Spider

[Spider]

In time you will find set-ups and adjustments that work for you, do not be afraid to try new things and pay attention to how it works or doesn’t work for you.
The image attached I tried a new technique for me running my liner at about 7+ and using only a 9 mag with a 7rl for details and highlights. I found that this piece on a whole took me less time running that way than normally. Now when I am running hair or something similar I run a 9mag and it works for me. So don’t be afraid of new things…

[Spider]

Always remember, NEVER be in a hurry. Slow down, take your time.

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Thought I would share this from Bob Baxter. For the newbies it might give a little insight into why shops are so hard to get into, and why artists prefer to see either A: you work your a** to the bone every single day, or B; pay for your apprenticeship. Read on…..(and yes this is far more the normal than the exception unfortunately),
The tattoo world has changed considerably over the last ten years, and even more during the last twenty. What was an aberration a couple of decades ago is getting to be commonplace today. Take for example the news that tattooist Leo Zulueta had driven past his SoCal tattoo shop, Black Wave, on South La Brea after hours, to see if one of his staffers was using the shop to work on customers without letting anyone know. In other words, taking the money and not giving the shop its cut. When you’re trying to maintain a successful business, it makes it all the harder when underlings are taking the proceeds behind your back. I recall the scuttlebutt as to whether Leo was being a responsible shop owner or simply a tad paranoid. Turns out, he was doing the right thing: protecting his interests and being a responsible businessman. At that time, tattoo employees taking things behind the boss’s back was unthinkable, as tattoo artists at the time (two decades ago) considered themselves members of one big family. As the Musketeers so bravely shouted: “One for all, all for one.”
A roll of paper towels here, a pack of needles there, shops with employees in any business are known to cushion their paychecks by jobbing everything from paper clips to table lamps… and not asking first. Yes, finding dedicated employees who are one hundred percent honest and work as a team is perhaps the most difficult part of operating a business. The fact is (according to a new University of Cincinnati survey), sixty-four percent of the small businesses surveyed experienced employee theft, but reported it only sixteen percent of the time. And why do employers let it slide? It seems other factors such as emotional ties to the employees and the difficulty of finding people who show up on time or have an appropriate skill level is not only challenging but, in some areas of the country, downright impossible.
And if it isn’t paper clips or a jug of green soap, it’s knowledge: the education and hands-on training a newbie artist receives from a boss and other experienced members of the team. It’s not unheard of for second or third-tier tattooists to suddenly gather everything they can from an established shop, including its clients and reputation, and take it with them out the door and down the block. One artist I talked to entered his shop one morning and found that an aspiring young artist, who had worked by his side for ten months, had packed up, cleaned out his drawer and left a Post-it note on his empty barber chair, with the short but stinging message: “Bye.” This mutineer sought greener pastures, opening his own storefront a scant five blocks away.
While finding and hiring support staff can be challenging, especially in situations where the talent pool is limited, communication is sometimes even more difficult. What is protocol when an artist wants to move on and have his or her own tattoo shop? Back three decades ago, when an employee wanted to strike out, they made sure it was geographically respectful. Case in point, Good Time Charlie Cartwright opened his shop, End of the Trail Tattoo, in remote Modesto, California, so as not to bump elbows with established shops in the City by the Bay, some ninety-two miles away. Nowadays you hear of shops opening ninety-two seconds away, down the street and around the corner.
Some of these shops make it—after all, they keep the same customers they gathered at their previous location—and others soon discover that there’s more to owning a tattoo shop than drawing pictures on people’s skins; responsibilities such as buying an autoclave or keeping an adequate stock of paper towels. This can be especially disruptive when one has to pay for it themselves. After all, taking something that belongs to you isn’t as cost effective as swiping it from someone you work for.
—Bob Baxter

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Been gone for a minute, but no disrespect taken at all. The whole point of posting here is to help others. I tell peeps I have worked with, there are 10,000 ways to do a succesul tattoo, there is only one way to do a horrible tattoo; fuck it up.

