental tattoo work. You will also find information on how to contact me, about the process of working with me on a tattoo, my philosophy, a little bit about me and some links to folks I'm fond of. I sincerely hope that you enjoy the work and find some inspiration here for what you are looking for!
Contact If you are interested in getting work from me please take a minute to write me an email to schedulingwithmarie@divingswallow.com. that includes the following:
  • - "Tattoo Request" in the subject of your email
  • - Your name
  • - A daytime phone number
  • - A clear description of your tattoo idea
Process I work with clients in a variety of ways to create custom tattoo pieces. The first step is that I talk to you about what you want. This is usually during a consultation here at the studio that has been scheduled in advance, although I do consult by phone and email for long distance clients. I ask you to bring any images that relate to what you want to the consultation. If you're still looking for inspiration for your tattoo, please check out the Resources area of this site. I also have a number of excellent books and photographs that I can reference for you.

During the consultation I talk to you not only about what you want the tattoo to look like but also what the tattoo means to you and how you want it to add to how your body looks to others and yourself. The consultation process is one of my favorite aspects of tattooing - many images on this site have evolved during a very rich interaction between myself and a client to become something far more interesting than either of us could have envisioned.

I ask for a $190 to $380 deposit (depending on the size of the tattoo) at the end of the consultation when you are sure of what you want as I do spend a considerable amount of time on most drawings. This deposit goes towards the cost of your last appointment. Usually most of the appointments that you will need are booked during the consultation as well.

The question always arises of how much the tattoo will cost and how long it will take. I charge $190 per hour and how long a piece takes is dependent on how big, complex and colorful the tattoo is. Unfortunately I've found that providing accurate estimates for the kind of work that I do to be nearly impossible, so most clients budget for ongoing sessions at regular time intervals (often monthly) and are comfortable with two to four hour sessions. The cost of each session is based on the actual hours of tattoo time (stenciling and other non-tattooing time is not charged for).

After the consultation I draw up the tattoo based on the references that we've discussed in the consultation. Usually I get the drawing finished one to two weeks before your appointment. If you have email, I then email you a scan of the drawing. If you don't have email or just want to see the drawing in person we can meet again. Sometimes you'll find there are things that you feel I did not include or interpreted differently than you were expecting based on the consultation. I'm happy to make these changes to the drawing without charge until you are completely satisfied. I'm also happy to incorporate changes you would like that deviate from the specifications that we discussed in the consultation, however I may request that you pay an hourly drawing rate of $95/hour for further changes. The finished drawing will never be used for any other tattoo as I consider my work to be custom for each client.

And finally - don't be afraid to ask me questions during the whole process! It's extremely important to me that all of my clients come away with not only a beautiful new tattoo, but a deeply satisfying memory of the whole experience.
Philosophy For the largest part of our species' existence, humans have negotiated relationships with every aspect of the sensuous surroundings, exchanging possibilities with every flapping form, with each textured surface and shivering entity that we happened to focus upon. All could speak, articulating in gesture and whistle and sigh a shifting web of meanings that we felt on our skin or inhaled through our nostrils or focused with our listening ears . . . The color of sky, the rush of waves--every aspect of the earthly sensuous could draw us into a relationship fed with curiosity and spiced with danger. Every sound was a voice, every scrape or blunder was a meeting--with Thunder, with Oak, with Dragonfly. And from all of these relationships our collective sensibilities were nourished.
- David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous

I've come to believe that my clients chose tattoos that remind them of their own sense of wonder at the beauty and diversity of life on earth. To have the image of whirling water, a beloved native bird or even just a favorite garden flower on your body for life becomes a daily practice of honoring one aspect of the earthly sensuous in a world that seems to have forgotten it.

An animist based philosophy has lead me to a growing visual and factual knowledge of the living world and the elements of earth, water, fire and air that sustain it. I've added to my knowledge not only through traditional studies but also through the cyclic re-acquainting with my surroundings that seasonally based natural observation provides. Blossoms that I draw for a client will probably be based on my own backyard garden, or water from observations on my walk to work along Lake Merritt. In this way drawing and the sensory presence that it relies upon is in turn an honoring practice for me as well.

As a tattoo artist I strive to integrate this knowledge with a life drawing sensibility and solid tattoo design principles. Skin is not a canvas, nor photographic paper. I have studied a great deal of tattoo art and incorporate many of the most important techniques and ideas that have emerged in the last few decades that have helped make tattooing a fine art in it's own right and paved the way for artists like myself to create works that will look beautiful forever.
About Marie Marie Wadman I was born in the Central Valley of California - a place of flowering orchards and trucks full of rotting tomatoes bound for the canneries, of first generation dreams and schoolbuses sprayed by cropdusters, of the elk-high wildflowers of the Miwok world filling the plain between the Sierras and the coastal ranges two centuries ago . . . and now a place who's sprawl I barely recognize.

I have a tattoo of a fruit crate label from a Stockton cherry grower that says "San Joaquin" on my arm. I get asked why alot and often give an answer that tries to convey what bioregionalism means to me, but really I think that places hold you and that you in turn find a way to hold them.

I recently got a beautiful handpoked big leaf maple leaf on my leg from our fantastic Ruby Jae in honor of Oakland's Sausal Creek, where I've adopted an area for restoration and in return have been blessed with a place for feralculture in my off hours. But mostly I spend my time reflecting back my amazing clients' stories and visions through tattooing. It's a good life.

MW
Links
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