My first child was born in December of 2005. Little Xavier came three months early so everything was thrown into a spin. Thank God, after months in the hospital, he's perfectly fine - and chubby at that. But his hospital bills are insane.

Freelance graphic design has been wonderful, but I needed to add more to my plate. After much thought, one of the only things I trust in life is my hand. Heck, I've been drawing and illustrating for about thirteen years. So I approached one of my design clients: Bluebird Tattoo.

The owner - let's call him "Splendid Drew" - was familiar with my work and agreed to take me on as his tattoo apprentice.

And here I am.

So the idea for this blog is simple: it's a place to chart my progress.
The art of tattooing is filled with tradition, customs, and myths. All of which I'm quickly becoming acquainted with. What I quietly found curious yesterday, I now jump in with questions. It's a learning process I wish to share. I don't plan on divulging too much, rather showcasing and tossing out ideas.

I'm an illustrator and designer at heart. It'll be interesting in seeing how that transfers into tattooing, but we'll have to wait and see how that goes...

Today I worked on a family crest. The customer brought in a tiny fabric banner with an age-blurred print of the crest he wanted.

Thank God for Photoshop. Like every other shop, we have a trusty copy machine, but figuring out greyscale detail was important. I scanned the little guy at 600dpi resolution. Wait on the scanner, get a cup of coffee, then pull up the trusty curves tool (CTRL+M). Mess around with your points and pull out the right dark levels. (More about curves here)

I always print out a copy about 30% bigger than the actual tattoo size. Then it's a matter of mentally figuring out where the line should be. A little compensation here, a little tweak tweak there.

Alright, two more steps. First, almost half of this is a mirror image (with reflection symmetry). So I only trace one side, plus certain areas that won't mirror (helmet, axe, text). Scan the drawing into Photoshop, wait on the scanner again then select and flip what needs to be flipped.

(View larger image. Oh, and the circles were added in Photoshop - ah, perfect circles)

Grab your Kanji from whatever source -Chinesenames.org, Chinese-Symbols.com- and copy it or place it into a blank document.

I usually use the standard Letter size for a new Photoshop document (8.5x11 at 300dpi). Resize the Kanji to your liking. Now, pull out your magic wand tool. Select an area of the letterform (Shift+Click to add more to that selection).

Create a new layer then go to EDIT > STROKE. At that size, a 3px stroke (inside) is just about perfect. Just delete the original Kanji layer and print.

Carol, our piercer, asked for an ear chart. Something for our clients and also to help me understand the variety of ear piercings. First I drew an ear with subtle dimension. Crosshatching was my best bet because I wanted it to obviously differentiate from the gradient shades of the jewelry. That and it still has to look cool.

It's not finished yet, but the idea seems to be working. Keep the ear subtle and unaltered, highlight the actual piercing, then sit back and be happy the options are direct.

(View bigger image here. Inspiration and ideas for this: Edward Tufte)

I've been saving my back for awhile, but now it's time. Ashlee, my wife, bought me a full session for my birthday. Monte - Monte Tattoo - did an amazing piece on my right arm, so he was easily my choice. For whatever reason I'm really into old religious imagery, so I sketched these three ideas up for him to pick from:

He chose the middle one. He'll finish composing it towards the bottom of the back. I'll update as things progress.

View bigger image.