Very personal tattoo commission

so sorry man, but so much love for the relationship you had with your brother. I'm 8 years in difference from mine and haven't been able to bridge the gap since my 20's. Huge respect for everything you are doing and have let us know about.

I am so sorry for your loss. I only just now saw this thread after a random check of the old site and thinking, man I sure hope he realizes we all moved and aren't just ignoring him.

I have no ink, and have no help to offer in that regard, but angels are a fascination of mine (zero belief that they exist, but is still fun to ponder in the way Zeus and Odin, etc. are) and some of my favorite artwork is of angels. A google search will obviously get you a lot of results, but I wanted to link one in particular that I absolutely love that might (or might not) be a little bit more in the style you are looking for, and probably wouldn't come up in a search. You could use it as a baseline with some modifications fairly easily I feel, if it resonates at all with you. It is a representation of the second angel of Revelations pouring out its bowl into the sea and turning it to blood, which obviously isn't what you want, but I love the representation of the angel itself with the flowing lines and wings, and in particular the "halo" not being a traditional halo. It also has the added benefit of the wings being upturned instead of spread wide, which would allow the angel and your brother to be larger on your back because the wings aren't stretched all the way from one side to the other.

In my mind just taking out the sea and the bowl and then lightening or removing the background would give the perfect image for adding your brother into her arms. Tilt her head up if that is your desire, but someone could virtually almost copy this, if it were for me at least.

Again, I'm very sorry for your loss, and I hope that this helps you get closer to the end result you desire. I cannot imagine, and have said many times in my real life that I don't want to have to go through it ever. I'd rather everyone in my family outlive me, and I go first. We're all here for you, whatever you need.

Sorry for your loss, man. To share a perspective and experience we lost my younger brother two Christmases ago to heart failure. He was 30 and died suddenly in his sleep. The autopsy showed his heart was 2x enlarged and had severe calcification, no one had any idea. I can still remember hearing my mom's screams on the other end of the phone when her husband called us at 5am, then me having to call my dad, wake him up, and tell him the news. Followed shortly by my collapsing and sleeping for a few hours, lol.

Anyways, I don't know your relationship with the rest of your family, but it almost destroyed my mom. It has taken her almost this whole time to become functional. It has redefined our relationship, some good ways, some not so good, but that's a longer story. Led to me quitting my career to focus on family and personal recovery, and has helped me open up and get in touch with things I had never developed. It hits from a ton of different angles, and maybe not even simply grief over the loss. Hell, two years later and I still have to remind myself he's dead sometimes. Like I'll just think, "Hey I need to text Matt and see if he saw that movie."

Your gesture is pretty awesome and hope you find the right design. And again, sorry you are going through with this. It sucks.