February 2007 Archives

A few weeks ago a client came in and wanted a lyric from My Chemical Romance's Black Parade arced across his back. He loved the typography in the CD jacket, and wanted to figure out a way to incorporate the feel into the tattoo...

After finishing the project, I realized my steps may seem obvious to a graphic designer, but might seem interesting to a tattoo artist.

Here's how I prepared the type.

First, I needed to figure out what fonts were used. A couple I knew offhand, the rest called for some help.

MyFonts.Com has a wonderful tool called WhatTheFont?!. It lets us upload an image (of text) so it can help recognize the closest font. Scanning the track listing with the various types, made it easy to separate each word with a different typeface into individual images (gifs). Once uploaded, WhatTheFont then asks you to designate each letter. Take some time with it, it's both fun and handy.

It'll then give you a font listing of matches. Eyeball through, picking out the closest. Often, it'll be exact. Some of the fonts can be incredibly expensive, while others you may already have or be able to download (a near equivalent) at free fonts sites such as dafont.com.

After identifying and downloading the fonts, I installed them on my computer and spent some time in Adobe Illustrator. It was then a matter of typing out each word separately and piecing them together like a visual puzzle.

Quick side note:How did I arc the entire piece?
After the text is perfect, convert it to outlines (Shift+Ctrl+O). Then, after selecting everything and grouping it together (Ctrl+G) go up to Object > Envelope Distort > Make With Warp to create an arc - not an arch, geez.

Quickly enough, I killed the black fill inside the letters and gave it a black outline. Easy.

My mentor, Drew, showed his client the text examples and added two great James Jean illustrations (one/two) from the CD jacket, as per his request.

And finally, Drew worked his magic, outlining the stencil (bottom right to top left to minimize smearing!) and made it look easy. The tattoo turned out wonderful.

I made the drive down to Indianapolis again for more work on my back. It was good to see Monte and be able to ask questions. That and soak in whatever I could.

Excitingly, he mentioned having a 45 mag (magnum) shader. Minutes later he decided to use it on my back... holy crap was that thing wide. The thought of 45 needles caused me to balk for a few seconds, but it ended up feeling a little less intense.

I love the look of the blood coming out of Jesus' side.

My buddy Dave wanted a green version of an ink drawing I did last month. A faceless Mary over at ShovelCoal.com. All of his tattoos are monochromatic, so we stuck close to his wishes. But I simplified the halo area and went with some opposite (you know, complementary) purple rays.

Here's the original:

The photo isn't the greatest, but here's what I finished today. It's my client's first tattoo and he sat like a champ. This was a two session piece. The top/negative of the tree, the body, and the roots were in the first sitting. You can see this in the photo - it's a bit lighter. Then we rounded off the other areas just now.

Why haven't you updated the gallery?
I've got a load of questions about it. So I'm on it. But I have found capturing each tattoo to be difficult. A few more and I'm up to sixty tattoos and only thirty-five have been posted. I think I'll be highlighting about 75% of what I've done from now on a single page archived with notes in the gallery.

Do you have to tip your tattoo artist? Nope. But if you like what you were just given, a tip can be more than just a social custom. It's an incredibly personal gift that goes beyond the daily grind to reach out and softly massage the heart of your artist.

Okay, not really. But they sure are nice!

I got my first tattoo at 18 and the last thing on my mind was giving a tip. So I'm going to design a couple of handsome signs for our shop.

"All Tippers Go to Heaven" - that sort of thing.

Some shops will post them, some won't feel comfortable. Whatever the case, I'll design them and post them free online when I'm finished.

Any brilliant tipping phrases come to mind?

Here's the thing: I didn't know Walter Moskowitz. But I've heard a handful of stories; enough to know he's a piece of tattoo history.

As tattooing creeps into the mainstream, it helps me to remember that past. When tattoos were vile and being a tattoo artist was a job of tremendous reproach.

"Tattoo design is in our culture a barbaric survival often associated with a morbid or abnormal personality." - New York State Appellate Court Decision (1964)

While tattooing was banned in NYC, Wally - along with his brother Stanley - moved shop and continued to do his thing, working like a mule. Thereby furthering the art... by helping to keep it alive. He was witty: Wally's son, Douglas called him a "scholar of people... (able to) converse and relate to everyone. He was well known. And yes, he was tough as nails.

In his heyday, respect was hard earned. But I have to tell you, after learning more and more about his history, my respect was given quickly. (And I'm a critical, withholding bastard!)

So do yourself a favor, take a few minutes, a read up a little more on the life of this man.

Related links:
Early Shop at 4 Bowery - inherited from father in 1961.
The Kosher Tattoo King
Wally's Tattoo Studio
Marissa's post at Needled.com

Whatever the case, here are some traits I'm noticing at the shop and beginning to appreciate even more:

Work Ethic
Sticking with the virtues of hard work and diligence. I have seen these guys give their best to thousands of pieces. When the shop gets hit with a crowd, they not only retain focus, but push themselves to new levels. Oh, and once they're in the skin, it's like having the full weight of a train pushing it to completion.

Affability
I've quickly learned the wonder in being pleasantly easy to approach. Not just friendly. Beyond people who simply visit the shop, is a bond between collector and artist. Often the collector will open up and discuss detailed happenings within their lives. I never would have guessed the counseling aspect of this job. I have seen the guys listen intently, respond with warmth, help with fear, and even counsel pain. Sure, sometimes we make fun of things to help the day pass quicker, but that's part of the charm as well.

Zeal
Enthusiastic devotion toward a cause/goal. And a tireless effort to push it further. Which, in turn, leaks all over the place. When you see a man proud of his work, you gain a sense of appreciation. When you watch the effort put into the creation of piece, you deeply enjoy being able to see it being permanently finalized into the skin. An artist completely behind his work will effect everyone who comes in contact with him.

The true worth of a man is not to be found in man himself, but in the colours and textures that come alive in others. - Albert Schweitzer

Now, I've seen tattoo artists with thousands and thousands of flash pages. And I've even seen mini reference libraries in shops. It makes sense.

But if you're at a shop with a computer and internet access, the world can be yours.

On Resources:
We have to be careful with such powerful access to imagery. Taking an image and blatantly using it as your own messes with copyright laws.

That said, we'll be tattooing the Bears logo on people. So I either visit a related (logo) site, such as SportsLogos.Net, or I'll hit up Google Images.

On Google Image search:
First, make sure you take advantage of the "Advanced Search" area. By selecting various options (size, filetypes, coloration, etc.) you can help pinpoint your image search results. I also like to turn of SafeSearch to get more results.

There are a few search operators for even more direction.
Use quotation marks to search for an exact match: "celtic knot"
Use a minus sign to exclude specific terms: eagle -bald
Search within one site by including the link: Hiroshige site:artchive.com

When looking for large files.
Include the following words after your search word/phrase.
(for example: eagle hires)

hires, hi res, 300 dpi, 600 dpi, large, lg, wallpaper

On file organizing:
We have a primary "Stock" folder. Within the folder are subdirectories (folders within folders) based on content:
Animals / Birds / Eagle
Religious / Sacred Hearts