Getting back into it.

[JoeMarino]

Hey everyone here is my story *(short form)

I started out in 1995 scratching in my garage for my punk/skater friends. I used a needle and thread and did it old school. I went into the Navy later that year and started collecting my tats. I met Sailor Joe up in Waukegan Ill (where my A school was). He took me under his wing and started teaching me the basics. I did that for about 6 months then was shipped overseas.

I still had the bug while in the navy but had little cash. In those days all I could find was Huck Spaulding books and kits. I remember the kits cost like $500 in those days and was way outside my E4 income. So I built my own machines out of rotary motors and used pens as tubes. I fell back to my scratching ways and did probably 300 or so tats this way. Got pretty good at the jailhouse style. I then got out of the navy and had govt jobs for many years. Went into Nursing and got my Bach degree. I never forgot my tattooing and never had problems with using needles on patients.

Due to an injury I can no longer do any nursing, so I went back to art school and started mulling over tattooing again. I have been an artist one way or another since I was a kid.

Here are some of my sketches: http://golgofrinchian.deviantart.com/gallery/25435547

I also met an old navy buddy on Facebook that I taught how to scratch back in the day. He went on to apprentice and is now running a very successful studio.

He has agreed to have me be his apprentice and we are going to do this online via Skype video chat so he can watch me and give me tips. Looking forward I see a time where video conferencing with a teacher will be just as accepted as being right there. Most tattooists came from scratching and very few if any admit it. Its refreshing to read that others have the same background.

Thats about it. I did my first pigskin this morning. Ill attach it to this post.

Some notes:
1. Even with a cheapo machine I was more productive than I ever was with the home made machines I made in the past. It was like drawing with a marker vs drawing with a vibrating torture device.
2. The outlining was super easy and the tat looked great when I was done with that part. After shading it didn’t look as good for some reason
3. It was really hard to get right up to the line.
4. Ink splattered every time I dipped it in and gathered more ink
5. Pig skin is super cool to work with. It really does feel like flesh (like my old scratching days). Of course it IS flesh ;)

[Demeer Black]

Nice art Joe…

[JoeMarino]

Thanks!

[Ramenuzumaki]

personally i hate pig skin
your best bet is to put A LOT of ointment on the skin to keep it from splattering
thats one of the biggest problems i found with any time of fake skin
shading techniques are pretty rough but its what i specialize in (B&G, japanese, and traditional)
its all in the wrist, and the technique
youtube helped me out a lot when i started

your sketches are amazing
im sure once your equipment upgrades, and such you’ll do great
be sure you set up an entire room just for tattooing
thatll be your best bet for passing inspections and such

as far as getting up to the line i found leaving the needle poke out a bit so you can see the needle helps me out a bit
that was one of my biggest issues i had when i first started

be safe, and keep it clean

welcome to the forum

[JoeMarino]

Thanks Ramenuzumaki,

I just had another assignment by my mentor and it was just to shade a sphere with a 5flat only. I can do that with my eyes closed with pencil no problem. Even pen I am confident in shading a sphere. Doing it on the pigskin was really trying. First off the greywash didnt work right, the skin of the pig was falling off in chunks (fine if I plan on tattoing zombies but not so good for human analog).

Thank you for the tips and the kind words. I am a fan of negative space as you can tell.

Thanks for the welcome too!

[Ramenuzumaki]

that could be a depth issue
you want to just rub the tip of the needle on the skin
let the machine do all the work
then do a whipping motion with your needle
what this will do is pull the needle out and have less depth as you go through your whipping motion causing a gradient
for a sphere youll want to do it sort of with an arc to it to give it that round effect

as far as your grey washes take a medium ink cup–i use four of em–one with 100% black, one with 50% black, one with 25% black, and one with like four drops of back
if you have witch hazel put a few drops of that in
if not just fill the rest of the cup with distilled water :)

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