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Valerie Vargas

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Posts posted by Valerie Vargas

  1. From an artists perspective, i'd say go in at least with an idea of the tattoos the artist youve chosen has done that you like and explain why you like them (colours, layout,subject etc) and at best say youd like something along those lines.

    dont go in saying 'do what you want', no one ever really means that and if they explain something they'd be stoked to do and you say, yeah but not that. well, then you will have a deflated and slightly annoyed artist in your hands, vague guidance is great.

    the artist puts out there work theyve enjoyed or that shows their ability, all within the realm of what that customer asked for, however, so just cos you like what you see them posting doesnt mean it's what they want to do, it might be something entirely different that they simply havent gotten a chance to tattoo ever before.

  2. Read this: WHO calls for urgent action to preserve power of antibiotics and make new ones | Society | The Guardian

    I'm not a fan of antibiotics unless your limb is about to fall off, too many doctors prescribe them happily for little reason, specially when it comes to tattoos that they think look 'infected'. the more you take antibiotics the more they wont work when you really are in a life threatening situation. your tattooer (if reputable) will always know more about this stuff than a doctor, it is weird that it looks like this 16 days on but i'd keep what youre doing up. Keep it clean and dry untill it begins to feel better.

    Many moons ago i had a very problematic foot tattoo on myself, it took over 4 weeks for it to be fully healed, and some times it takes a longer than expected and sometimes it looks worse than others. Take care!

  3. get two sessions of laser treatment, to lighten the tattoo. wait 6 months to let the skin settle, find a competent artist, and maybe get a rose tattooed over the top, classic, timeless, represents love and could possibly tie to growth etc. a colour tattoo will work way better to cover this design than a black & grey one. that's what i'd recommend

  4. In my mind, he is an up-and-comer with a real future but he has to get his act together and realize that in addition to being an art, this is a business and you don't jack customers around for 4 weeks.

    I wish him luck.

    i hate hearing tattooers being referred to as 'up and coming'.

    it's a toxic description that makes you treat them as such. Treat him as the tattooer that he is, and if you dont like how he's treating you, walk away.

    don't feel like you have to get tattooed by him in order to make sure you get there before he blows up big.

    Ive heard this same exact scenario so many times...and like i said, referring to anyone as up and coming will make you treat them differently and theyll pick up on it, and possibly take advantage.

    if hes being so dismissive thats also his fault, or he might truely have just double booked himself. i find managing booking appts online and thru the shop simultaneously means fuck ups happen.

    cool down, then maybe go back and have a chat about booking in and leaving a deposit.

  5. I am curious why bad tattoos are so popular. I mean, I can understand that someone who knows nothing about tattoos goes to a bad artist and gets a badly done tattoo. I did that myself. What I don't understand are why tattoos lacking any creativity or art are so popular.

    For instance, why do people want to put typewriter text on themselves? Why do they want so much text but no images? Why do they want flowery, descriptive text but not an image of what that text is describing? This makes absolutely no sense to me. I've been as dumb as anybody regarding tattoos but one thing I've never had pop into my mind is to want words describing beautiful things rather than the beautiful things themselves.

    Another one are the fads like the inifinity symbols, the text on the wrist and the exploding birds thing. Back in the 90s when I first got a tattoo the fads (the fairies, the curly tribal stuff on the lower back) at least were flattering. The current fads are so ugly. I saw a girl with the exploding birds and it looked like someone had attacked her with a marking pen. The small crap on the wrist thing looks like you're trying to sneak crib notes in to the test. The straight lines of text tattoos are so unflattering to men and women alike. I just don't understand.

    Am I just an old fuddy-duddy complaining about the youth of today? Has there actually been a real change in the culture to prefer ugliness over color, shape, texture and art? Any ideas?

    because people don't know shit. getting a bad tattoo can be traced back to customers not trusting their own instinct (walking out of a shit shop when they don't get a good vibe and getting tattooed regardless), not trusting/listening to their tattooer or just getting a design theyve seen repeatedly before whether it's good or not. people will get what they see. tattoo flash used to help in some cases for the undecided.

    The google image search feature has harmed the customer/tattooer relationship.

    it gives people the idea that they can get whatever they want as long as they like it, but there's so much more to that equation. I mean of course you can and you should, it's your tattoo but listen to your artist when they tell you it's gonna look like crap 10 years from now, that it needs to be bigger or to simply not get an upside down tattoo just cos youve seen it on your best friend or some blog on tumblr. it doesn't make it right.

    I dont really see anything wrong in the designs people choose to get tattooed today, i just think it's much more important that they get a better version that will look good in years to come rather than the attitude i've seen tattooers take, such as doing exactly what the customer requests without advising on size, placement and clarity of design.

