JaySpike89

When I was learning - I say that loosely because I did not have a traditional apprenticeship at all - I tattooed my own knee and it really wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. My thighs were the most painful...I couldn't even finish the outline! Safe to say, those two pieces are gonna get covered-up at some point. After scouring back through posts, I was amazed to see the great @Valerie Vargas on here! Her work is absolutely brilliant!

i think my backpiece still wins for the most painful spot, the whole area, i just couldnt find a sweet spot to relax at whatsoever. after that, has to be hands and feet, in that order. got my ribs done when i was younger so dont remember the pain, kinda fell asleep i got told, i dunno haha

If you're happy with working in digital and traditional art mediums, good for you buddy. If people like your stuff, then that's great - but there will always be room for improvement with every piece of art you do, and while tattooing is no different, it is a completely different ball-game. I suggest that you do your research on the industry, travel around to different studios and get tattooed by highly reputable artists (yeah, you will have to travel, but this is small price to pay for a beautiful piece of art that will be on your skin forever). Collect a few tattoos and talk to artists about your own artwork, ask for their criticism or advice - if they like your personality and work, they MIGHT just give you a shot...just be prepared to work for it (and I mean SERIOUSLY work for it). Be yourself, be humble and remain open-minded and ready to learn. BECOME AND REMAIN TEACHABLE.
Tattooing is serious business - either go for it 100%, or leave it to the professionals. Just my two cents...

If you're happy with working in digital and traditional art mediums, good for you buddy. If people like your stuff, then that's great - but there will always be room for improvement with every piece of art you do, and while tattooing is no different, it is a completely different ball-game. I suggest that you do your research on the industry, travel around to different studios and get tattooed by highly reputable artists (yeah, you will have to travel, but this is small price to pay for a beautiful piece of art that will be on your skin forever). Collect a few tattoos and talk to artists about your own artwork, ask for their criticism or advice - if they like your personality and work, they MIGHT just give you a shot...just be prepared to work for it (and I mean SERIOUSLY work for it). Be yourself, be humble and remain open-minded and ready to learn. BECOME AND REMAIN TEACHABLE.
Tattooing is serious business - either go for it 100%, or leave it to the professionals. Just my two cents...

Welcome!
If it were me, I'd be afraid to fill in too close around the text since that could make it less legible and lose definition. Maybe some very light grey wind bars or swirl undertones to tie it all together.

Welcome. Check out this thread:
http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/tattoo-designs-books-flash/818-tattoo-silhouette-negative-space.html

Nobody's angry. I'm telling you out of kindness. There's a right way and a wrong way to do things. You wouldn't start pulling teeth without going to dental school, would you? Get an apprenticeship. Get good tattoos.

I'd put away the tattoo machine for now and not touch it until you are safely under the direct supervision of a professional and very experienced mentor. I believe the word for the day is "Apprenticeship".

@SeeSea - thanks dude, that means a lot. I was simply a naive person who knew no better - I now know for a fact you should never pay anyone to teach you, because you're just as expendable but you stand to lose a small fortune if anything goes wrong. I lost three and a half grand that I'll never see again, but it was a learning experience. In the words of Myke Chambers, one of my favorite artists and sort of a hero of mine: 'May I remain teachable until the day I die' :)

Hello and greetings to everyone here at The Last Sparrow Tattoo Forum! Allow me to introduce myself - my name is Jay, and I live in England all the way over here in the UK. We have a pretty okay tattooing scene here but nowhere near as big as the USA. I guess that even though I did do an 'apprenticeship' - I say that with the Dr Evil 'Laser' gesture because that time is a horror story all of its own... but anyway, I don't class myself as a tattooist because I never managed to get a job in another shop after that (this was almost 3 maybe 4 years ago). So I guess now, I'm just a guy who's very respectful to the industry. I'm a huge fan of the traditional art of guys like Sailor Jerry, Ed Hardy, Mike Malone and I love the artwork of Horiyoshi III, too. So I guess if I were to specialise in a type of art, it'd probably be traditional and Japanese. I also play guitar in a rock band and I love doing that - been playing since I was about 13 or 14 years old, so roughly around 10 years in music. So enough about me!
Why am I here? Well...one day I'm on youtube giggling a train wrecks of people trying to teach tattooing via the internet and I happen to stumble across an interview on a channel called LastSparrowTattoo. I watched this video from start to finish and it was about an hour and a half long - this video opened my eyes and seriously changed my entire outlook on tattooing. So I watched a few more - I would first and foremost like to thank the following people for making me realise just how special this whole thing really is - people like Scott Sylvia, Jeff Cribb, Oliver Peck, Juan Puente, Dan Dringenberg and Freddy Corbin. Hearing all these old stories about how they got started (especially Jeff Cribb - because my story is very similar to his) - really made me sit up and think. I want to learn as much as I can, as often as I can. I would love to connect with you guys and share thoughts and stories and maybe learn something from it.
On closing, Scott Sylvia, thank you for founding this website and generating an awesome online community. I would love to meet you one day and get tattooed by you - seriously, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
I hope to speak to many of you guys here soon! :)

