I didn’t use charcoal. Isometry was done with a 0.1 and a 0.25 Rotring Isograph. As for what they represent, eep! I’ve never suffered from nightmares. It was partly inspired by Mike Wilks’ work: http://www.mike-wilks.com/stairwell.html

I suppose I’m aiming for a kind of gothic cartoony horror fetishism.

Exhumed: Call me low-brow (or even monobrowed), but I always quite liked the thong-over-top-of-the-jeans look. I can’t help myself; I like trashy. And so it is with tattoos. I’ve always thought that the small of the back tattoo is an indicator that the tattooed rather likes being taken from behind. Maybe.

Mind you, I have always found that people with tattoos tend to be rather dull, but I’d never actually say that on a public forum.

My concern (oh, alright, it’s not really a concern) is with young women who have a tattoo on the small of their back. What is the meaning of this? I do wish I could understand it, but I doubt I ever will (I really am starting to sound like a reactionary old tosser now, aren’t I?).

It reminds me of the fashion a few years ago for young women to wear G string knickers with the strings visible above their jeans. If you know what I mean? I could never work out whether they were deliberately pretending to look as though they had learning difficulties, and therefore couldn’t dress themselves properly. Or whether they really did have learning difficulties. Even now, I’m not entirely sure.

And so it is with these ’small of the back’ tattoos.

Anyway, your picture is bloody marvelous. I think I might have that tattooed on the small of my back.

Can’t explain it, but Nyman and Saddam is a curiously poignant combination.

I looked at Isometry for a long time. The more you examine it, the more you find to look at. I should have said at the time how much I loved it. However, the cockroach gave me the shivers. I have an unhealthy phobia of cockroaches.

Another of my faves is granny and grandad. I love granny’s tits. I look forward to that in my old age.

I once wanted a tattoo. Then, in mid July, in Manhattan, when it was about 103 degrees out, I was sat in an automat diner (Happy Days style), which has since closed, and in walked a granny not unlike the one in your sketch. She had once had a tattoo, which had turned into a big green splat on her arm and collar bone. That was the moment I changed my mind.

Gorgeous artwork. I think you should also offer a brief description of what they represent. What does Isometry mean, and do you suffer from nightmares?

antipodeesse: Well don’t, as, by the lights of Wellington, you would be rendered unimaginative and thick.

Sister in China (Brother in Shropshire): Thank you.

Duck: Okay, I won’t go to Shropshire and I won’t diss the Megane. I will, however, thank you for calling my picture beautiful. Thank you.

Oh, Wellington, what are we to do with you? You’re sounding like the exhumed corpse of the first Duke of Wellington. I suppose anyone who chooses any form of physical adornment – be it high heels, jewelry, piercings, whatever – is a bit thick and lacking imagination? Or are they merely doing what human beings have done since they could walk upright and wield a tool creatively?

Thanks about the pic, though.

I suppose it does enable them to save time when attending social functions. Without the tattoo, they’d have to introduce themselves to every single person they met with the opener, “I’m terribly sorry, but I’m just a little bit thick and have absolutely no imagination”.

Now, with the tattoo, those words are superfluous.

That is the whole point of those tattoos, right? I’m right, aren’t I?

Lovely picture, sir.

Picture is beautiful btw