Archive for February, 2008

A rose by any other name

1 comment February 18th, 2008

This girl is an aspiring tattoo artist. She drew up her design and instead of having her normal artist do it she had a woman tattoo it that is a beginner. She thought the woman was decent from her portfolio and she said she had been doing it for three years. That’s enough time where you should be semi-decent to do a design as straight forward as this one.
rose flash

When getting the tattoo the woman blurts out this is her first tattoo done on someone other then her husband. I don’t think that just because you started tattooing your husband three years ago gives you the right to say you have been doing it for three years unless it’s a steady flow of clients other then your dearly beloved. I’m not trying to bash her because everyone has to start somewhere but it’s your duty to tell people your skill level and experience and not to do tattoos you aren’t confident with yet.

The girl lost the stencil from wiping and instead of having it next to her the whole time she decided to make it up on the fly while she went to town.

The girl took over two hours to do a shaky outline that had alot of peel outs. She said she would finish it another time. She got home and tried to fix it on herself but working on yourself is hard to do so she set the lines in as best she could then left it to see if she could get it fixed.

rose before

She went to her normal artist for a session on a back piece he is doing on her. She showed him what she got and of cousre he was less then happy about it and told her it was ruined and could not be fixed. He told her the only way to fix it was to cover it with a koi. I’m going by hearsay and wasn’t there so this is what she said.

I don’t know if he was just angry or fishing for money because something like this is and was easy enough to fix. I saw his work on her back and it was very good so it’s not like he didn’t have talent. He mad her feel like crap about it and told her he was going to right something above it sho she would remember it.

So she didn’t bring it up again. She is on the forum I am and asked what could cover it. I piped up I could fix it next time she was in the city. Her and her husband drove 2 hours form Sacramento to come get it fixed on their monthly outing from the sac area.
rose fix

I did my best to fix it and make it look as close as possible without making things worse she was happy and that’s all that matters

portrait tattoos

Add comment February 13th, 2008

Portrait tattoos are some of the hardest tattoos to get right. Any body can do them but few can do them right. In tattooing you can learn all of the technical stuff you want and put in a line as good as anybody. Once you have reached as far you can get technically that’s when artistic ability takes over.

I don’t consider myself an artist but someone who does art; be it drawing, painting or tattoos. Every day you are learning and every tattoo is different, the materials are the same but the canvas is always different. I’ve just got back into tattooing portraits. I stayed away form them for years because some of the past people I tattooed abused them and I was tired of having them destroy good ink. Now believe it or not I get a better quality of clientele working from home then what I got from when I was in a shop.

The people I deal with are tired of the run around with over priced under skilled locals and when they come to me they know what they want and are for sure not going to abuse their ink. So now I’m getting back into doing as many portraits as I can and will be adding them to my portfolio as they come down the pipe.

portrait

*Update Feb-15-2008

So I posted the portrait photo and got feedback that the face of the portrait is too stretched but people think you are making excuses when you explain teh photo was taken while his arm was slightly twisted so the client took a photo the same day with his I-phone with a better angle showing that the face was done correctly. I just don’t like to post photos of peopll’s children on the net for obvious reasons.
portrait

Bio-Mech

Add comment February 4th, 2008

This is the first stage in a full color bio-mech tattoo. I first drew it on by hand then outlined it . I sculpted the lines giving it a thick and thin feel. I then layed in the darkext blacks. Next will be to start teh color fill and blending.
bio_arm3
bio_arm2
bio_arm1
tattoo concept

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