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So, I have been gone for a minute, getting back now. Had my plans destroyed by local assholes that made promises then didn’t keep them and I screwed up by not having a back up plan in place, regardless, wanted to throw this in real quick, it’s not just business and talent that runs a shop, it is experience as well. I found a guy that is self taught, as in has never done an apprenticeship, never worked in a shop before mine, and is a good artist. Has a real knack for black and grey realism and since that is basically ONLY what he is good at that is mostly ONLY the kind of tattoo work he does. NOW, after 6 months working in my shop, things go very bad between myself and my landlord, I get locked out and am now in a civil battle with the jerk. Long loooong story. Well this guy who has a full 6 months actually working in the tattoo industry got an offer to rent out a very nice space in a decent and possible prime location, and he took it. 6 months in and he feels that he has learned everything there is to learn about running a shop and hiring new artists, dealing with issues, and artists and customers and so on….So the moral of this story is that in my 11 years in this industry I STILL know that I don’t have all the skills necessary to deal with everything, but i do know how to hire, deal with issues, set up for conventions and so on. Running a tattoo shop is NOT as easy as it looks, especially if you are a working artist. I have seen many many shops open close open close due to inexperience and new comers thinking they know what needs to be done. Take your time and avoid the failures peeps, because in this case failures mean hits against your reputation and reputation is EVERYTHING in this business…Catch ya later.

[Spider]

ok, so it’s been a minute since I’ve even had time to be on the forum, let alone anything else. While this is coming to the end of off season for us shops, I personally have been very busy with some cool stuff out my way. But regardless, recent events have prompted me to share yet again.
Let me start off by saying to all you who have even thought about chasing down an apprenticeship, I have just (in November) acquired me an very nice lexus es 300 auto that cost me nothing due to a F***tard wanna be apprentice who thought that this industry was all rockstar and party. Sounds unfair……..read on.
I have been in this industry for 11 years now, and while I am not even close to even thinking of considering myself to be even close to top notch I can hold my own in ink.I can honestly say that I DO NOT LIKE APPRENTICES! in the last 2 years I have had 3. all of which i kinda felt a little sorry for, all of which has failed. But I feel that I have a responsibility insofar that our trade is a learned one, we pass on what we know from one to the next to the next and so on, and because of that I have inherited a certain responsibility whether I like it or not.
My last adventure is for you, YES YOU!!!! who bitch and moan about how hard it is to get into this industry and then proceed to F**k off the chance you are given. I had a guy in oct this year (2013) come to me, beg friends we both know, and pester the hell out of me to give him a chance, after 2 NO effin WAY’s a buddy calls me and says “he’s a good guy give him a shot” so I did. I only charged him 2700 usd for 2 years, 1400usd a year. figured if he was serious then that money would be used to get him his starter stuff and set him up. Offered him a 5 year deal, 2 years apprenticing 3 years working exclusively for my shop. Well he didn’t have the cash and so offered me a 1994 Lexus ES300 he was trying to sell for 2000 usd. I was in need of another car and so I agreed. Here’s the skinny, if he failed because of me, my attitude, me making it way too hard, and so on, he was to get the remaining balance of the price of the car minus $100 per month he spent here. IF he failed because of his own stupid A** he gets SH**!…….
After almost 2 months of me and my other 2 artists giving him lessons, teaching him drawing skills, sanitation stuff, day to day tattoo shop operations, he fails! Starts to pull no call no show at the shop, the last straw (to make a long story short) was 4 days no call no show in which my other 2 artist are irate, I finally call him and get nothing. Needless to say he was fired! And he lost his car which is now totally in my name and owned outright. Basically this idiot gave up a Lexus for 2 months of learning. He got the short end….
Now some of you may say this is unfair, but is it. Combined he was in a shop that can boast almost 25 total years experience in the tattoo industry, guys that have portrait experience, old school, 3d realism, fine line art, 2 BA’s 4 AA’s in fine art nd many many hours behind the machines. In a shop that is gaining an ever solid rep as being clean and sterile and friendly. And he just dropped off and started working out of his trailer, again. He was given the chance to grow and learn…..huh.
Bottom line is this, apprenticeships are HARD! Simply put, IF you manage to find a shop to take you, never ever take it for granted or slack off, those 2 years will be the most grueling, hardest, most unrewarding years of your life…….It’s the after that you are after, never ever forget that….Never. This guy forgot, lost a car, lost much respect, and will never ever again be allowed into my shop(s)n or be taught by any of my other artist, bridges burned….Take heed and learn, you have to put forth 500% effort when a shop takes you, or you WILL fail, and if ur lucky it will only cost you some dignity, for some a nice car or large chunk of change. Peace…..Spider

