cltattooing

gonna go through the thread and add a bunch of people!

mine's @cltattooing, could you have guessed? ;P

That's awesome!! good on you, that hunger for knowledge will get you far :)

She is so precious!! look at that beaming little smile!! you can tell she's so proud. congratulations, man :)

First off, I want to welcome you to LST and I hope that you find yourself a happy contributing member of the community. This place has become home to many for some really great reasons.

Secondly, I'm sorry that I'm going to end up being THAT asshole, as I don't mean to offend you but maybe provide some clarity into your situation. Everything that I'm about to say is going to be hard to hear, but when we take this sort of advice gracefully, we always grow. I think that your attitude about tattooing is horribly entitled. Nothing about tattooing is easy. Not drawing tattooable designs or script, not the clients, not your boss, not how your machines work, not getting into a good shop, nothing. Being good at these things takes years of really hard work!!! Now I'm willing to bet that your neighbor tattooed you out of his garage, so I'd imagine that it does look pretty easy to make a garage turd(I assume garage because you said neighbor, not neighbor who tattoos).

I am also an artist who works with a wide variety of media, and the first thing that hit home for me when I did my first tattoo was "holy shit, this completely different from anything I have ever attempted in my life and it is HARD." I have noticed that the hard work ethic aspect of tattooing gets lost on a lot of people who have not served an apprenticeship. I also live in an area that is hypersaturated with great tattoo shops, and let me tell you something. *F*T*W* Tattoo - Oakland - CA doesn't even own a computer. George Campise of War Horse Tattoo is an accomplished illustrator and graphic designer who drafts everything he does by hand including t-shirt designs and skateboard decks. Of course using illustrator and Photoshop saves time, but it also cuts corners and ultimately limits your skillset as an artist.

Nobody is going to hold your hand through this, if you want it, you have to truly want it and put in the proportionate work on your own.

Again, I say this to help you out, and I do mean it gently. I would start by studying traditional tattooing and immerse your mind in traditional tattoo designs and history. I wholly believe that if anyone is to be a half decent tattooer, they need to be able to lay down a solid traditional tattoo. The design theory and application principles of traditional work apply to every other style of tattooing across the board. And also what @BrianH said, watch the interviews, do some reading, and commit yourself to learning about what it is that you do.

yay marketing tatctics ;P

if I pay for their publications, I'm just gonna buy TAM. But I suppose that's not an option on everyone's table.

welcome to the forum! your tattoos are looking pretty good, especially the botanical ones. how long have you been actually putting needle to skin?

Hey Chuck, welcome! That eagle is truly killer, love the movement! I'm sure you'll be right at home here, this forum rules.

I still want to see all of these awesome tattoos you have!!

After the second peel should be fine. When all of the skin is smooth, has no flakes or dry patches, and isn't waxy anymore. When in doubt, keep it covered.

when you have a folder on your hard drive titled "machine porn" which contains multitudes of photos of beautiful/interesting/antique tattoo machines.

Darl Gnau at Charmed Life Tattoo and Gallery in Maryland

I really can't speak highly enough about this dude. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of neo-traditional tattooing, he just kills it on so many levels that you can't help but love what he does.

Darl’s Portfolio | Charmed Life Gallery

All of that, I should add, are things that I've actually done in craft brewing so these super industrial processes aren't just for the huge macrobreweries. All that stuff about lovingly handcrafting small batches comes from the marketing people.

As for making beer, have you watched that Chad Koeplinger interview on here where he talks about that at the end of the day tattooing, regardless of what you are actually tattooing, comes down to lining and shading? I more or less feel that way about brewing. In the day to day work of brewing, the process for making an imperial stout that's going to be aged for months on oak is in reality not very different than making an adjunct-filled lager. I get more satisfaction out of doing my skilfully than out of brewing one particular style of beer.

I will always happily drink a Harpoon IPA.

Oh dear, marketing... a whole other conversation, haha.

Yeah! That was an awesome way to put it. Right on, it's pretty clear that you really like what you do. Were you always interested in brewing?

That totally depends on the brewery. A lot of places use isinglass, which is made from fish swim bladders, as a clarification agent, but there are many other ways of clarifying beer, such as adding irish moss (carrageenan) to the kettle, dosing in PVPP (polyvinylpolypyrrolidone), silica xerogels or hydrogels, centrifuging, filtration though various media including diatomaceous earth, or paper or fabric cartridges. Usually various combinations of these are used. Isinglass is a bit difficult to work with, and there's a worldwide supply shortage of it at the moment which is making it expensive, so I think you'll see breweries looking for different ways of clarifying beer. Though I recently heard of a vegetable-derived isinglass that is just as effective, less expensive, and vegan-friendly. I haven't used it though.

Now that is really fascinating, thank you for sharing that! I had no idea making beer was such an intensive process. So now I have to ask, what is your favorite to make and to drink?

So the shop got this gem sent to our facebook yesterday...

I also get little white dots in my tattoos, usually ones with red in them(although not always in the red). I think they're just a natural reaction to a foreign substance in the skin. Mine are calcium deposits, they don't ooze if I pop them, they're just these little white beads that pop up every so often. I'm no doctor or anything, but it would be helpful to see a picture that isn't blurry.

edit: come to think of it, the only place I've ever gotten them was my inner biceps as well... hm

I think that something everyone should strive for in their tattoos is timeless design. Fashion trends come and go, and it's highly unlikely that you'll have the same fashion tastes at 55 as you do at 21. If you want a tattoo to have a tattoo, go get something really beautiful that has strong imagery done by a talented artist. If you think you may have regrets, don't do it, flat out. The possibility of regret outweighs the short term satisfaction of the process.

And research, research, research.

This series of videos has been cracking me up:

haaaaahahahaha, this is so funny and so true. NorCal, man... microbreweries for days and SO MANY NERDS. I love when people invite you to make fun of them :)

I got to do my first dragon yesterday!!! So much fun, I really can't wait to do the color. I'm pretty sure we're gonna turn it into a half sleeve, so that's exciting as well. There are no words to quantify how difficult traditional Japanese tattoos are, hahaha.

Your art is looking really killer, man! Can't wait to see when you start tattooing :)

Sounds like homeboy is asking for a bite in the booty, haha. That's no way to do good business!

I knooowwww, man. I think that's the closest I've ever seen to the perfect tattoo, no joke. Those are going to hold FOREVER, too.

Well shoot... I've never had any problems with having tattoos and finding people to date. Living in the bay area, it's actually more uncommon for someone to NOT be tattooed. Pretty much over the whole idea of romance during this period of my life though. Everyone I've met over the past two and a half years has had their head so far up their ass that it's just not worth it. I would rather spend that time, effort, and money on my work.

Also something that really grinds my gears is how tattooers are often treated like trophies in the love game. Totally sucks.