mike d tattoos

I've been using PH martins for the majority of my paintings. The problems is I mostly like to paint Japanese imagery and the PH Martins are way too vibrant. I'll start with the outline and black shading, be perfectly happy until I lay that first color and it shines like a rainbow. That being said if you dont mind super vibrant color PH Martins are incredibly easy to work with and settle very evenly. However I recently started using FW Acrylics and I'm Much happier with the look. It's a bit more opaque, Doesnt blend as easy as watercolor and once it dries its no longer workable but the subtle colors are what I've been trying to achieve for years its a way more "traditional" look I guess. Plus they are lightfast where PH Martins are not.

As far as Brushes go I've used tons and settled on Sable being maybe favorite. Alot of guys will tell you it doesnt matter but I can tell the difference.

The Arches blocks are what I use about 90% of the time and I've been pretty happy with them. Cant tell much of a difference between that and the big loose sheets.

josh- i hear you on the vibrant colors of dr martins. they do have, i believe, about 4-5 different sets of colors tho. pretty wide range. maybe one of the other sets would have more of what you're looking for. only problem i hvae with them is they are pretty hard to find locally. and it's hard to tell what color pallet has what colors in a catalog or online. i've only been using them for about 2 years now myself tho. so i'm sure there's a lot more to figure out even with the sets i do have

my name is mike davenport, i'm 34 years old. i'm pretty bad at this type of thing so i'll try to be brief. i've been tattooing now for, i guess, just over 6 years. did an apprenticeship in arizona and i am currently tattooing in milwaukee wisconsin.