Hello and greetings to everyone here at The Last Sparrow Tattoo Forum! Allow me to introduce myself - my name is Jay, and I live in England all the way over here in the UK. We have a pretty okay tattooing scene here but nowhere near as big as the USA. I guess that even though I did do an 'apprenticeship' - I say that with the Dr Evil 'Laser' gesture because that time is a horror story all of its own... but anyway, I don't class myself as a tattooist because I never managed to get a job in another shop after that (this was almost 3 maybe 4 years ago). So I guess now, I'm just a guy who's very respectful to the industry. I'm a huge fan of the traditional art of guys like Sailor Jerry, Ed Hardy, Mike Malone and I love the artwork of Horiyoshi III, too. So I guess if I were to specialise in a type of art, it'd probably be traditional and Japanese. I also play guitar in a rock band and I love doing that - been playing since I was about 13 or 14 years old, so roughly around 10 years in music. So enough about me!
Why am I here? Well...one day I'm on youtube giggling a train wrecks of people trying to teach tattooing via the internet and I happen to stumble across an interview on a channel called LastSparrowTattoo. I watched this video from start to finish and it was about an hour and a half long - this video opened my eyes and seriously changed my entire outlook on tattooing. So I watched a few more - I would first and foremost like to thank the following people for making me realise just how special this whole thing really is - people like Scott Sylvia, Jeff Cribb, Oliver Peck, Juan Puente, Dan Dringenberg and Freddy Corbin. Hearing all these old stories about how they got started (especially Jeff Cribb - because my story is very similar to his) - really made me sit up and think. I want to learn as much as I can, as often as I can. I would love to connect with you guys and share thoughts and stories and maybe learn something from it.
On closing, Scott Sylvia, thank you for founding this website and generating an awesome online community. I would love to meet you one day and get tattooed by you - seriously, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
I hope to speak to many of you guys here soon! :)

Hello and greetings to everyone here at The Last Sparrow Tattoo Forum! Allow me to introduce myself - my name is Jay, and I live in England all the way over here in the UK. We have a pretty okay tattooing scene here but nowhere near as big as the USA. I guess that even though I did do an 'apprenticeship' - I say that with the Dr Evil 'Laser' gesture because that time is a horror story all of its own... but anyway, I don't class myself as a tattooist because I never managed to get a job in another shop after that (this was almost 3 maybe 4 years ago). So I guess now, I'm just a guy who's very respectful to the industry. I'm a huge fan of the traditional art of guys like Sailor Jerry, Ed Hardy, Mike Malone and I love the artwork of Horiyoshi III, too. So I guess if I were to specialise in a type of art, it'd probably be traditional and Japanese. I also play guitar in a rock band and I love doing that - been playing since I was about 13 or 14 years old, so roughly around 10 years in music. So enough about me!
Why am I here? Well...one day I'm on youtube giggling a train wrecks of people trying to teach tattooing via the internet and I happen to stumble across an interview on a channel called LastSparrowTattoo. I watched this video from start to finish and it was about an hour and a half long - this video opened my eyes and seriously changed my entire outlook on tattooing. So I watched a few more - I would first and foremost like to thank the following people for making me realise just how special this whole thing really is - people like Scott Sylvia, Jeff Cribb, Oliver Peck, Juan Puente, Dan Dringenberg and Freddy Corbin. Hearing all these old stories about how they got started (especially Jeff Cribb - because my story is very similar to his) - really made me sit up and think. I want to learn as much as I can, as often as I can. I would love to connect with you guys and share thoughts and stories and maybe learn something from it.
On closing, Scott Sylvia, thank you for founding this website and generating an awesome online community. I would love to meet you one day and get tattooed by you - seriously, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
I hope to speak to many of you guys here soon! :)