Raymond's Last Tattoo

(written by a close friend): “Dwayne abandoned this painting and for the life of me, I couldn’t understand why. It wasn’t finished. It needed more work. Yet when I pressed him, he simply replied, ‘It’s done enough’. It wasn’t until I sat down to write a blurb about it that it dawned on me why it had been left in this unfinished state.

The image is, fundamentally, the very last tattoo that I inked into one of our best friend’s bare chest, before he died due to a heroine overdose while trapped in solitary confinement.

I was so proud of the tattoo. It looked as professional as anything you could get at a parlor, and I’d done it with a cassette motor, a pen, and some guitar string. You make do when you’re incarcerated, and yes, it’s against the rules.

I think, while working on the piece, Dwayne realized what time period he was recalling and recoiled from it. And so it stands, in current form, as a sort of monument to our friend.

We miss you.”

Medium: Acrylic and oil paint over bristol paper