Pimp My Arm – Mordheim Edition

Oh boy! This last tattooing session was a hell of a ride. Eleven hours, both me and the artist determined to finish the project – too excited to call it a day! You can see the toll on my body in the pictures below – ALL WORTH IT!

I’m done with tattoos for the time being. Teenage dream marked as accomplished. Time to take a few days off, reset and then get back to work. So many awesome miniatures projects just waiting for my attention. Xd

Cheers folks!

In addition to ‘link between the body and the arm’ today we took care of the good old tattoo and refurbished it, adding some extra detail. Took a bit more time than usual, even though some of the drawing got done on my skin, rather than transfers. Only one day remaining – tomorrow the thing will be done for good!

Got another session of inked jabs today. Nine hours laying face down on a bench. The plan for today was to get the elbow, the entire back part of the forearm and a larger motive on the triceps done.

I chose a plethora of Mordheim art to be included. “Ryba” – the artist, printed the art in multiple sizes and we’ve figured out how to position each piece. I then went for an hour long walk, while he drew the stencils by hand.
The tattooing was mostly mild, except for the elbow – painful enough to wake me up from a half-slumber. The end result – very satisfying.

Two more sessions left to do.
1) The upper arm, main motive to be restored and ‘grabby’ hands added on top.
2) Inner upper arm, whole arm fillers + finishing touches.

Can’t wait to have it completed!

On the third day of jabbing the artist gave to me… One Bertha Bestraufrung 😛

Third session in, three more to go. Fortunately for me this one was focused completely on the outer side of the arm – I can paint miniatures without discomfort in the coming days XD

1999: Although this ‘hobby project’ started twenty three years ago, its backstory goes waaay back, to the amazing 1999. You see – I used to play Mordheim since day one! Me and my buddies got very, VERY, invested in the game. We build a gaming board, converted our first warbands and ran multiple campaigns…

The time passed and I only got more and more involved. I became a part of national community, ran and participated in multiple events, grabbed a few ultimate trophies and had the time of my life with Mordheim. My miniatures collection and the scenery set grew just as my painting skills. I even managed to bring my sister and my girlfriend (now wife) into the game. Fun times. Fun times indeed.

All that to say I was really into Mordheim. That and Black Metal! These two combined resulted in a dream of having a sick AF full sleeve Mordheim themed tattoo at some point in life. I had everything visualized at the time with my favorite Mordheim Rulebook drawings lined up to set the scene of my favorite ‘good’ warbands at the presented bottom, with forces of ‘darkness’ looming above, finalized by the Lord of Shadows at the very top. All attached to the skin like the tattoo was grabbing my shoulder with hands of its own…

Buuut I was also poor AF and the only thing I could afford at the time was the first step. My friend arranged a meeting with a local in-house tattoo ‘artist’ who made tattoos using self made machine. Guy tatoed like a half of the neighborhood with football signs, hooligan markings and stuff…

I paid 150plt, an equivalent of 25GBP at the time, for this ‘beauty’ and carried it proudly throughout my life. It was done in small apartment in a huge block, with it’s front doors damaged. A dog barking through the hole. In one room an old man sat at the chair, gazing into a grainy screen of an over dated TV. The room I was being tattoed in was full of hooligans, all covered in tattoos, some with their jaws and noses broken. The ink that was used to create this masterpiece was from a pen and the machine used was disinfected with toiled cleaning fluid…

What can I say? I was young and brave… but mostly stupid. But I really wanted to start that tatt.

2012+: About a decade later I was a working man. My buddy was just about to start doing tattoos seriously. I decided I wanted him to leave his mark on my arm. He took the challenge and thus – in the confines of my own apartment and with a few bottles of whiskey, another part of my arm got covered…

2025: …and here we are. I now had a bit of ‘free’ time and funds to spare. I also grew my arm, so that there’s enough place to comfortably insert all the stuff I wanted to get done. I got back to the ‘hobby project’ and started to Mordheim’ize my arm to the fullest with the help of a very talented artist from one of the local Tattoo stuios.

I’m two days in a raw ‘in’. Next part planned for the next Monday and Tuesday. Then two more sessions at the end of the month. I can finally become one with Mordheim – City of the Damned 🙂

PS: I am sharing this rather unorthodox miniatures hobby related project with you fine folks because I figured it might be something ‘out of the box’. I hope you enjoy the background. I will get back with progress next week.