How do you schedule and plan for larger tattoos with Gifford?

During the consultation, Gifford discusses timeline, session count, and scheduling, especially for clients traveling to Chicago for their project. Sleeves and backpieces typically take 4 to 10 sessions depending on detail and size, and larger concepts like multi-sleeves or bodysuits are broken into smaller pieces. Sessions generally run 10 AM to 3 PM (partial day) or 5 PM (full day), and clients are charged by session rather than by hour.

Biomechanical by Gifford Kasen | Logan Square Tattoo

Q: What is a biomechanical tattoo?

A biomechanical tattoo blends organic and mechanical forms into a single design, often abstract or realistic in style. Gifford Kasen's biomechanical work draws inspiration from both natural and unusual forms, expressing movement and structure across large-scale sleeves, backpieces, and bodysuits.

Q: What goes into planning abstract and biomechanical sleeves, backpieces, and bodysuits?

Every project starts with a consultation to define the design's core elements, whether it leans abstract and flowing or mechanical and intricate, and to understand the client's influences and long-term tattoo goals. Placement and anatomy are then discussed so the design fits the body's muscle flow and limbs, followed by loose sketches refined into a final concept drawing, a process that can take a few hours up to 30 hours depending on complexity.

Gifford Kasen

Biomechanical Tattoo & illustrative ink

Book Your Free Consultation with Gifford

Though best known for his nationally-recognized custom biomechanical tattoo design, Gifford Kasen describes himself as an illustrative tattoo artist. He specializes in large-scale, custom projects, with a style so diverse that it can be described as both realistic and abstract. His work draws inspiration from both the natural and odd, expressing form and movement throughout.

Gifford opened Logan Square Tattoo in 2014 after a decade of tattooing experience. His goal is to contribute to the art community by nurturing other tattoo artists, providing a gallery-like space for artists to develop and showcase their craft, and run “the kind of shop I want to work at.” That includes striving to be one of the best tattoo shops in Chicago as well as working with some of the best tattoo artists nearby. Please fill our our booking form for tattoo inquiries with Gifford. He can also be reached directly through his email and Instagram @futureteller

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Gifford got his start tattooing in Milwaukee at the now defunct StarShip Tattoo where he cut his teeth tattooing flash and whatever the people walking in wanted. He quickly developed requests for his custom drawings which were inspired by early biomech tattoo pioneers such as Guy Aitchison and Aaron Cain. With a few years experience in the fundamentals of tattooing he started traveling to San Francisco and Chicago where he was exposed to other industry leaders pushing their own versions of biomech and other large scale illustration tattooing. He eventually settled in Chicago and opened Logan Square Tattoo to create a studio that had the high end tattooing of the custom studios he had worked at with the Accessibility of a walk in tattoo parlor that he got his start at.

Chicago biomechanical tattoo artist Gifford Kasen

Sleeve Tattoos to Full bodysuits

Nationally recognized biomechanical tattoo artist Gifford Kasen at work painting one of his abstract blackwork tattoo designs

What is a biomechanical Tattoo?

When asked to describe his style Gifford Says "while in the past I've used the term biomech, I'm trying to branch away from that because of preconceptions that biomechanical tattoo has to look like an alien or machine. I'd describe my work more as large scale ornamental mixed with an element of scifi. But really I'm interested in almost all subject matter. It doesn't need to be biomechanical or organica, it just needs to look cool and make the person wearing it really proud to have such an elaborate piece. What makes biomechanical so fun as a style is the openness to exploration it enables. So limited it to a certain subject matter feels like the antithesis of what it actually is "

On the design process. What goes into planning abstract and biomechanical sleeves, backpieces and bodysuits?

Gifford starts all his tattoo projects with a consultation to discuss the clients vision, and make sure they are in alignment on what the final tattoo will become.The details of what elements should be in the tattoo are first. Will it be very abstract with large flowy shapes that more flow than form? Or will it have lots of intricate shapes and layers locking into each other like a mechanical alien suit? What are the client’s influences? Are they more scifi rooted or do they come from organic natural forms? Will there be added ornamentation to help tell a narrative story, or is the design vague and left to interpretation or simply an adornment to wear? It’s easy to get carried away with larger pieces, so this is an important step to really pin down the subject matter and make sure the entire project has a unified design language. Context is important, even with abstract tattooing.

Between the consultation and first appointment Gifford may ask the client to think about things like color palettes and other longer term tattoo projects they want to collect. These considerations on the clients behalf can set them up for a strong unified looking tattoo collection as they get further into their tattoo journey.

After the concepts are worked out the placement and anatomy is discussed. Large tattoo work must be designed to fit the body it’s on. Muscle flow, the beginning and ending of limbs, wrapping around a body part to accentuate the design and the wearer. These are all very important considerations and decide whether a great drawing will also make a great tattoo. During the in person or phone consultation Gifford will take or request pictures of the area to be tattooed, existing tattoos, and often a zoomed out shot of the client to get an idea of body shape and how a design will flow with the area to be tattooed.

Now onto the design.

All tattoo’s Gifford does start with a sketch. Sometimes a series of rough thumbnails, sometimes some loose drawings overlaid on a picture of the client's body. If you’ve worked with him you’ve probably seen what is akin to a series of unintelligible scribbles as the foundation of most of his larger concept work. Staying loose, finding rhythms and experimenting with form, quickly and with energy is the foundation to his design process; this helps establish a thoughtful composition early on. The beginning stages are often completed within 5-10 minutes and may involve several dozen quick studies. The refinement stage can take anywhere from 2-30 hours depending on the complexity and study that needs to go into the final concept drawing. This is where all the depth and layering is figured out, making sure the piece reads well as a simplified silhouette as well as with all the complex detail added in.

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How to schedule and plan for larger tattoos with Gifford?

With specialty work like biomech and blackwork tattooing Gifford gets lots of clients who will be committing a significant amount of tie an often traveling for their projects. During the consultation scheduling and timeline will be discussed in order to plan a start date as well as length of time between appointments. Usually Gifford will be able to give a rough session count to complete the project as well as discuss multi-day projects for people who are making a significant journey in order to cut down the number of trips they’ll need to make. Sleeves and backpieces can take anywhere from 4-10 sessions depending on things like detail, size of the person, length of the sessions and pain tolerances. Larger concepts like multi sleeves or bodysuits will be broken up into smaller pieces that can be completed to give a client breaks in between projects if wanted. Gifford’s goal is always to be as efficient as possible and you should expect to see significant progress after each session.

attoo sessions with Gifford typically start at 10 AM in Chicago and go until 3pm for a partial day and 5pm for a full day. If clients are traveling a significant distance an extended full day can be discussed as his schedule permits. Gifford charges by session, not by hour so you will always know what your total will be before your session begins.

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Striving to make the best tattoos

Our team at Logan Square Tattoo is dedicated to creating exceptional tattoo art. Each artist brings a unique style and vision to their work. Currently, our founding artist, Gifford, is focused on developing intricate and bold designs, including sleeve tattoos and full body projects and looking for collaborating collectors and other artists to help push this work. Whether you're looking for biomechanical tattoo, abstract, blackwork or illustrative tattooing, we are here to collaborate with you on bringing your tattoo ideas to life. Please fill out our booking form for tattoo inquiries