Last night I put down the base layer for the tattoos on the ettin. The large arm seems to be the natural home for them. I did consider adding some elsewhere, but thought against it in the end as it would start to draw attention away from the arm. Rather than painting one of two massive tattoos, I wanted to use the large space to apply a sleeve of sorts. I mixed the blue with the base flesh tone for the first layer, I'll add more blue once the glazes are on.
With a model of this size, I have to change my techniques a bit to account for scale. A wash and layer isn't going to work for this lad. The texture on the skin is incredible, and to make the most of it I think a series of washes and glazes is the way to go. I've been reading up on some techniques using only a light base colour (even white) and shading entirely with washes/glazes, especially on models with lots of detail or heavy texture like this fellow. When using the glazes, I won't simply wash the entire model. I'll probably mix medium into them for the more general glazes, and then apply the heavier glazes to recesses. Adding purple, yellow or darker browns to feet, hands, eyes and the mouth. I'll do a couple of tests and then onto the ettin.