chrismoniz

i come in and out of here when i can :)
right now i cant get to sleep!
i live and work just outside of toronto in markham. i have my own little shop where i tattoo and my wife makes teas. its not a street shop, its not on the main drag, there is no flash on the walls to choose from, i only work by hour and never give quotes, my shop walls are not blood red, there is no front counter with staff stuck on a computer and i rarely take walk-ins. i do things my own way by taking out what i or my clients have found stressful in past tattoo experiences and created a tattoo environment that is much more relaxed! at least i think so ;)
i have a beautiful daughter that turns 5 in a couple of months. she sharpens pencils for 5 dollars and hands out business cards whenever shes in the store.
ive had this shop for 2 years, tattooing for 17... my family and i love camping. 2 weeks away from the city, just us, reminds us of what is real and what really matters in life. family is the most important thing. family made me a better man. :)

i come in and out of here when i can :)
right now i cant get to sleep!
i live and work just outside of toronto in markham. i have my own little shop where i tattoo and my wife makes teas. its not a street shop, its not on the main drag, there is no flash on the walls to choose from, i only work by hour and never give quotes, my shop walls are not blood red, there is no front counter with staff stuck on a computer and i rarely take walk-ins. i do things my own way by taking out what i or my clients have found stressful in past tattoo experiences and created a tattoo environment that is much more relaxed! at least i think so ;)
i have a beautiful daughter that turns 5 in a couple of months. she sharpens pencils for 5 dollars and hands out business cards whenever shes in the store.
ive had this shop for 2 years, tattooing for 17... my family and i love camping. 2 weeks away from the city, just us, reminds us of what is real and what really matters in life. family is the most important thing. family made me a better man. :)

... to whoever categorized my tattoo pictures for me! more to come when i get around to it.

to the hyena... i must say your post was just so perfectly written. wow i loved it dude!
i just would like to add...
there is a legitimate reason why shops despise those who decide to learn on thier own. aside from putting the local population in a health risk due to lack of knowledge in bloodborne pathogens and cross-contimination, there is also the fact that government and health departments across the board all pool-in tattoo shops with people tattooing from thier homes. they see no difference between the professional and those experimenting on thier own. laws are then created as well as uninformed rules on professionals to follow due to public scares created by people tattooing in thier homes.(ie. health dept thought rubbing alchohol was an effective way to wipe a tattoo machine... duh). learning from home will give you a reputation in your area which could leave a black mark on you should you persue tattooing as a career.

as an idea, the concept is good... as an artist, i think i would prefer to work from the original picture. the original picture would have more read-ability. i would suggest bringing the original to your artist as well.

as an idea, the concept is good... as an artist, i think i would prefer to work from the original picture. the original picture would have more read-ability. i would suggest bringing the original to your artist as well.

i totally agree.. your portfolio can be more than just a tattoo portfolio.. there are no rules.. why not have an art portfolio out there instead? clean lines clear work win clients over but that doesnt have to be your entire book.
if you are at a loss of direction with art, here's the best advice i ever recieved... keep everything you do in art. to find out where you are going, compare where you are to what you did 3 years ago. evaluating your progression can help your direction.

as an idea, the concept is good... as an artist, i think i would prefer to work from the original picture. the original picture would have more read-ability. i would suggest bringing the original to your artist as well.

I find this one appropriate for the tattoo forum...

hahaha

Haven't been on in a while.

I wish it wasn't an april fools joke...

I'm not going to get on here and scream about how you shouldn't be a tattooer, even though that's a preset gut reaction nowadays and it's totally valid. After all, I'm a fairly new tattooer in the game and why should I be telling people what they should or shouldn't do. However, what I will bring up is something that continues to plague me at every turn, and it's something that I struggle with every day.
Think and consider a few things most people don't before they just "decide they want to be a tattooer". Such as the effect you have on the craft and it's craftsmen/women. Specifically in your area. With every new tattooer the pieces of the "tattoo pie" get smaller and smaller. The pie being the personal benefits of tattooing. Not just financial, but all the benefits. The more tattooers, the smaller the pieces of the pie. Less money, more people doing desperate things to try to grind more loot out of tattooing, especially in the slower seasons, like tons of random discount days, undercutting the previously established shops prices to steal clients, etc. Think about what you're doing to the people who've already been there, who've already worked their asses off to establish a clientele, and a relationship with their neighborhood. Think about the taking you will be doing.
That's not to say that you should not become a tattooer. What I'm trying to say is this: before you start on your journey to take from this craft and the people who held it on their shoulders through all it's iterations and think about how you're going to justify your actions and their consequences.
How do you justify making everyone's pie smaller? How about by becoming lots more pie to those people.
Get tattooed by righteous tattooers. A LOT. Blow loads of money on them. If your sitting here reading this thinking that " I can't do that because tattoos are too much money and I'm broke, which is why I want to be a tattooer in the first place dudes!" then you probably shouldn't be considering becoming a tattooer.
On the other hand, if you are thinking "well, shit I'm broke, but if I get this second job and stop dropping a bunch of money on sneakers and beer then I could afford lots more tattoos, so now let's look and see who is good and figure out how I can throw bunches of money at them frequently", well then maybe you might be an asset to tattooing.
I won't give anyone any advice beyond that. Tattooing is a career and if you become a tattooer that's a lifetime of taking. Maybe start evening the score early by giving back to it first. If there is any hesitation in your mind about that at all, don't even try. Save us all the next money sucking middle achiever. We already have enough of those.
I'm not saying any of these things to be harsh. My mind is heavy with these thoughts all day long. I spend hours working my ass off, trying to make my clients as happy as possible but that's no where near enough. I spend all my money on tattooing. I buy tattoos, machines, pigments, supplies, flash, prints, paintings, books etc from righteous tattooers. I owe heavy debts to the guys that brought me up and I will never be able to repay it. Anytime I get a compliment from anyone on my tattoos I let them know who taught me. It's important to pay to your lineage no matter who it was. I spend time conversing with as many tattooers as I can that I admire just to hear what they have to say. I have a list of tattooers in every state and I frequently refer people to places to get the work they desire. Al that and I still feel like I owe tattooing everything. I expect I will always feel the need to justify my existence here among the people that I respect and admire by paying them heed in any way that I can. They do deserve it after all.

numbing creams.. many tattooers dont mind tattooing an area thats had the cream applied. personally, im not a fan of tattooing an area of skin that has been numbed with cream. an example of a numbing cream would be a product such as EMLA. i find that the treated area of skin seems to have changed when it has numbing cream on it. it seems more 'spongy' and feels off. i find it difficult to get a good saturation of ink in that area and find that linework doesnt appear as clean. perhaps my issues are due to lack of experience with the product? i dunno... feedback from clients tell me that the area does get a little numb and that the cream does take the edge off pain. traditional die-hards might argue that the pain is part of the whole process... the right of passage so to say...
its my own preference as a tattooer not to work with numbing creams. i feel it hinders more than helps when it comes to my job of getting the artwork in.