LadyGabe

I also especially love smiling and being really friendly to those who have obviously made a snap judgement on my appearance!
My boyfriend is a muscly, skin head with very vibrant traditional tattoos of a reaper, a devil and all sorts of dark things. But he is the biggest, kindest and cuddliest bear ever when you speak to him! So polite and thoughtful, a real gentleman. It still cracks me up when he holds the door for a little old lady and they look terrified of his kindness!! haha
EDIT: I am not so sure my BF would be so pleased that is how I described him come to think of it! Ruin his manly image ;)

so here is my contribution to this old thread. Done by Amy Kinsell from Modern Body Art UK. Done at the Cardiff Tattoo and Toy convention, the theme was Star Wars (at the con) so naturally I had to go with the same theme for my tattoo... :)

so here is my contribution to this old thread. Done by Amy Kinsell from Modern Body Art UK. Done at the Cardiff Tattoo and Toy convention, the theme was Star Wars (at the con) so naturally I had to go with the same theme for my tattoo... :)

so here is my contribution to this old thread. Done by Amy Kinsell from Modern Body Art UK. Done at the Cardiff Tattoo and Toy convention, the theme was Star Wars (at the con) so naturally I had to go with the same theme for my tattoo... :)

so here is my contribution to this old thread. Done by Amy Kinsell from Modern Body Art UK. Done at the Cardiff Tattoo and Toy convention, the theme was Star Wars (at the con) so naturally I had to go with the same theme for my tattoo... :)

so here is my contribution to this old thread. Done by Amy Kinsell from Modern Body Art UK. Done at the Cardiff Tattoo and Toy convention, the theme was Star Wars (at the con) so naturally I had to go with the same theme for my tattoo... :)

Hi everyone,
So this is kinda awkward, introducing myself. I am not a big computer person and don't spend alot of time online. I have 2 beautiful children with my husband of 7 years. I am 25, and a diagnostic medical sonography student. I love tattoos, and have one on each forearm, and my thigh piece. I am looking forward to talking with you all.
Take care,
CharmChore

This is the best advice, and it almost always gets overlooked. It applies to everything.

When I started dating my current partner, he was actually against tattoos, and it became the cause of a lot of friction between us. I think his perception of tattoo shops and tattooed people in general was very stereotypical. The whole dirty trashy tattoo shop, drugs, alcohol, crazy, out of control thing. As I began to collect more tattoos he was actually pretty ticked off about it. I finally convinced him to come with me to get the shading finished on one of mine. He was surprised how clean and professional the environment was, and how talented my artist and other artists were. He has one of his own now, and thinking about a second! I think the main problem is the negative perception by others most times.

I really don't tell anyone what they cost that I don't want to. Plainskins... never. Anyone who hadn't gotten a tattoo in 30 years... never. Everyone makes their own deal with the shop so what I pay doesn't mean that's what anyone else will pay for something comparable.
People who aren't into the art, they just have no understanding. Explaining my position is like mooning a blind person, the translation is lost.

...and there you go. It had better be a very nice blue bird, and you're golden.

Just a follow up to post #345...
So, while at my in-laws watching the world cup, I sank deeply into a chair and was just zoning out. My wife yelled out, "What's that on your shoulder?". Apparently, my sleeve crept up and revealed my sweet and sour babies.
"Do you have any others? Let me see your back!"
I showed her my bouy tattoo. She asked when I got them and I told her the first week of November and that she hadn't seen my bare back since last September. She was completely dumbfounded to say the least. My mother-in-law almost fell over in her chair trying to listen to our conversation.
My wife was pretty upset, but not really because of the tattoos. She had gotten used to the idea that I had them. The fact that she hadn't seen them in such a long time showed her that I could be respectful around her. What she was really upset about was the fact that I went to great lengths to hide something from her and what else was I hiding from her. Completely understandable. I apologized for that, but told her that I just didn't want to go through the drama after every time I got one.
Luckily she put everything in perspective and she knows I'm a good husband and father. She asked if I was going to get any more. I was honest and told her that I probably was going to fill in the center of my back. She understood that and I only got the silent treatment for a couple of hours instead of a couple of days.
She wasn't too crazy about the sweet and sour babies. She critiqued them and thought they were too plain compared to my others. She liked the new buoy tattoo but didn't like the meaning behind it (solitude/being alone). She also insisted that when I get my back filled in, that there be a small blue bird to represent her. I agreed to that.
So, everything worked out and I can now sleep with my shirt off again. I'm going to get my center back piece done during the first week of September, while she's gone on a business trip. It's going to be a ship and a lighthouse (the lighthouse of the town I grew up in). I recently sold one of my motorcycles, so I have a little extra cash.

