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Wow… when a door opens it opens WIDE.
I am officially a Tattoo Apprentice!!!!
Wasn’t looking for it, it just kinda fell into my lap. I now officially believe in FATE… As many of you know there wasn’t much more I could accomplish on practice skin or melons, so I bloodlined myself. 4 days later I meet an award winning tattoo artist and I am now his loyal apprentice (and NO this is not a “shop janitor” type apprenticeship)!
Keep at it EVERYONE… if it is meant to happen, it will happen when it is meant to!
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Wow sorry for the delay in updating… been a CRAZY month with the apprenticeship. TONS of drawing!!!
The first phase of training – my mentor supplied me with 50 images – not really flash images, but images he pulled from the internet of every different style tattoo (asian dragons & masks, flowers of all kinds, old school traditional, new skool, day of the dead faces, etc.). The objective is to sketch them and then finish them as if you were tattooing them (ink with marker, shade and color with colored pencil) to the size of body part you imagine them going on (like a rose would be for a shoulder of a woman, and a koi would be half-sleeve on a guy)… basically training you to redraw as close as possible to the original that a customer might bring in as a reference.
Phase 2… tracing newspaper ads using a running tattoo machine equipped with a 9RL. Seemed odd to me at first till I realized that this was practice for needle depth and consistency. The key is only puncture 1.5 pieces of newsprint (2 at the most). I liked doing the supermarket ads the best, tracing grapes and apples gave me extra practice on curves, and of course they always have bold lettering for whats on sale and even some script.
Phase 3… Practice skin. Of course if you remember my older posts I hated practice skin, well times have changed and I think it is because of the newspaper training. I actually think I was hitting the practice skin too deep and thats why I hated it. Now I’m gliding clean 1 pass lines like a pro (will post a photo later).
I am quickly learning that technique/technical skills on the basics is DEFINITELY the key to producing a good tattoo. Being a good artist with no sound basic technical application can only get you so far… and being a good technical tattooer with no art skills is only gonna get you as far as your kitchen or a street shop if your lucky.
Till next time, keep your needles sharp!
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Great going man, keep at it. Also, even though it does sound like you hit on an actual mentor, you may want to consider advising him that you are on a kind of learn for yourself forum and maybe even invite him to view it if he cares. Reason I say this is because a mentor does actually like to know where you are getting any other info that you are getting so that they can better advise you if you run into not so sound advice. When pros do take on apprentices there are reasons for almost everything we do, some of what we do is just our oddity in action. :lol: Mind that this is just a suggestion in keeping 100% with a person teaching you this tradition. I know I’d want it from my padawan.. :geek:
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@Spider wrote:
Great going man, keep at it. Also, even though it does sound like you hit on an actual mentor, you may want to consider advising him that you are on a kind of learn for yourself forum and maybe even invite him to view it if he cares. Reason I say this is because a mentor does actually like to know where you are getting any other info that you are getting so that they can better advise you if you run into not so sound advice. When pros do take on apprentices there are reasons for almost everything we do, some of what we do is just our oddity in action. :lol: Mind that this is just a suggestion in keeping 100% with a person teaching you this tradition. I know I’d want it from my padawan.. :geek:
+1 for padawan reference
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bwuahahaha, Just got this guy for shop decoration….https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=553789151343272&l=c8a9097815
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No worries, my mentor is well aware I have been researching for years and that I have my own machines and have “played around” with them off and on for a few years. The knowledge that I have picked up over the years of reading books, blogs, etc. is actually a plus, as I can have a technical based conversation with him and he sees that I understand terminology, processes and procedures which lets him move at a more natural pace when teaching me something. That previous knowledge also allows me to ask the right questions, phrased properly when needed. I guess my saving grace in all this is that I never actually tried to ink someone, so he doesn’t look at me as a scratcher with potential bad habits that need breaking, but instead as someone with a serious interest in the art form (not the money), a true desire to learn, and who respects the apprenticeship tradition.
I absolutely agree… Being 100% upfront is key to building a trusting relationship with ones mentor. When I first met with my mentor I told him “I know ABOUT and UNDERSTAND tattooing, but I don’t know HOW TO tattoo”.
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Oh yippee… I’ve moved on to fake skin… you all know how much I hated fake skin in the past. Yeah it still SUCKS, but I did find a little trick. Black lining ink is no problem, it is thin enough to sink in to the shitty piece of rubber – and here lies the key to color, color inks are TOO THICK for practice skin. Water it down and it works great… you will need to find the ratio that works for the brand of ink you are using (Eternal seems to be 60/40), yes you can use tap water since you aren’t going into someones skin.
http://s1274.photobucket.com/user/f3greg/media/inprogress_zpsae03154f.jpg.html
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@Infamous wrote:
You can use tap water, but you should get in the habit of acting like the skin your practicing on is a real client. So I’d recommend using distilled anyways.
Of course in the shop I did use distilled water… Point I was trying to make is: for people struggling at home at 3am when there is no distilled water available, they shouldn’t stress cuz they don’t have distilled water… regular water won’t hurt their machine or rubber fake skin. But yes… if you GOT IT – USE DISTILLED.
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I would still feel wary of using well water, the thing of it is that you never know IF anything has gotten into your water source. While this may not affect it’s ability to be drank, not so sure about inserting it into the skin, even in small amounts. At the very least I (personally) would have a stock of boiled water separate for ink use at all times.
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