Another batch of work done at the tattoo shop. Well, the butterfly and flower that are together were done at my place, but this is my latest stuff.

You might notice that the last design is familiar. The woman with the razor blade wanted it covered. She didn't like needing to explain the meaning of it to her small grandchildren. This is the result.

Tattooing is fun! I spent a good amount of my break from work doing it. Maybe too much, but I am feeling good about it.

Bio-Hazard

My skills are improving! It's been difficult in the past in a few areas that I feel I've been getting some good practice in lately. Namely with this design were actually two items.

• Connecting shading/filling to the outline. Have you ever colored in a coloring book? Filling solid shapes in a tattoo are very similar. The main difference is that when you are using crayons, you are only mildly worried about going outside the lines. Even if you did, the consequences wouldn't be that dire, right? There's a common thing we beginners do where in order to not go outside that line and cause a permanent mistake on a person's skin, we tend to not even meet the line. It creates an odd line of normal skin inside the design. Anyway, I've been working to just be extra aware of where the needles are hitting and it's getting better. I can still see areas where I didn't get in this tattoo, but I'm very happy with how many lines I got dead on! The effort continues.

• Using magnum needles. My first experience with these was with the gigantic "strength" kanji. I used a 1 mag, which is two rows of needles, looking kind of like a small and dangerous paint brush. I couldn't get the ink to stick at all with it, so I've been scared of trying ever since. My mentor got me to try is again and I'll never turn back to filling large areas with a round bit. Never! It's amazing how well they work and get larger areas much quicker than anything else. This tattoo was filled with a 7 mag (one row of 4 stacked with one row of 3.

A Batch Cooked Up in Studio

Well, I thought it appropriate to up load what I've been up to. I've had ups and downs in progress, but generally love what I've been doing at this tattoo shop. Pretty simple stuff so far. I am going to get practicing more line work in my sketchbook so my lining looks better. I'm working alongside decades of experience now, so I'm stoked to absorb all I can while I'm here.

Yes, this bee has appeared on the blog already. This is a higher-resolution photo.

Japanese Waves Sleeve Update

Well, we've come a long way, this blog and I. I started blogging this summer as a person interested in tattoos and practicing on various willing fruit. Now, I'm working at a tattoo shop merely 5 months later. Pretty sweet.

This tattoo has been making progress. I spent 4.5 hours with the client today getting all of the shading done. He will have one more visit to get the waves colored in with blue, but for now I'm just happy t sit back proud of what's already been done. The shading done last time was done with a 7 Round. My mentor has given me tips since then, and the rest I did with a 7 Flat, and boy did it go faster! This thing is really turning out nice.

Bee Sting

I have decided not to put counters on any more, as I have lost count. I don't mean to say that I have done a hundred tattoos since my last post, but I have done several. Working at the shop has been great. This morning, in fact, I opened the shop alone and got us a new client worked on after walking in the door unannounced. It's a bee stinging him to match a bee tattoo his wife has already. It was great to do, and I feel very accomplished!

I suppose that I will blog whenever anything note worthy happens. Suffice to say that this has become more than a hobby. I am now getting paid to do artwork, and I love it.

#31 Joker Card

This client really likes the Joker and Harley Quinn from the Batman series. This card shows a bit of that side, fixed into a personalized design.

This tattoo was also done in the shop. I might have to take a break from my original set of clients fr a while, as I'll be spending a lot of time working and charging people full price for the boss. Pretty exciting!

# 30: Kiss My Lucky Charm

This tattoo marks the beginning of a new chapter for me. I have spent time working on fruit. I have spent time working on people. Now, I am beginning spending time on people in a tattoo shop. That's right, this is the first tattoo that was also an audition to work at our town's local tattoo parlor. I was nervous, and in some ways it felt as though I had never done it before. By the middle of the tattoo, I was much more confident and it felt more natural. Now that this step is out of the way, I'm excited to actually be doing several tattoos a week. It will be a challenge juggling it with my day job, but I'm excited to make them both work side by side!

