haervaerk

From what I understand, copying has always been an issue. In the Hori Smoku documentary, they mentinon that Sailor Jerry sometimes deliberately made mistakes in his flash, to fool copycats into doing them. I recently read in Jon Nordstrøms "Northern Tattooing", that the old timers in Nyhavn often made their flash kinda shitty, with much less details than the actual tattoo for the same reason. The internet wasn't an issue then, but now we have photoshop, so who's to say that an artist couldn't alter a picture of a tattoo a tiny bit before uploading it to instagram...

Iain Mullen from Imperial Tattoo in Stockholm did the one one the left on me last year. Took about 2 hours.

On the bright side, he lost quite a few pounds real fast...

Just exchange "How to shave your beard like a man" with "How to tattoo without an apprenticeship"

One of you pros out there should make that video. Seriously.

Like any other situation: use your brain. Observe whats happening and act accordingly. Wash and rewrap until it doesn't throw any more ink.

@gougetheeyes Thanks a lot - I'll go check it out!

@ChrisvK Thanks, buddy!

I've been studying the oldtimers for a while, and for now, my favourite is Coleman. I'd like to study his work some more.

Can't seem to find any books dedicated to him, though. There has to be something out there, I'm sure!

Anyone here, who can recommend me some titles? It would be awesome if they at least has a decent amount of flash by Coleman in them.

Cheers

Me and my girl went to Riga in Latvia this summer, and that was INSANE! Everyone stared like crazy - some even stopped and pointed at me. I wore a sailors cap, so I can't for the life of me figure out, wether it was because of the tattoos, or my resemblance to Lenin (guess they're not that fond of him). I thought it was hillarious.

Welcome @Calle Olsson - would love to see some of your work, man! Cheers

I understand the position that some feel that stuff like this demeans the art form, but the truth is, every art form has high and low-brow expressions. I don't mean to over-simplify or offend anyone, and it goes without saying that unsafe unsanitary work is not cool, but to each their own, right?

Imo it doesn't just demean the artform, but is a step towards undermining the whole craft. The more people who do this kind of thing, the more people will expect tattooers working for nothing.

@Graeme noted earlier, that

"Given that it's a pretty nasty feature of contemporary capitalism that it's even harder to make a living as an artist, illustrator, photographer, musician, writer, etc. because increasingly fewer people want to pay for that kind of work."

Which is spot on. I make my living as an artist/illustrator, and I get request to do freebies all the time. Make me wanna fucking puke. Just last week a danish music festival contacted me: "We would love to have you decorate one of our bar areas, but unfortunately, we do not have a budget for this, but there will be lot's of publicity". Seriously - these guys have a million dollar budget, but expect me to work for nothing? Fuck that. It's come to a point, where I don't even write anything back - I just send them this:

Sir, your mustache has panache like no other. Well done good chap, well done.

Haha - cheers, buddy!

@TaeTae Just my profile picture. Nothing huge. Just a anchor under my eye. I've seen people with totaly covered faces, and imo it looks creepy. When it comes to the face, less is more :-)

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Haha, sounds like a plan, @ChrisvK I've been to Gothenburg a couple of time to get tattooed at Göteborg Classic, and the city seems nice! Compared to Denmark, getting drunk in Sweden is damn expensive, though!

Thanks, Johannes!

Since I'd be moving to a new country, I really have no prefferences as to where I'll be moving. I just want to learn the craft, so if that takes me to Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö or somewhere else, that's fine by me :-)

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Most of my swedish friends are living in Stockholm though!

Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it!

Cheers!

I just got a small facial tattoo last month. It was something I'd been thinking about for a long time. It was a big step, but since it's illegal to tattoo hands, fingers, neck and face in Denmark (I've had hands/fingers done), I figured it wouldn't make people stare more at me, than they already do. One of the reasons why it's banned in DK is because of the way it affects your chances of getting a job, and since I quit being a coorporate minion, and started a life of being a poor but free artist/illustrator, that doesn't really apply to me, so in a sence, I guess you could see it as a statement. There are a few people with facial tattoos in Denmark. Mostly douchebags who wanna look badass.

I've got a few tips, which are all from classic animation:

Try thinking about the subject you're drawing in 3D. That way the flow, lines etc. makes a lot more sense. There's a few videos of Chuck Jones (Bugs Bunny guy) on youtube, which tought me more than any book I've ever read. Here's a link to one of them:

Also, try drawing on tracing paper. When you have something you like, try flipping it around. Chances are something will look very wrong. Keep adjusting both sides until they both look good.

Both things really improved my Work.

I'm working as an artist/illustrator, and one of the things I picked up along the way is, that you can make great work with even the cheapest tools. No need to pay a fortune for high end stuff, although they might last a little longer (ink is gonna kill any brush real quick anyways). I just try to register how everything works together - how the ink, water, colors react to each other, how they flow on the paper etc. - and adapt my process accordingly. I rarely fuck things up beyond repair.

For lines, I use a nib pen. No idea what brand and size, though. If I want a thick line, I'll just add more pressure. It's not one of those broad caligraphy ones though!

For shading, I use two brushes; a kinda big one for the ink and a kinda small one for spit/water. No idea what brands or sizes, though - but the were cheap.

For colors, I use Ecolines. In my oppinion, they suck straight out of the bottle - way to bright for me, but they're easy to break, so I just mix them on a plate.

I'm using 300g watercolor paper. No idea what brand, but it was cheap.

great work! love that mermaid. welcome :)

Thank you - glad you like it! Cheers

Hello to everyone!

Just wanted to let everbody know, that I joined the forum.

Like the title says, I'm currently living in Denmark, although I might be moving to Sweden some time next year. I'm currently working on getting an apprenticeship up there, and things aren't looking too bad at the moment. I'm a passionate tattoo enthusiast, who used to be a graphic designer 'til I got fed up with the whole cooporate minion life, so I quit and started working full time as an artist/illustrator.

Personally, I've never really used tattoo aesthetics in my work, but since a possible opportunity arose to get into the tattooing world arose a couple of weeks ago, I've tried it out. You can take a look at my feeble attempts further down in this post. Anyways, I wanna to study a whole lot of history, and since my favourite artist at the moment is Cap Coleman, I'm wondering if any of you could point me in the right direction? I've been searching for books about him, but can't seem to find much. Any hints would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers