Welcome to the online center for the custom designs of the world famous Celtic tattoo artist Pat Fish. The patterns offered for sale here for the first time are the ones Pat Fish has been installing on her satisfied customers for many years. They have been custom drawn and are now available online for the people who are not able to travel to the Left Coast to have her install them personally at her studio in Southern Calfornia. Each pattern is represented by a photograph of the tattoo installed. This shows one way that the pattern may be interpreted, but when you take the printout of the design's line drawing to your chosen local professional tattoo artist you will be able to discuss with them ways to customize the design a bit more, to make it unique for you. The design you purchase will give you the clear and precise beginning lineart for the artist to follow, guaranteeing that you get a good start on your next acquisition of body art. There are very few tattoo artists in the world who are specialists in Celtic tattooing, and it takes many years of carefull study to do it accurately. When choosing the artist who will be doing your tattoo be sure from looking at the artist's portfolio that they really have experience with this fascinating and demanding form of tattooing. You may not want to be the one they learn on! The designs will be sent to you in an easily downloadable file format that you can print out and then scale to size using any xerox machine. The file will also include a page of "Celtic Tattoo Tips" written by Pat Fish, that may be helpful for your artist to read. Based on her many years of experience with these designs, it includes some common-sense techniques and considerations that may help your artist achieve the best quality result with these designs. They have all been drawn by hand, using many sheets of graph paper and lots of white out! Many have begun with something from a manuscript page and then have been rendered in such a way as to make a more elegant and powerful tattoo design. As a general rule of thumb parallel lines defining the interlacings should be no closer together than 1/16th of an inch. A minimum of 1/4 inch is usually necessary for the "wickering" shading that makes the designs look dimensional and emphasizes the "over-and-under" weaving. If the design is too small the artist may want to fill the space between the lines with white ink, thereby mitigating the natural tendency of intricate tattoos to blur over time. Be creative with your skin art...... the use of color can change the way a design looks and add special meaning for you. Combining several designs can give you a collage of art that blends together and gives a permanent testimony to your appreciation of Celtic art. And someday, perhaps, you will find it possible to travel on a pilgrimage to Santa Barbara and get an original design installed by the Celtic Queen herself! Be sure to visit Pat Fish's Tattoo Santa Barbara main web site at www.luckyfish.com for lots more tattoo photos, design ideas, and information about tattoo care.