The client had been wanting this tattoo since she was 12ish, she said. Now when people try to pinch her on St. Patrick's Day, she can just moon them!

#25 Japanese Wave Sleeve (update)

I finally have something to show for this tattoo. This is a sleeve I've worked on twice now. He had the dragon on his arm before I met him, and he was wanting something to fit behind it. Last time, I only did the lining and some shading on the wave crests. This time, I got started on shading the waves. I really didn't anticipate how long it would take to do. Luckily, we ended this step in a place that was faily balanced.

 I remember an artist once telling me that good tattoo artists will rather take their time than do a crappy job. After the third hour, I could tell that I was getting tired, so we're taking another break. I'm really pleased with how it's going so far.

#29 Phoenix

I love this design. She got it online, but I adjusted the coloring just a bit. Rather than having the gradient only go from top to bottom, I made it go from a few places here and there. This was one of the examples of a client who wanted something, but for whatever reason our schedules took a month or two to connect the right way. I think it was worth the wait. :)

#28 "Respect" Kanji

This was a surprise. I came over with the intent of working on this guy's back again after a few months, and right away, he asked if I had ever tattooed on a hand before. So there we went, an unexpected tatt right then and there. Pretty sweet-looking. He told me that the reason he wanted a tattoo on his hand right in that spot was because he's seen a few people with it and loved it. It was playing pool with a man with this placement that got him really interested. Man... If I hadn't gotten myself into a career that prohibits visible tattoos, I'd do it too!

#27 Die Laughing

Simple, but nice design. I like the message, as well as the negative space being used to make the mask jump out of the skin. It also kind of makes it look like I lightened up the mask, but I actually never even touched it. This was with three shades of black. I have been planning on doing this one for months, but the client kept putting it off. I found out today that he was mostly worried about the pain, but ended up not thinking it was all that bad.

#26 Infinity Splash

This design means a lot to the client, but also doubles as a really sweet tattoo. It's a representation of her family and a specific family member who recently passed away. I really like the colors. This whole design is about 2x2in.

#25 Japanese Wave Sleeve

Sorry, folks. I somehow forgot to get this guy's photo before he left. However, I only completed the first half or so of the tattoo during the first visit, so I'll definitely get my second chance at the photograph. It's cool, though.

#24 Froglets

A practice that I've seen and even worked with a couple times now is finding artwork that you like from sources online and having them tattooed on you. I really like the idea of having something original on your skin. I don't mean to say that traditional flash isn't great, but I definitely favor artistic flair. Especially when the tattoo looks like it was sketched with a pen like this one. I kind of feel like making works of art should be about creating an effect, and it's not always necessary to have a perfect line. All of the lining in this one was done with a single-needle bit, gone over multiple times to create squiggly lines. Really fun stuff!

2nd visit on #14

She said she wanted some "birthday color." It took me longer than I thought it would. I'm realizing now that I'm taking longer to tattoo than I used to. Frankly, I'm glad. It's allowing me to make sure I'm doing everything perfectly, even if it makes my back a little more sore.

By the way, my tattoo artist mentor-ish dude is asking me to start my apprenticeship sooner than planned. I'm kind of excited, but just need to save up for the tuition. This hobby kicks so much ass.

#23 Rose with Banner

I haven't done as many roses as I would have guessed at this point. I'm glad I got this one, though. It looks incredible!

The coloring came to mind with the client from seeing examples from old-school designs. I asked her if she wanted something newish, but she's a fan of the classic designs. I agree that they pretty much kick ass.

The banner, by the way, is blurred to protect the dedicated person's private information. It's the stuff from her father's dog tags from his service in the military. He's going to love it!

#22 Plum

This was unexpected, but exciting. My wife's cousin and his girlfriend were in town this week. Once they got in our apartment when we were hosting a get-together, she said she was interested in getting a tattoo. We were all expecting this to happen on their way back through Utah in a week or so, but after thinking about tattoos too much, she and I couldn't wait. You know, to get the tattoo done.

The photos didn't have that great of lighting, but it turned out real nice!