Black and grey Chinese dragon tattoo half sleeve on my clients first big piece. We started first by planning out a few rough sketches, so my client could envision the tattoo on his arm beforehand. It was really fun doing this tattoo as i was able to have more flow with dragon and background. The Chinese style tattoo tends to be more loose and free flow compared to a Japanese style. 

I tried to add more detail into the dragon’s face and body, giving it more depth. We added black and grey texture into the tattoo after shading the more simplistic areas.

Historically, the Chinese dragon was associated with the emperor of China and used as a symbol to represent imperial power. Liu Bang, the founder of the Han dynasty, claimed that he was conceived after his mother dreamt of a dragon.^[4] During the Tang dynasty, emperors wore robes with dragon motif as an imperial symbol, and high officials might also be presented with dragon robes. In the Yuan dynasty, the two-horned, five-clawed dragon was designated for use by the Son of Heaven or emperor only, while the four-clawed dragon was used by the princes and nobles.^[5] Similarly, during the Ming and Qing dynasty, the five-clawed dragon was strictly reserved for use by the emperor only. The dragon in the Qing dynasty appeared on the flag of the Qing dynasty.^[6]

The dragon is sometimes used in the West as a national emblem of China, though such use is not commonly seen in the People’s Republic of China or Taiwan. Instead, it is generally used as the symbol of culture. In Hong Kong, the dragon was a component of the coat of arms under British rule. It was later to become a feature of the design of Brand Hong Kong, a government promotional symbol.^[7]

View more dragons by the San Sakura tattoo team here!