ChrisDowning

Have you considered not getting a tattoo?

He's not a prison tattooer.
The person getting the tattoo is not a con.
Prison tattooers do not have the luxury of wandering around shops or finding disgarded VCRs, when gathering parts to build their machines.
It's tattooed in a park.
I assume Scott Cambell is not using prison type pigment.
It dosn't look like a prison tattoo.
But it does look like a load of pretentious tosh.
Watching a tattooing sequence from the "The Mark of Cain" is far more interesting.

I think the saying actually goes: "Opinions are like assholes, and bubbleberry is goatse"

No, my point was missed.
It is not literally the business end of my tattoo shop that I'm sick of-- the purchasing of supplies and paying of rent.
I meant " everything that tattooing has become that has nothing to with what I love to do"!

As the saying goes "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing"
Yeah, we really need a step-by-step guide to 'Teach yourself to tattoo - in 9 easy steps!'
While there may be a few crumbs of sound advice in the 9 point program, the fact it's laid out like a 'how to' stinks, sorry.
Nobody is self taught.
I never had an apprenticeship. I could say that I'm self taught, but that would be egotistical and more importantly, incorrect.
I learned and continue to learn from the people I have worked with, the people I currently work with, the tattooers who were gracious enough to allow me to watch them and be present while they worked and the people I've been tattooed by. I could have worked for the rest of my life and never figured out some of the simplest things that were shown to me or that I have seen.
Aw, fuck it. Yeah, ok, I learned by tattooing pigs and grapefruit, taking evening classes in human anatomy and drawing still-life compositions with graphite sticks and writing essays on pop art. I watched every Bob Ross VHS tape. I took classes in CPR, blood borne pathogens, midwifery and chiropody. I took apart my shitty tattoo machines and put them back so that they would be even shittier. But most of all I took advice from every non-tattooer who thought they knew how to learn tattooing.
(only some of the above paragraph is false, but all of it is sarcastic)

Truth's about me.
I've seen her posts around for a while... She is either a masterful troll or a lolcow just waiting to be milked.

Truth's about me.
I've seen her posts around for a while... She is either a masterful troll or a lolcow just waiting to be milked.

Truth's about me.
I've seen her posts around for a while... She is either a masterful troll or a lolcow just waiting to be milked.

i think myth busters proved that you can in fact polish a turd... but it's still a turd.

I remember a post from a tattooer friend on facebook where he and his girlfriend were having dinner with Ed Hardy and she posted the picture and one of her friends commented something like "you mean the guy from the clothes" and Doug Hardy saw it and posted something like " I didn't think Ed Hardy was a real person, I thought he was a figurehead like Sara Lee". Maybe it was funnier to see it in person but I still smile about it today.

meaning it's the best flash we've probly ever seen!

Tuning and building tattoo machines is totally easy. Anybody can do it.
I have a drawer full of machines and every singe one of them was made or tuned by someone who did it according to a manual, on their day off from a real job.
I learned everything I know (tattooing and otherwise) from a dvd too.

Our prayers have been heard ladies and gentlemen!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZGON1G45A8
Tattoo Age -- Trailer - Tattoo Age | VBS.TV

I agree with Mario (again) but I'm trying to ignore most of the back-and-forth boring shit about encouraging beginners like it was some kindergarten project and just say:
Price is dictated by demand.
That's it. If people want your stuff they will pay whatever you ask. Regardless of quality.
But you did lay out your work before some of the best in the world (I don't mean me, btw) and expect it to be well received. Even after you declared it your first attempt. Sell something when you've learned to do it properly, not the first few clunky attempts.
I went to art school and worked as a professional designer/illustrator/etc for almost a decade. I don't think it helped my tattooing too much.
I learned how to take a brief from a client as a professional. I learned a bit of art history at university. Those were plus points.
For me the worst influence art school has on potential tattooers is the sense of entitlement that it fosters.
Art school 'kids' are taught that they have a special vision or gift. Taught that hey have a duty to broadcast their vision to the world and the world should think itself lucky to feel the rays of brilliance from a living genius.
Tattooing and drawing tattoo designs teaches you (if you are lucky) that you are the current incarnation of an artistic lineage and that you are borrowing everything, attempting to take care of it for a while, to pass it on to a later generation. It also teaches you humility and the value of hard work, in spades.
If smiling.politely had wanted advice, they would have asked how to improve the drawing before painting it. Instead they chose to seek acceptance and a confirmation of the 'special vision' probably with the hope of an offer of a tattoo apprenticeship.
Genuinely, I wish you good luck with all those things but if you expect people to pay you money for something, it better be the best you can do. Especially in a saturated market. Be that tattoo style 'art' or whatever you choose to pursue.

fake tattoo flash by parasites...you went to college, get a job, leave us alone.

What's next Stoney St. Clair butt plugs?

is that what you're worried about? looking tough?
while i don't know you, i do know that i'd be more inclined to talk to a person with a tattoo to remember their pet than someone with a tattoo design that appears to be more "masculine" by stereotype. you are who you are, and you love your dog (and that speaks highly of you in my book). tattoo's won't change that and won't make you any more or less tougher than your own personality dictates. and fuck what others think or say about you due to your tattoo. it was done by a stellar artist, and it's a very simple, but clean design.
hell, i have a tribute to my deceased rabbit on my forearm and i'm an ex skin! i've got not shame in my love for Henry, as he was the feistiest rabbit i've ever met, and he matched every bit as much of my aggro tendencies during those days. if someone wanted to mock me, i'd deck in the face still to this day, and i know that Henry will be grunting, lunging, and nipping at their heels in spirit.

bob baxter is a piece of shit.

yeah, i know the forcefields came from old sheets, but bert and the boys picked it up and it was immediately copied and absorbed. boltz told me they kinda did it as an amusing experiment, to see how fast it would be copied. it took two days for some kid in argentina to copy it and post it online haha...

i talk people out of backgrounds and useless additions all the time. i see so much garbage online. people just throw every trick in the book in there. or just tack on a bunch of roses around something, it looks awful. just let the image be itself, it has strength on its own. a gypsy head doesn't need blood splatters, a crescent moon, fog, a tree, roses and fake cholo letters all around it. except for a few people, tattooing is in a sorry state creatively. by the way, the outline thing is a SMITH STREET thing, which has now been beaten to death by anybody with a computer. you can't do anything new and cool without vampires sucking it dry. ok, i'm done...haha

I am so pro strong silhouette. I've been working on fighting the urge to put bursts and nonsensical background behind everything just to preserve the silhouette. Sometimes it;s difficult, but I find that If I think the image needs some background 9 times out of 10 it's because the drawing is weak anyway. So I redraw. If I do add an element into the background or something, I try to make it add to and preserve the silhouette, not take it away.
I fail miserably at it all the time, but I work on it constantly.

the t'aint for sure. hands down.