Johnny

[Johnny]

Tattooing laws vary from state to state, but most require you to be 18 to tattoo. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start looking at shops and talking to artists though. There may be a loophole that would allow you to work in a shop as an apprentice, but not tattoo people. You have some serious talent, so it shouldn’t take you long to find a willing mentor at a reputable shop. You have enough talent to be picky when it comes to taking an apprenticeship. Talk to many artists, and visit many shops.

[Johnny]

How are the markers? I use prisma coloerd pencils, and have always wanted to know how the markers are, but never enough to drop 250 on them…

[Johnny]

That’s funny… So basically you are proclaiming yourself as a business owning (assuming you mean tattoo shop owning) tattooing professional of 18 years, that “can tattoo with anything”, that also collects tattoo machines (I don’t get why you would “collect” cheap ass machines but okay). And as this professional you refer to yourself as “fubar”. Seems to me like a few of those kind of work against each other in the actual professional tattooing world. I’ve never heard a pro, nor have I ever told anyone I could tattoo with “anything”. Also all of the tattoo shop owners I know don’t need to use a forum to sell things (especially gear, I mean comon). And in reality, most decent tattooers prefer to use atleast decent equipment, not those pieces of shit ur trying to sell (but vehemently defending them as professional machines). To me, you seem like a fake. A fuckin poser really. Good luck selling that crap mane.

[Johnny]

Um ya, your not really fooling anyone about ur shitty machines, or the fact that ur most likely a scratcher using slash playing a shitty guitar as an analogy to a “great tattoo artist using a shitty machine”. Do yÓu think slash plays shitty guitars?? Haha I mean I’m sure he could play a shitty guitar, but I’m also sure he doesn’t. Just as professional tattoo artists don’t use shitty machines. Comon man. Good try though. 50 tattoo machines?? I own like 10 and only five are put together, and I tattoo professionally.

[Johnny]

Yes, depending on the skin complection of the collector (I am assuming every client you ever see will be powder white, but I’m in california and everyone has tans haha) I would blend deeper into the areas that are being lit, to add definition. Even if you are illustrating a white flower you will need to add shadows and definition, or it won’t look right. White tattoo ink is best used in small doses. Since a good majority of people won’t retain white pigment over large areas, and it is affected easily by sunlight its almost always better to use your clients skin tone as a base for larger light areas. For B and G work I would suggest using a fast (not hard) running shader. This will help you blend dark to light transitions easier than a slower color packing machine setup. I know you can draw rather well, and sometimes new artists get consumed with technique and machine tuning and needle depth (which are all important) and they leave their artistic abilities behind for the sake of the technical aspect of tattooing. Just keep doing what you are doing, and try to have some fun with ur practice skins. Keep it up loopi

[Johnny]

That’s not a very good deal for two rather shitty used machines. Give the people an offer they can’t refuse and knock more than $10 off the new price.

[Johnny]

Wow I see some big improvments. Can’t really see the definition of the lines, but the look good from what I can tell. In the skin the large areas you left blank for lighted areas would look funky. Keep working on blending your dark to light transitions. It may be hard in practice skin, but its hard in real skin too. Keep it up!

[Johnny]

Typically, a cracked, scabbed, bleeding tattoo is not a result of not going deep enough and I would hope that someone with very limited tattooing experience would not advise another rookie as such @loopi. I haven’t looked at ur pics because they are too small but either you went too deep, or you overworked the skin. Just from what you are descibing its obvious. Granted not going deep enough will result in a faded end result, but so will going too deep since the scabs that form as a result of exess skin trauma will pull the ink out with them. Also exess bleeding can push ink out since the blood will be coming from under the dermis layer. Your goal should be to not go too deep, not run your machines too hard, and get your work done in a few passes as possible. A properly tuned color machine should give you a pretty solid fill in one pass. SERIOUSLY ONE PASS. If you are tattooing someone and they are bleeding at a faster rate than what appears to be a light sweat, or when you wipe it there is more blood than ink, there is a problem. I have never heard of that brand of ink so I can’t comment on it, but im gonna take an educated guess and say its crappy cause I’m a dick, and I’ve never heard of it. Black ink you can’t go wrong with: dynamic, silverback, kuro sumi, intenze makes a grip of black inks and they are well regarded (the only one I’ve tried personally is zuper black and I liked it). Keep in mind if ur buying ur supplies off ebay, or a site that resembles the wal-mart equivalent of a tattoo supply store, odds are ur gonna get crap. Good places to buy from are king-pin, unimax, technical, tatsoul, eternal tattoo supply, national tattoo supply. Keep doing your homework, quit tattooing humans, start tattooing fake skin, or dead animal skin, or fruits and veggies, try to get a mentor, start replacing pretty much everything you got with your “kit” with better stuff, keep asking questions, be careful who’s advice you take, tear a machine apart and put it back together a million times, practice drawing, keep trying and eventually you will be a tattooer.

[Johnny]

@netrecov. Are you using a flat or a mag? You made references to both, but I’m not sure you know that they are different. Flats are generally used in black and grey work to blend. Mags on the other hand are far more common. If you are chewing up the skin you are either going too deep, or making too many passes over the same area, or running your machine too hard. A color packer needs to be running slow and soft. I typically run about a 4mm gap (or two nickels) on my color machines. Since black ink is typically thinner than most color pigment, you may not need this wide of a gap. Bad hand gesture can also throw a wrench in your tattooing. I see a lot of rookies doing some kind of circular motion, and staying in the skin the entire time they are shading. You should be making small forward passes when working with mags or flats.

[Johnny]

You should put a little flash set together, and put it up for sale on the site mane. I’d buy it and hang it up. I really like some of ur other flash art.

[Johnny]

This is a more common problem with colors, and usually shader needles especially mags, but over time ink will begin to dry in the tube, and inbetween individual needles especially if you don’t dilute at all. Also over time, the blood, and plasma that is coming out of your client will work its way into your tube, and every time you go to the ink cap a small amount will mix with your ink. Eventually you will end up with an ink cap full of blood, plasma, green soap and black ink. Its a good idea to use several small ink caps, rather tham one large one to avoid this. Also do a good rinse every once and a while if you are going to be working a large area.

[Johnny]

Most likely a clip cord issue. Also, if you are working with a machine that connects the top half of your clip cord under the rear spring saddle, sometimes the clip cord can bounce around and make your machine run inconsitantly, especially if your spring deck is only 1/8″ thick (as are most cheap bent frames). I had this happen before. I fixed it by drilling the clip cord hole all the way through my spring saddle.

[Johnny]

I’m sure you can see what needs improving, but not bad for your first one. Don’t challenge yourself too much as far as intricacy of design goes. Keep it sinple and focus on your lines, and color/shading. Keep it up.

[Johnny]

I would like to see, but I can’t because I don’t have facebook… Haha

[Johnny]

Good incorporation of shadows and highlights. Overall nice work for what it is. Light blue adds a nice effect if used properly to illustrate silver, or chrome. I would suggest not to cover up your mistakes with thick lines, especially when you are practicing on melons. Keep practicing one passing your lines. That is an important skill to master. Obviously it is going to be different in the skin, but developing a steady hand is half the battle.

[Author]

Posts