I know exactly what you mean and don't worry I never go in with that expectation! :)
I have only approached for artists to check out my work and to offer advice etc... I have done painting with a friend who is an artist and have others who have offered some time to look over my portfolio. Not silly expectations but thanks for the advice about asking about drawing with them in the evenings, appreciate it :)

@LadyGabe
Don't walk in and ask for an apprenticeship........ask them to look at your art work and see if they can give you advice! Ask if they have a night where they get together and draw and if so if you can come draw with them so you can get better.......ask them if they need some help cleaning up around the shop or if you can maybe hang out when you have free time!
These are just suggestions.....
It is my personal opinion that a person should be offered and apprenticeship......not really need to ask for it!

While I agree on a lot of the points the article brought up, the overall tone of assuming that every 'wannabe' tattoist wants to live the rockstar live and kids themselves about their drawing skills is harsh. Besides, in my opinion, those types of people wont be searching around the internet for what is required of the job. Articles like this, while with good intentions about bringing potential apprentices down to earth could actually be driving the more serious people away because of some articles generalizing that everyone is not worth it and to stay out of their way.
Not trying to offend anyone and I do greatly respect the business and the hard work that goes with it, but this is just my thoughts.

@cloudkicker
I would go down the route of doing 2-3 hour sessions, at the moment you have no idea how you will cope with a hour never mind 8, get the outline done and maybe start the black shading, and see how you feel then, Then your getting tattooed every few months and can watch it progress rather than a bit of a stop start journey
I havnt touched my back yet, so I'm not a expert, but I love watching a back piece grow on instagram

I also especially love smiling and being really friendly to those who have obviously made a snap judgement on my appearance!
My boyfriend is a muscly, skin head with very vibrant traditional tattoos of a reaper, a devil and all sorts of dark things. But he is the biggest, kindest and cuddliest bear ever when you speak to him! So polite and thoughtful, a real gentleman. It still cracks me up when he holds the door for a little old lady and they look terrified of his kindness!! haha
EDIT: I am not so sure my BF would be so pleased that is how I described him come to think of it! Ruin his manly image ;)

Hey Dude welcome!
I have a piece on my back from 3 years ago that was left to add more too as we went. At the time I was unsure of how to progress, and then my tattoo artist moved 3 hours drive away.
But I am still in touch with him, and he touched up the original recently to make sure it was looking good ready to be added to. I plan on having him and his sister do a collaboration on it to complete in the next year (she is his apprentice but is pretty amazing!). So you are not the only one who might have something spread out. I can only afford to do it bit by bit, and prefer to have longer sessions to get more done in 1 go, which means longer to save! But I have also been getting other work done in between, with different artists I wanted to collect.
Dont worry if your story isn't the same as someone else getting it smashed out in 6 months of mad sessions. As long as you found a great artist to do it justice, then let it take the time it needs to save for the best of the best. You will not regret it!
:)

Hey Dude welcome!
I have a piece on my back from 3 years ago that was left to add more too as we went. At the time I was unsure of how to progress, and then my tattoo artist moved 3 hours drive away.
But I am still in touch with him, and he touched up the original recently to make sure it was looking good ready to be added to. I plan on having him and his sister do a collaboration on it to complete in the next year (she is his apprentice but is pretty amazing!). So you are not the only one who might have something spread out. I can only afford to do it bit by bit, and prefer to have longer sessions to get more done in 1 go, which means longer to save! But I have also been getting other work done in between, with different artists I wanted to collect.
Dont worry if your story isn't the same as someone else getting it smashed out in 6 months of mad sessions. As long as you found a great artist to do it justice, then let it take the time it needs to save for the best of the best. You will not regret it!
:)

We really need more Zeke Owenses.

