The only tattoo I have that has a significant meaning to me is the one for my father on my chest. Everything else? Thought it would look badass. The zombie on my ribs a few pages back? It was a belt buckle that I thought would look good as a tattoo. I don't regret any of the tattoos I have and sometimes use them to judge how cool a girl is personally. Do they get real close and say "awesome"? Or do they plaster a "what the fuck" all over their face and shy away. 9 times out of 10 the girl who leans in and digs my tattoos are usually the cooler more down to earth girls that I am attracted to anyway. I don't bother myself with people who can't look deeper then the ink on my skin. If I live to be 80 and the only thing I have to worry about is how my awesome zombie tattoo now looks like the BP oil spill then I'll consider myself really fucking lucky. More then likely I'll be worried about breaking my hip in my sit down shower or why my bowel movement hasn't happened by 7:45am after my morning fiber. I'll be finishing my chest on the 25th of this month. I told my artist a general idea (the good and bad that people are capable of) and told him to go crazy with it. If you live your life thinking about what your life is going to be like in 30 years then I feel really sorry for you.
A couple days old, still raw and freshly washed. Forgive the shitty quality camera phone pic. Still not finished, either. Have a couple small things to add (he partially stenciled what's next near the shoulders [not full angels wings]). Thinking about adding a fallen sword, but don't want him misinterpreted as St. Michael. It's intensely personal, so I'm a little hesitant to explain it, don't want to get too melodramatic on you all. But basically it's a good soul (was angelic as we all were at some point, but NOT a demon) that is simply in pain from what he's experienced and done, struggling to control his anger. I can relate. Fuck. That sounded dangerously emo. Bonus points to those who can place the artwork I was partially inspired by.
Huge FAIL. <a class="postlink" href="http://theurbandaily.com/gossip-news/pharoh-martin-2/fail-somebody-gets-antoine-dodson-tattoo/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://theurbandaily.com/gossip-news/ph ... on-tattoo/</a>
Every time I see a white, frat-type guy with a tribal tattoo I feel obligated to ask him what tribe he belongs to. Any one else get that inclination?
Alright, so I've got some ideas floating around for a new tat and I wanted to get some feedback and decide if it's actually feasible. I really love Greek pottery, history, literature, etc, but in particular I'm thinking about black-figure pottery and whether or not I'd be able to pull off a tattoo based on a black-figure scene. I was thinking the bicep is probably the ideal place for this; put in some geometric borders to delineate top/bottom with a scene in the middle. I thought bicep for this because I'd want it to be a wrap-around scene like on an actual pot. You can get much more detail in red-figure pottery but I feel like that would be a lot more diffiult to pull off since it's usually set against a dark background. I don't really have a particular scene in mind yet; book 22 of the Odyssey and the death of Laocoon are some that pop into my head. For reference, this is what black-figure pottery looks like. Do y'all think it's possible? I think it would look cool as shit and I've never seen anything like it before (I'm big on originality), but I could see some problems arising in accurately rendering the figures on your skin in the kind of detail that would do it justice. There's also a much smaller margin for error on this one because it would be very visible.
This artist is a way better man than I am..After the 2nd or 3rd scream, Id have kicked this hillbilly out of my shop <a class="postlink" href="http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81115548/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81115548/</a>
I think so, mind you, I'm not a tattoo artist. I've seen some fairly detailed artwork, you can look around, there's tonnes of it. I would really recommend doing a lot of research into tattoo artists in your area (might have to go out of your area for something like that). As for accuracy, that's where the research comes in - a good artist can do almost anything within reason - talk with them and see what they would recommend. Personally, I think it's a fucking cool concept to go with and will look fucking rad when finished. I guess the biggest issue would be the detail in the capes. There is a point where having too much detail will just end up making things worse - tattoo ink bleeds and blurs over times, something with too much detail will just end up looking like a smudge after twenty or thirty years.
You're aided by the fact that the pot is already round, sort of like your arm. One of the issues with transferring an image from paper to ink is that your skin is contoured while the paper is flat. To a certain degree, you have avoided this problem by taking an image off a 3D object. I second Primer's point, and I'll add this: find a guy who specializes in black and white. That image has no colour, so you're best to focus on an artist who does lots of monochrome and geometric images. This may mean you have to travel to get inked. Oh, and if the guy can tattoo you tomorrow then walk away. Good pros are busy and booked for months - if not years - in advance.