  6. I once had a customer show me this method that was being used on her foot tattoo (i tattooed something else on her arm) and it looked horrific.

    it did indeed take off the tattoo (mostly) in the spots where the treatment had taken place, but if anything it makes a cover up way harder because of the contrast between the 'skin' spots and the rest of the tattoo.

    she also said the scabs took months to heal, were incredibly painful to apply and heal, the area stayed swollen for weeks.

    she said the spots had to be over an inch apart due to the swelling, the person doing it told her.

    if a customer of mine brought me a tattoo in such a estate asking for me to cover it, i'd be very dubious as to take it on. google image search results.

    i'd say speak to your tattooer before you do anything, the tattoo you want covered up might not need such drastic removal, or simply a couple of laser removal treatments might be enough to evenly fade the tattoo away to allow a less heavy cover up.

  7. BAu38o5CAAAenib.jpg:small

    A tattooer called Paul Cramman has been passing off my work, among others, off as his. He managed to get a job in Glasgow based on his stolen online portfolio. He has literally cropped my images right down, photoshopped the background off and put his name on them, this was not a thoughtless task. I'm livid, but less so than when I found out last night thanks to a friend in Scotland.

    I think it's important to bring this to everyone's attention, no one should be able to pass other people's work off as their own and go unreported. This guy claimed to have been tattooing 14 yrs yet not a single photo was his, he probably has never even held a tattoo machine.

    Something similar happened to my boss, the guy who taught me, years ago. He hired some guy over email who sent him an online portfolio filled with good solid tattoo work. He moved countries for the job and we found out within hours what a lie everything had been, he didnt even know how to set up a tattoo machine and was promptly fired.

    ALWAYS ALWAYS check up on artists looking for a job at your shop if you are a studio owner, don't just accept some emailed photos as someone's work, do your research, ask around, who last employed them for crying out loud! there are ways to check up on people. And for customers it goes without saying research your tattooer, check their work at the studio, google them, etc.

    It's not a nice thought knowing this sort of thing happens and puts customers at risk, and makes a mockery of any hard work tattooers put in.

    This guy in question has now been fired.

  8. Another' date=' somewhat related, news story:

    HMV, banning tattoos on staff won't increase your sales | Business | The Guardian

    It's completely mental to think that prohibiting visible tattoos will do anything whatsoever to halt the decline of retail non-specialist record stores.

    A long time ago I worked for a large music store and they told me to cover up what few tattoos I had at 19 and to wear my hair down to hide my very small stretched earlobes. A few years later you would see sleeves on most of the staff and much more extreme large gauge lobes/ piercings etc and I guess it's now going back full circle.

    Also had friends who worked at American apparel not long ago and were told in meetings to stop hiring tattooed staff cos they wanted a different clientele and image for the brand. And that is what it comes down to. The big guys up top choose what 'look' they want to portray and sell and just like fashion that is gonna change when it suits and right now I guess this is the beginning of customers who thought it'd be rad to get their first tattoos on their hands or behind their ear ( but really, it's so large it's a neck tattoo) to realise that life ain't fair and just cos you can do the job don't mean you will get hired over some plain Jane without tattoos.

    Trying to reply to this coherently on n iPhone is hard but you get the gist. Sorry!

  9. I stopped by Adorned and spoke with the duchebag hipster guy in the front almost a week ago.

    i've had comments like this get back to me concerning the desk guys at my shop and they only make me wonder about the customer. i highly respect our staff at frith st and like them very much as friends, they are trustworthy and take care of me and my appts and if they were useless, they wouldnt be employed for sure. I could easily say this applies to most good tattoo shops. i'm not sure how well your encounter went, just saying be careful what you call people online, it can come across much more harshly :)

    good luck with your tattoo :)

  10. Don't know if this has been brought up, but when people ask for something feminine it kind of confusing to me, usually because each person means something different and usually has nothing to do gender. First usually the person is asking you to give gender characteristic to either an intimate object like a ship, a gender neutral design like a flower, or animal where male and female aren't really that different, my example of this would be an owl. Usually it's not a case of slapping a pair of tits or an evening dress or a tiara on the tattoo. I mean usually they are referring to not making the drawing as bold or to not use as much black, sometimes they want the drawing more new school or cartoon like. Sometimes it's the colors they want you to use in the tattoo. I usually point out that femininity can't really be lost by getting a tattoo, which is what people are putting into these young girls heads.

    Haha. Sticking a pair of tits on a tattoo when they ask it to look more feminine. That thought proper tickled me.

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