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Call me an old man, but I have been playing miniatures games since mid-90s. I was there when Horus Lupercal betrayed the Emperor… wait, I mean – I was there on day one, when Mordheim hit the stores. And oh boy, what a time that was! A group of youths kitbashing, converting, painting their first warbands to clash on a set of makeshift ruins spread on top of a thick cloth. The year of our lord 1999 marked my first encounter with Mordheim – a game that I fell in love with… instantly and permanently.
As the time passed I grew invested in both the game and the lively Polish community. The personal collection and the number of battle earned honors grew, just like my skill as a hobbyist. Throughout the years I tried many warbands the core Mordheim had to offer and beyond, but I always gravitated back to my favorites: the Undead.
The local Mordheim fever continued and reached it’s peak in year 2002. At that point I was knee-deep in the game and enthralled by it’s amazing setting. Around the same time I made a decision to get a Mordheim inspired tattoo done. With limited funds I had to settle on a single piece rather than the whole hand, the latter being shelved for the foreseeable future…
The story behind this magnificent piece is as follows: A friend of mine arranged a session at a local in-house ‘artist’ on the other side of town. A shady neighborhood, large concrete blocks, the apartment front doors had a hole through which a pitbull barked… Inside and old man in a rocking chair across a grainy screen, the other room almost empty except for a bed, a single chair, a tape recorder with a box of tapes… that and half a dozen hooligans, all tattooed from head to toe, some had damaged jaws and noses, all ‘comfortably’ spread across a small room. The chair was for me – I sat down and got my first tattoo done with a hand made tattoo machine and the ink taken out of a bunch of pens. I paid 150pln (like 35€). In the end I emerged proud of the awesome tattoo and with a story to share…
Approximately ten years later, in the year of 2013/14 I was a working man. Still Mordheiming the hell out of the game. Over a decade of hobby experience and increased funds had transformed my collection exponentially.
It was at that point in time when an opportunity presented itself for me to continue the full-arm Mordheim tattoo project. A friend of mine was a beginner tattoo artist. We had a talk, resulting in an entire evening spent drinking whiskey and getting the ‘permanent sticker’ done. The result – a labor of love – this beauty, combining the themes and motives from a few carefully selected images from the Mordheim core rulebook. A tip of the hat to the artist.
By the blessing and a curse, I had so much projects at the time, I couldn’t afford to stop working on the miniatures. Because of all the usual discomfort after getting a tattoo I decided to put the project on hold, for what turned out to be more than a decade. In the meantime I left my regular job, begun painting miniatures full time – loads and loads of miniatures! Being an utter workaholic I struggled to find free time to drop everything and get the art piece done…
I still played Mordheim though. A campaign here, a fun hobby project there… I started making a brand new board with high end detailed scenery pieces. The game lived in my mind and heart… I even ran a Mordheim Blog at some point. Things happened in the background, even though my hobby priorities laid elsewhere.
It is now the year of our lord 2025 and I am an ‘old’ man, a father and an accomplished full time hobbyist. The workload is huge, thus I tapped into extreme workaholism and diligently cleared the schedule ahead of time. The stars finally aligned and I found myself in a certain point in time when I can afford a professional full arm tattoo from an accomplished artist. Hell be damned – I am getting the long overdue tattoo done!
The project got divided between six full-day sessions, spread across three pairs of consecutive days throughout a month. Each session started with prints of the separate tattoo elements being resized and fit into the chosen areas, then stencils being drawn by hand. Armed with audiobooks uploaded to my phone and a set of self-prepared, protein rich meals – I simply endured the attention of Ryba, a highly skilled tattoo artist from Drakkar Painting Studio…
At last the glorious day came. Eleven hours – a beast of a tattoo session, the final one. The results (a bloated arm included) you can see below. “No pain, no gain.”
With this hand blessed by the deities of the Old World, never again will I ever loose a roll-off. Time to get back to painting miniatures and getting some games in! Cheers!
I hope you find this article interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below, or at Facebook or Instagram. If, by any chance, you are looking for a professional miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
