October 2007 Archives

So I've seen two episodes of Tattoo Wars on TLC and I love it. Instead of hearing the stories behind the tattoos, we're getting closeup shots of the tattooers within their work environments. Watching Nikko solder his mag and seeing Steve Morris tweaking an image in Photoshop is the best.

Then, after the tattooers are introduced, the two go head to head tattooing at a convention. The crowd votes and a winner is chosen.

I'm already checking Amazon for info on a series DVD.

And as surprised as I am about this show, there seems to be little to no advertising by TLC?

Related Links:
Tattoo Wars schedule
A Letter from Hyperspace Studios about getting more Tattoo Wars promo.
TLC Viewer Relations - It seems viewer feedback can be effective.

The right depth for my needles to reach seems to be different for everyone. So how do I know?

Well, lately I'm realizing that with experience... you just seem to know. Sometimes the sound of the machine will vary; not quite bogged down, but certainly running with friction - as opposed to running above the skin. Other times my left hand feels a more exact and steady vibration. It tells me I'm at the right spot, so keep on.

And, to be perfectly honest, there are times I see a tiny bit of ink connect to either a capillary or the fatty layer and extend lightly past the desired spot. It's like a plant soaking up food coloring into its leaves. Instantly I know the depth was too far and I pull back ever so slightly. When that happens, I chalk that up as an initial test. You know, so I fully understand my boundaries.

Today I tried to visualize. I saw the needle grouping going in, but can never actually see the depth: it's the unaccounted for dimension. So once the needles were in, I tried to visualize the depth, movement and fly close as if I was zoomed in with a macro lens. For whatever reason, it seemed to help. I'm up for whatever it takes to develop effective muscle memory. If my confidence can mix with what I see in my head, I'll keep growing.

* Most of what I'm referring to above is outlining, but the more and more I see how depth effects the consistency of a smooth gradient fade. I've still much to learn and experiment with regarding shading and depth, but I'm eager to keep at it.

Eric brought in a grim reaper he found online and I tweaked it up to flow with his arm. That and we threw in some red eyes for flavor. I tried to experiment with my black and grey shading on this one. Instead of jumping straight into a midtone, I worked out of pure black and tried to fade it by using both quick hand movements and concentrating on needle depth. Then I finished off the gradients with a light wash.

Here's a taller version.

I went into the shop on my day off to begin what will be a full sleeve on my brother-in-law.

We've much to do, but so far I'm happy with the skull. I tried my best to apply the mixing and blending techniques that have filled my head from the seminar (awhile back) with Nate Beavers. Usually I love to leave negative space all over, but I went for complete coverage mixing yellow with purple to get the shades of olive, brown, and yellow.

Eric sat for so long. I was proud.

There will be a curvature coming out below his upper jaw and it will extend around to the other side of his arm. (this is on his inner left forearm)

Update: After stepping back and looking at this, I realize I want to darken the darkest areas for more contrast. That and make some of the lines more precise with a 7 round. The best part of session work, for me, is being able to tweak and make adjustments after it has healed.

Some session work... She wants it to look a little like a sketch. Dual pistols (older ones) and wings. Sketching is fun. When this is finished, it'll all be greys and the handles will be a cherry red.

View larger version here.

The idea was a lady taking up her cross... So I took some time to plow through paintings of women by artists I love and trust. After finding a close body shape, I pieced this together and finished it off with a Baroque style face (classy, not trashy!).

Jaymi sat really well. There's a standard threshold of annoyance that I've seen people hit after an extended amount of tattoo time (i.e. pain). She hit it and I'm glad we were close to finishing. Last week I worked on a piece and the guy went over that threshold fast. I sensed it and I let it affect the final product by taking shortcuts to finish the piece. I wasn't happy with that final product and I'll never let that happen again.

For whatever reason, the most response I've gotten so far is from the second session of the Nightmare Before Christmas forearm I've worked on.

Jake comes in sporadically, so the process has stretched out over time, but we got to spend a few hours on it and I thought I'd show some (small) process photos. Once this is complete, I'll take some large and solid shots to showcase it.

We've got one more character, some background and final tweaking to go. So far, I love how the negative moon shape flows with his arm from a distance.

Here's the previous post on this.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday were wonderfully busy. From opening to close, I was completely booked. I was so excited going into the week! Note the exclamation mark, I rarely use those.

I tried to plan as much as possible: no room to skimp on preparation. Drawings were to be completed with time to spare. Tubes were to be cleaned and ready for action. All things ready. All things fell into place. Be it a 4 hour tattoo or a 15 minute Kanji, I kept on going. I took a few breaks here and there, but nothing substantial because I was "squeezing the most out of my time".

I could kinda hear it in my head: "Risin' up, back on the street. Did my time, took my chances." So I hummed to the song in my own world, while Cradle of Filth was blaring over the speakers. You know how it goes..."the eye of the tiger, the cream of the fight."

And I'm not quite sure what that means, but it seemed to fit. I was pumping out tattoos. It feels good to finish a substantial tattoo in a day, let alone a few.

I booked more money than ever. But I didn't realize how quickly my hands were getting tore up. The equation was asinine: constant work + short breaks - appropriate meals x caffeine = swollen hands, numb finger tips and diarrhea.

Nice.

But no complaints here. This was a lesson that'll stick.

Just finished this one today, we'll be taking better photos with the Nikon tomorrow. I drew it up about 15 times and finally I felt comfortable with the layout. It covers up a few small music notes... Oh, and the background is, obviously, splattered paint taken from some internet photos.

* Old photo replaced, a new one has been added in this post.

Here's a slightly bigger version.