Tattoo Zeke Owen’s Column
ASK ZEKE WITH ZEKE OWEN
This one’s from the legendary tattoo artist dates back to May 1998.
Dear Zeke:
I want to pursue a career as a tattoo artist very seriously. I am currently an aspiring artist with no tattoo training. How do I go about it?
—Chris Sisler, Vacaville, CA
Dear Chris:
I’d like you to know, Chris, that my editor goes through all this mail out in California, picks out the things he wants and sends them to me. So I don’t have a lot of choice with really picking out my mail and the questions that I’d like to talk about. In other words, it’s just random and I don’t say, “I don’t want to answer this, I don’t want to answer that.” I say, “Oh there’s a juicy one,” and go on. I just have to take the ones that he sends.
First of all, I’d like to tell you a little story about something that happened to me up in Seattle, Washington, one time. And I might start this little story out with a caption that went, “So you want to be a tattoo artist?” By the way, did you see in local business magazine that tattooing is now the sixth largest growing business in the United States?! Well anyway, next to my shop—my shop was on Skid Road. Skid Road was named originally as the logging road way back in the 1800s when they used to skid the logs down the road to Peugeot Sound to put on the ships. Well, anyway, I was out on First Avenue in Seattle for a little while and it was really neat. One of the coolest things that I used to see up there was that the people from Alaska and all over up north used to come down and put their money in the bank and go to the poker rooms and live in the old, beat up, stinky, I mean really stinky hotels right down there on First near the Pike Place Market and Skid Road. And this one guy used to bring down, every year, a couple of typical sled dog looking dogs and they were probably three years old or right around there. And he’d stay in one of those Skid Road hotel rooms where they let you have anything—I mean anything. And in the morning, you’d see the dogs and this guy from the Arctic Circle or someplace, down on the sidewalk and the dogs would both have collars on and each collar would be attached to the other one, kind of like Siamese-twin collars. So, consequently, he’d have one dog on the port side and one dog on the starboard side and they’d both be leaning in about ten degrees against each other and that’s they way he’d walk. Man, it’d be funny right there at the beginning of winter. They’d be falling, a struggling and a pulling. But, after a while, after a few months, winter would start winding down and they’d go down the steps and outside on the sidewalk just in unison—just as happy as they could be, with their tongues hanging out. And they’d run down the street when he’d call them. It looked like he was training them for sled dog work, but I’d never seen that before. It was really strange to watch them.
Next door to my tattoo shop in Seattle was this old bar called the Forty Niner Tavern. And that’s exactly what it was. It was full of all them off the ships and miners. Honest to God they still have mines up there, of course they’d be there for the winter. And Seattle was kind of growing in those days, they were building all over the place, so we had a lot of steelworkers. And the tavern used to open up at six in the morning, and I know that because one of the opening bartenders used to be my girlfriend, Carol. And I’d be over at the arcade—it was open 24 hours a day with a pool hall, and the little guy who ran the grill—and I’d get her home fries and scrambled eggs and coffee and go over to the bar at six in the morning. And the place would be so smoky from cigarettes, it’d be the middle of winter and there was no movement of air in there, and the fire would be going and it was just thick with smoke. And the sun would make rays through the front door and the first few tables had a spotlight like one of the helicopters that flies over the lakefront when you’re out there barbecuing and partying.
Anyway, I was in there and it was packed with all the steelworkers in there partying and doing shooters before they went to work up 20, 30 stories. They’re as drunk as hell going off to hang steel up there. Somebody ought to write a book, if they haven’t already, about how these guys used to save each other’s lives from falling to their deaths by catching them on the floor underneath. Anyway, I was sitting there drinking my coffee and I’d just finished my scrambled eggs and home fries when all of the sudden the most horrible, putrefying smell came into the place. God it was horrible, you know? And I looked around. I once had tattooed a South Korean Sailor for two gallons of kimchee because he didn’t have any money—this was back in the 60s—and he brought me this two gallon can of kimchee and I tattooed him and he went back to the ship. I had zero communication with the guy. So I put the bucket of kimchee—after taking out about a quart size jar of it—and put it in the reefer box in the Forty Niner Tavern and we were looking in there. We thought that was it, because it can get pretty foul sometimes. But that wasn’t it. And I looked up toward the front of the bar, and in the middle of this blazing sunlight cutting through the cigarette smoke here sits this old wino. He has a Korean War era watchcap in a shade of green that was particular to that era with flaps hanging down over his ears. And he had two or three suits on underneath his big overcoat, because it was below zero degrees outside. And his hands were just—you couldn’t tell what they were because the guy was so grimy. He had on big, heavy army wool pants and I looked down and I could see steam coming off his right boot, this old army boot. And the guy’s face was leathered and beat up. And he had his hand wrapped around a double shot glass of some kind of wine or something. With the sunlight on him, he’s just sitting there with head down—he’s drunk about half of it. And the steam coming off his shoe was coming off a freshly laid turd. Somehow, before he had sat down, he had crapped in his pants and his turd about the size of a scoop of vanilla ice cream had slid down his pants and landed on the toe of his shoe. Just balanced there. And the stink was just ripe. It was horrible. And the funny part was I was only one who got nauseous—ready to get sick over it. The rest of the seamen that were in there—a couple of guys from the hotel, a couple of Indians, all these steelworkers, my girlfriend Carol behind the bar—when I pointed it out they said, “My God, there it is, it’s on his shoe!” They all turned and broke into a rolling laugh, but they weren’t sick. It didn’t bother them a bit. They thought it was funny as hell. Well, I didn’t think it was very damn funny. So I went over to the guy and I told him, I said, “You’re gonna have to get up and leave this place and take that fucking thing on your shoe with you! Get outa here!” Anyway, he drank his wine, got up and walked out the door real slow, with his head bent down. Poor guy, he looked like a refugee from WWII, with that shuffle, like those guys with the tattoos on their arms, given that number from Hitler. Out the door he went, and that stinking thing on the toe of his right boot.