[Spider]

While there is a valid argument about the quality of the equipment used, there is also a valuable old saying that a poor craftsman will blame their tools for poor quality. This does translate into tattooing as well. Now you can go out and buy a 400-700 machine, 300 power supply, the best cords and switch and so on…but if your quality is poor it won’t matter. Right now I am using a set of Cam machines personally at the shop, great coils, good throw, excellent weight. And none of my machines run over 100 a piece. My power supply is a effective eyepower small unit and runs like a champ. My point is that while you can be the mechanic that swears by craftsman tools, you don’t necessarily have to be. The biggest thing to remember is the build of the machine, capacitors, coils and whether they are actual copper or not, lead free solder, good magnetics and so on. Research these things as they are integral parts of your equipment, get to know what you NEED to have a decent machine and you can buy the pieces separately and build your own to your liking and have it run perfect for you. Always keep in mind that knowing not only how to build, but how to repair your equipment Should be an essential part of being a tattoo artist and not just just a tattooist.

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I’d have to say a blend of shading and also highlights.

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@Lennart82 wrote:

And only disposable tubes and needles.

I have tried the disposables and hate them, I have noticed that with the weight of the frames that I use ( i prefer heavier machines) that in some cases I would get a slight bend in the plastic tube stem, what this did was increase the tension on my needle bar making me have toi readjust or turn up the volts on my PS, I have instead gone to a totally dry clave system and gotten rid of steam. Why a dry-clave, because instead of the standard 121 degree Celsius at 12-17% pressure I can now run my tubes at 176.6 Celsius for 15 minutes ( and in fact we run them for 30 -45 minutes depending on the amount of tubes ran at the time) and achieve sterilization. And at that temperature if anything is still alive then we aren’t going to kill it, plain and simple.

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This is posted on our blog for the shop, I will repost here.:
“The use of plastic wrap to cover fresh tattoos may have gotten it’s start at biker events. I can remember first seeing it used in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. Newly tattooed people were peeling off their bandages to show their bro’s their new ink and untrained tattooers came up with the ‘see through’ idea of plastic wrap. No need to peel that bandage back anymore. Blood wasn’t much of an issue in those days. Unfortunately some of our uneducated brethren have failed to see the dangers today and have continued this error-filled practice.What’s the Problem?The problem is that plastic wrap creates an occlusive seal meaning that no air gets in and no air gets out. This keeps all of the body fluids pooling on the skin surface. That surface builds up body temperatures to nearly 103 degrees which is a perfect breeding ground for bacteria. Your new tattoo has just been turned into a petri-dish for bacterial growth. Nice, huh?
That pooling of body fluids–all liquids must go somewhere and that is to the bottom of the plastic wrap. Body fluids leak out and run down the body where people will brush against other people or surfaces thus creating a multi-contaminated field. And putting a piece of paper towel at the bottom does nothing to stop the oozing and temperature buildup.
Care to Rub on Someone’s Body Fluids?I recently visited a neighboring studio and witnessed a plastic wrapped client sitting in their waiting room with body fluids running down his arm into the fabric sofa. Talk about a contaminated field! Ugh! If such an unfortunate individual enters our studio we ask them politely to leave, as we don’t want their body fluids on our chairs, racks, counters or floors. I also give them a copy of this article to take back to the tattooers who obviously aren’t educated in blood borne pathogens.
It’s Not Only Gross, It May be Illegal. Most state tattoo regulations such as ours here in Hawaii specifically state the appropriate type of dressing to use. Hawaii Department of Health Regulation 11-17-10-H “the entire area covered with a piece of sterile dressing and secured with proper adhesive”. It’s even one of the questions on our tattoo licensing test!
Not only is the use of plastic wrap illegal in most regulated states but it is a cheap insult to a client who deserves a better start with their new tattoo. What price is proper bandaging? How do you put a dollar sign on contamination prevention?
Use of plastic wrap is forbidden in many quality tattoo conventions. National Tattoo Association and the Alliance of Professional Tattooists have outlawed its use in their shows. It’s time that all convention promoters educate themselves and make this ban an industry-wide policy.
Protect YourselfBefore you, as a client, get your next tattoo, observe the practices in your chosen studio. If plastic wrap bandaging is one of them, seek another tattooer who cares to educate themselves on proper procedure. Think – if they don’t have bandaging correct, what other errors in procedure are they committing?
Peggy Sucher Skin Deep Tattoo Waikiki Security Director, National Tattoo Assn Member, Alliance of Professional Tattooists”…….
Hope this helps.
Personally I do not wrap a fresh piece unless requested, I advise to begin aftercare immediately and send them off with a slightly moistened paper towel with a bit of green soap on it and some of our in house aftercare oil, (yes we make our own), and aftercare instructions. We also have a very long and extensive aftercare blog on not just what we recommend but a few different aftercare methods and even aftercare on piercings (which we do not offer at this shop).

