Tattoo

I have been asked to design a tattoo. This might be difficult as it is more realistic. It also has to cover an existing tattoo and create part of a half sleeve. The theme is spartans featuring King Leonidas in his helmet.
This is how i started off, then the bottom left corner came second and we both preferred this close up idea.

So i  created this, i started to think more about the background too as it is creating a sleeve this will help with the wraparound.

This shield would be wrapped around the arm 

connecting to leonidus from the previous image.

The client really likes this and he gave me feedback while drawing it. however now i need to think logistically about how this wraps around the arm and more importantly how we are going to cover this existing tattoo. I think there needs to be something with  a lot of lines over this as a block colour might show this through.