Somewhat of an overreaction, but the point has merit. Do your due diligence. Sometimes the pros and master craftsmen have shit happen and time opens up, especially for a relatively quick job. Don't give up a good stroke of luck in the form of a quick appointment blindly; if they guy has solid work, and you get a good vibe, and he happens to have a free block of time, have at it.
Sorry, Nett, but I stand by my point. Tattoo artists are like contractors; if I was looking to hire one and he could start the next day, it would be a giant red flag. Unless you're a personal friend that he's making a concession for, pros are busy.
Just a quick clarification: I'm not looking to get that particular scene done. It's just what came up when I did a Google image search for "black-figure pottery." Re: Dcc01's thoughts on artists, I live in a small college town and there's only one tattoo place around. However, the artist there happens to be very, very talented. I've seen him do some quite intricate work on friends, and he did my first piece which is posted a few pages back. He took my vague-as-shit idea and turned it into a really beautiful piece of art, so if he says he can do it I'll believe him. You do make a good point though-with the level of detail in something like this I may have to widen the search area.
I disagree. Pro's are busy, but clients are clients. Which means they are flaky as fuck, forget appointments, can't pay their car payment and are forced to move dates or cancel completely. My artist is booked a month to a month and a half out, but he has called me 3-4 days after a session letting me know he had a client move times or dates around and wanted to know if I wanted to stop by. Regular clients rarely cancel dates or times, but things DO happen sometimes beyond control. If you've already decided you want your work from a guy, why defer to a later date months away instead of the next week? You may have to wait a month after your initial session for your follow up appointment, but don't look a gift horse in the mouth. If my guy had a opening the day I met him I would have been all over that shit in a heartbeat. Sorry for the blurry pictures, they looked better on my cell. I'll have to get some digital camera shots of them later. First one is complete( I posted this one a few pages back), the arm is brand new. Still needs color and background, but done by the same artist. He will be doing all future work on me until one of us is dead.
I was basically agreeing with you, but with a "sometimes shit happens and you catch a break" caveat. Whether it's a general contractor or a tattoo artist, schedules aren't set in stone and shit/life happens.
Through my experience and some of my friends, I've found this to be mostly true. All of the really good artists in town book a month to two months down the road; the guy I go to has only called me once to push my date forward and he is, in my and several provincial awards opinion, one of the top five guys who do this work here in the province. That said, always base your evaluation on the guys previous work and not on his schedule. When I was talking with the artists, I went in and just bullshitted with the guy/gal for half an hour or so. I asked all sorts of questions; how they sterilize the equipment, about cleaning practices, how he does the work and I usually got to witness them doing the actual work on someone while I was there. I acted like I had no idea what was going on (I didn't really but had some good ground work to go with) and it gave me a fucking great idea on how the artist works, his practices and how diligent he is towards the work. It also helps you get to know the artist a little as you've got sit in a chair while s/he digs through your skin for hours. I did see quite a few differences between many of the artists. It's not hard to tell who is in it because they love what they do and those who are doing it for a buck. The guys who truly love doing tattoos will always run a tight, clean ship; the ones who don't have generally been more sloppy in their practices. I've met about twelve artists around Edmonton and only four of them made the cut for me. Most artists will ask for a bunch of references to work with and then ask you for a nice outline on your idea. Let them take those ideas and pictures and draw up something themselves; if they're worth their salt and you don't like what they've done, they'll redo it or change in it ways that you'll like. I went through a couple ideas with my artist and we both gave great ideas and killed ideas that might not work with the picture. I always go with this rule; if they cannot draw on paper what you want, then they won't be able to tattoo it - plain and simple.
Finally got an appointment with my artist of choice. Sure it is in 4 to 5 months, and his shop is 2 hours away, but it's worth the wait for who is considered by many to be one of the godfathers of bio-mech.
Getting a variation of this done two weeks from Friday. Will post pictures after it's done. Sorry it's the only picture I could get so you kind of have to turn your head sideways. Getting it done on my rib cage
So I am going thursday for a back piece that will take up most of my upper back area. I put a deposit down for him to draw up what I want and hes already told me the price which I am ok with. But when I go in, whats the usual proto-call for tipping an artist?
Finally got my first one done tonight. Apparently I got it in one of the most sensitive spots there is, so the others I get will seem like nothing. I'll post pictures when it's not red and/or covered in plastic.