But you know, that’s all part of life of being in a tattoo business. So I thought about that for many, many years. And there’s not a real point to all this that I’m telling you. But before you do anything—before you go about planning a big career move into the tattoo business—you really ought to find out more about what it’s all about. Where you want to go, what you really want to do with it. I mean, do you have any tattoos? In other words, before I give you directions to build a bomb you better know what the hell you want to do with the damn thing after you get it finished. Because most of the people who got into this business have a real kinship with their customers in that it really gets into their blood, so to speak, and you keep coming back for more. They stay in it. And I’ve seen real good tattooers just go nuts. Actually, one of Mike Malone’s that came in my shop, what was his name—from Germany—Freddy or something. Anyway, he went back to Germany and he was one of the very first ones on the crack of the wave of the tattoo scene and he took Germany by storm. It was 24 hours a day and it got to him so bad that he had a breakdown and went off to the hospital. And I haven’t heard anything from him since. Mike will know what I’m talking about.
But the point of it is I can tell you right now, don’t take it on your own to try and do this or experiment with anybody. And here I am telling you exactly what I did, and a lot of others did, experimenting on their own. I can’t say it’s a mistake but it’s just a better approach to go into a shop of maybe the guys who’ve been doing your tattoos. I’m sure you have a bunch, right? And talk to them. Bring your artwork in to show. I’ll tell you what, there’s been a phenomenon in this business that went right past me. I missed it. Only just now am I getting to find out about what’s going on. I call them entrepreneurs. They have a job with the transit system or maybe they’re in the bricklaying business in the daytime and they have ten or fifteen tattoos, so now they decide they’re going to have a tattoo shop. They go down to Ocean Boulevard in Jacksonville, Florida, and they rent a little store. They put an ad in the paper and they hire six or seven guys and they give them 35% of the gross to sit in there and tattoo. But if they don’t have the equipment, by God, they send off to somebody up north and buy all the machines and the designs and the tools to do the work with. And that’s one way to do it. And they just get together like a big Chinese cluster-fuck and sit there and mark each other up and everybody else that comes in the place.
But that’s one approach, I suppose. I think it’d be better off though if you did find somebody who had a reputation and they would sit you down and let you watch and talk. That’s really the way to get started. Hand to hand—kind of like the old-fashioned apprenticeships used to be at the shoe repair shop. After about a year, they eventually let you put a heel on somebody’s boot, you know?
And also, this is another kind of business where you want to get next to the best person you can. If you have some serious art abilities or training and everybody goes “oooh” and “aaah” when they see your painting, then evidently you’ve got the kind of ability that you need today to succeed in the business. Most of the old time guys are what we call mechanics—take a pattern, slap it on your arm and follow it along. There were some guys that could make it look like Rembrandt. You could tell, it was sort of a mechanical follow-the-dots sort of a deal. But today, when you’ve got so many great people, it just blows me away. I never knew Brian Everett was an oil painter or a portrait artist before he got into this. I just didn’t stop to think like that. The scope of the way I thought was pretty much limited to the tattoo community that I developed myself in. And it didn’t include people like that. And today Mike Malone says I’m the last guy to find out anything. I don’t know—he’s probably right. But today I’m beginning to find out these people in fine arts are getting into tattooing. I’m beginning to think, is there more money working in tattooing than there is working in the art department at some big magazine? And evidently some of them actually like tattooing. So then again, you have to think very carefully about what you say or what you do around this or any other business. But especially in tattooing, because most of the people who are in tattooing are pretty down to earth. There’s not a lot of fiction in tattooing like a lot of people would think. When a guy comes in and you work on him two or three hours and he gets up and runs out the door with your money, that’s pretty real. It’s not a real good example either but—also I don’t just sit there when I’m tattooing somebody. I’ve got something to say. I ask them what’s going on and you get to hear a lot of what’s really happening in the rest of the world. The kind of people I work on are everything from deep sea divers to CEOs of major corporations.
But again, you need to learn or find out more about what tattooing’s all about before you decide I’m an artist and I want to be a tattoo artist. Find out something about it first. Go to a tattoo convention. There you go. Hang out with all those drunks after the tattoo room is closed and they’re all in the bar slinging shit at each other, wrestling around in the parking lot like Bob Shaw and I used to do, drunk as hell in the grease. Things like that. Then that’ll give you more of an insight and whether you really want to be a tattoo artist or not.
See ya.
—Zeke.

