This is brilliant! This kind of stialized realism is very appealing. Even without a backdrop it sets a mood. I know you said you weren't comfortable revealing any of the story but the one thing holding this back is a lack of scenery. Even a pattern that fits the mood or leans toward the mood intended would really make this pop.

Goddamn awesome. I love the tat.

The lighting is really good, like Mrlol said it almost looks like a photo at a glance, but her head and hand look pretty disproportionately large. It might just be the head, actually I think it's size is making the hand look funny by relative size.

I swear at first I thought this was a photo Great job man :)