hgiles

Five minutes into my shin, I was questioning my life choices. The next four hours were brutal.

I thought it went without saying that I was in no way advocating irresponsibility to the trade/craft or disregarding tradition. So I will go ahead and say it, though it is now redundant. "I am not advocating irresponsibility to tattooing or disregarding tattooing tradition."
And if one can't express an opinion in a discussion forum then where?
My point is people will find a way to be who they are. No lack of formal tutelage nor apprenticeship is going to keep them from it. So many great tattooists come about having never had an 'apprenticeship'. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. A college degree wasnt required to start Microsoft nor Facebook. You think the world really cares about Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg's academic credentials? Let each individual deal with (or not) the guilt and bear the burden of how he got there. If you need an apprenticeship -- get one. If you learn better from youtube and the web -- go for it. If you think you need a PhD in tattooing -- seek it out. If you learn better through exposure to the world -- get out in it! There is no one way. Not for tattooing, not for anything.

I go to 69% female college in a small middle-of-nowhere town that shares its name with a Facebook game. Most of the tattoos I see are either your cliche girl-in-college tattoos (anchors, infinities, and all that stuff). Other than that, it's usually really brainy stuff (I'm talking forces stuff from physics and the like) or gaming-related. Quite a bit of Zelda. There are only two shops in town and there are jokes surrounding them that (a) one offers laser-removal because their work is so bad you're gonna need it and (b) like half the work that the better one does is cover ups for people who went to the bad place first.

Ok. I will go first.
"When the inside of the arm isn't tattooed."
Sorry, it's just a pet-peeve of mine -- people calling something a 'half-sleeve' when the inside of the bicep area isn't done. I've even heard people refer to a "Quarter sleeve" when someone just had a tattoo on his shoulder. In my way of thinking there isn't such a thing as a 'quarter sleeve'. You don't even start measuring til you got a real 'half-sleeve'. Then you can have a "three -quarter" or in Japanese vernacular a "7/10s". Then a full sleeve. Or "10/10s"
Please, weigh in.

It doesn't bother me a bit.
1 It just makes my tattoos look that much better.
2 If you have to justify a tattoo by telling how little you paid then it's probably a shitty tattoo.
3"You'll appreciate the quality long after you've forgotten what you paid."

I thought it went without saying that I was in no way advocating irresponsibility to the trade/craft or disregarding tradition. So I will go ahead and say it, though it is now redundant. "I am not advocating irresponsibility to tattooing or disregarding tattooing tradition."
And if one can't express an opinion in a discussion forum then where?
My point is people will find a way to be who they are. No lack of formal tutelage nor apprenticeship is going to keep them from it. So many great tattooists come about having never had an 'apprenticeship'. The proof of the pudding is in the eating. A college degree wasnt required to start Microsoft nor Facebook. You think the world really cares about Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg's academic credentials? Let each individual deal with (or not) the guilt and bear the burden of how he got there. If you need an apprenticeship -- get one. If you learn better from youtube and the web -- go for it. If you think you need a PhD in tattooing -- seek it out. If you learn better through exposure to the world -- get out in it! There is no one way. Not for tattooing, not for anything.

There's a lot of truth in this. A certain amount of technical lessons in the beginning would help, but ultimately we will be left with teaching ourselves and learning on our own. I know I am going to come under attack because I am not a tattooist, but I am an artist and I know how I learn things and I observe very closely how others learn (or not as the case might be). When is the last time you had a lesson in how to talk? I know I speak a lot better than I did at two, the last time I received a speaking lesson. And those lessons were quite rudimentary, I assure you! Since then I learned from everyone I ever came in contact with and sort of 'taught myself.'
What learning and achieving artistry all comes down to is:
1) Copying - Copy the stuff you like. Copy the stuff you don't like. Copy the stuff other people like. Copy the stuff other people don't like. Copy everything that's pertinent (a mentor/teacher might help you determine what is 'pertinent').
2) Consider - Now analyze what you've copied. Cognize, understand the where/why/how the copy falls short. Understand why you like some things and not others.
3) Create - Now with a heightened understanding, make the things you don't like into things you do like. This is where your personality and style are going to come through and you'll start creating an identity for yourself.
Said another way imitate, assimilate, innovate.
Ok, I am getting to the point. It's not necessary that someone 'teach' us. What is necessary is that we learn it. Learn through exposure and awareness and through the cycle of copying, considering, and creating! Do you think it's any coincidence that the best artists (musicians, painters, tattooists, architects, doctors, etc.) are well-traveled, exposed, experienced and aware?
Shige? He might be doing a lot of learning on his own, but trust me, that stuff he does wasn't created in a vacuum. He got ideas from everywhere.

Most of the time I don't take anything, but when Chad K tattooed my ribs I changed my stance on it.

I got a tattoo of Snoopy Playing saxophone. I was just graduating college at the age of 27 having put myself through on my own dime by enlisting in the military and serving in Korea and working part time in restaurants and factories welding and forming steel power distribution equipment.
I still didn't know what I was ever going to do with a Music degree, but I knew I loved it enough that I was never gonna stop having fun with it. It was 10+ years before I got another tattoo.

I got a tattoo of Snoopy Playing saxophone. I was just graduating college at the age of 27 having put myself through on my own dime by enlisting in the military and serving in Korea and working part time in restaurants and factories welding and forming steel power distribution equipment.
I still didn't know what I was ever going to do with a Music degree, but I knew I loved it enough that I was never gonna stop having fun with it. It was 10+ years before I got another tattoo.

Here's some masterful fine line black and grey work too:

Here's some masterful fine line black and grey work too:

Here's some masterful fine line black and grey work too:

No one around here like Shige 's stuff?
http://www.yellowblaze.net/tl_files/projects/644.jpg

This is sweet too! Same Artist different dragon!

I think personality/attitude is very important. I will take a less than perfect tattoo from a great person before I take a world-class tattoo from an asshole. Anyway though, I think their personality shows in their work to the extent that I wouldn't be attracted to an assholes artwork...at least I don't think.
Short answer -- personality is very important to me. The experience and memory of the moment is going to outlive the crispnesss and vibrance of the tattoo, I think...

This is sweet too! Same Artist different dragon!

I think personality/attitude is very important. I will take a less than perfect tattoo from a great person before I take a world-class tattoo from an asshole. Anyway though, I think their personality shows in their work to the extent that I wouldn't be attracted to an assholes artwork...at least I don't think.
Short answer -- personality is very important to me. The experience and memory of the moment is going to outlive the crispnesss and vibrance of the tattoo, I think...

I think personality/attitude is very important. I will take a less than perfect tattoo from a great person before I take a world-class tattoo from an asshole. Anyway though, I think their personality shows in their work to the extent that I wouldn't be attracted to an assholes artwork...at least I don't think.
Short answer -- personality is very important to me. The experience and memory of the moment is going to outlive the crispnesss and vibrance of the tattoo, I think...

Great to see Chad Koeplinger in there! I happen to have a Japanese piece from him. ;-)