Got a new job. Broke up with shitty bf. Discovered jagerbombs. Looking forward to starting my tattoo fund for whatever my next tattoo may be.

Cruised down the road to put fuel & air in the motorcycle this morning. Said to the Misso, be back in 15. Thought I'd extend the ride a little further. Next thing I know I'm banging the motorway north, then hit the Glasshouse Mountains, thought I'd better roll through a couple little country towns...oh, fuel stops needed & rolled a smoke. Not a cloud in the sky with a little nort easterly blowing @ about 17 degress. Rolled down the mountain, back on the motorway banging 6th gear cruising at $1.20 back to home.
4 hours later and 350 K's. Yeah! That was fuckin awesome. Not a care in the world.

Eff what you've heard. Don't worry about what is common. Get tattooed for yourself without concern for what other people do. That starts with not caring whether how you approach it is similar to how others approach it. Before there was an internet and the false assurance of general consensus there were people getting tattooed any way they could. Don't worry about whether it's normal, just worry about whether it will work.
The one thing I would say, as a tattooer... do not compromise the image. Don't go the cheap route, sacrificing the quality of a permanent tattoo on your permanent body to meet your temporary means. Your body is forever and you will regret it...eventually if not instantly.
And when you have an artist that you trust to do it, take his or her advice. They may say to hold off til you can afford a large enough portion that it will look fluid in the end. Don't try to get one corner done, then a little over here and some in the middle if it will look like disjointed sections poorly stitched together. Always be thinking of the whole. Some styles can be tackled in sections but much of the beauty of a back piece is its wholeness as a large piece. Sometimes this means a whole outline of the principle image has to happen first.

I know you've said you're looking for an apprenticeship, so firstly -- and this is not coming from a pompous holier-than-thou attitude -- tread lightly here. One of the reasons we've lost solid contributing tattooers to LST is for this very reason. Every few months someone joins up and says, "Hey, I want an apprenticeship, what's the problem?!" The forum is here to help and to share -- but not when it comes to technical how-tos and certainly not when it comes to the ins-and-outs of getting your foot in the door.
Second -- and this is coming from only a very slightly more life experience -- go get tattooed. I know you've got two tattoos.. But apprenticeship aside, if you want to learn about tattoos and that world, go. get. tatt.ooed. Make that your primary goal, put the apprenticeship out of your mind. How do you know that you want to commit your life to something when you've only got two tattoos? I bet things will be a little more clear after having spent more than a few hours in a tattoo shop.
Tried being as nice as possible here and there's a good chance it's as nice a response as you may get.. It's not that it's a cult or that people are assholes. Take a step back. Listen to what people are saying. Godspeed.