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Well glad it worked out for you. On taking trades for tattoos, it’s not as uncommon as you may think. I will take trade items that I can either resell or use, I have traded services for ink, once instance is when I was building the shop I needed some electrical and plumbing work done, I traded a guy that wanted some work done for the services. What is essentially a 400 dollar piece was traded out for professional (not just some guy that says he can do it but someone who actually does it for a living) work. Bartering in our industry can come in very useful for us at times. I am right now working on a trade for some extensive ink work for a vehicle, We both win in this. Essentially it’s the same process as buying something that you need, since if you had to do the ink for cash and then go out and buy the item you are doing the same thing by taking a trade for the work for the item or service. Now while this may not work for something like groceries or paying your electric bill, it does work for some other services. To date the largest trade I did was to an electrical engineer for him to goto my home and rewire my entire heating and cooling system in exchange for a half sleeve in full color. He got the tattoo he wanted and I got my heating and air conditioning fixed.

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doesn’t affect me at all, said what I had to say. Moving on because picking a fight with a coward and a loser is just no fun at all really.

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Ah but Roy, people cannot show what they do not have! :lol: :lol:

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Keep in mind, that there are those who choose to associate with this industry who epitomize the horrible attitudes that so many people complain about, the trash talking keyboard warriors with pissy attitudes. Take the way they are as a way to NOT be in this industry and you’ll have a good start at something.

[Spider]

ok, HOLY HELL!!!! Is all I can think to say…..Let’s do the basics peeps.

Inside of plastic wrap the skin reaches temps of 103 degrees! 103!!!!! That’s higher than a dangerous temperature. Common mold grows at appx 77 degrees, fungus can thrive at 75 degrees! And let’s not forget everyone’s favorite STAPH INFECTIONS!!!!!! OI….. ok so here’s the skinny peeps. Plastic wrap is a no no.. BIG NO NO!!!!!!! B I G!…. The APT has banned it for pete’s sake! BANNED!

Ok so here is what I tell newbies that have come to me;

a. if your client is bleeding like they just came from surgery mid cut, YOU ARE TEARING UP THE SKIN!

b. if the new piece is doing anything other than some light plasma oozing, YOU ARE TEARING UP THE SKIN!

c. if a scab appears in the next few days, YOU TORE UP THE SKIN!

Lesson, this is NOT a piece of wood in which sanding it down to the core is a way to do anything. You CAN get a good piece without the bleeding, scabbing and excessive oozing. You can believe me you really can…..

An effective after procedure wrap is simple non-stick gauze, meat packs, or simply nothing at all and advise to start taking care of it NOW! Ok said my peace, I’m out, night folks.

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