You want to see what kind of skills are currently prevailing in the tattoo community? Take a look at the works of
Pat Fish,
Tom Renshaw,
Kim Saigh,
Josh Woods, ,
Paul Booth,
Meghan Hoogland,
F. Kirk Alley, and
Tom & Mick Beasley. Not humbled yet? How about
Aaron Bell,
Bob Tyrell,
Henning Jorgensen, or
Trevor Marshall? This is just a
pittance of the tattoo world’s most superior artists and the monumental excellence of art they provide. Are you ready to count yourself as one of their peers? If you are, then good for you! If you’re not but you desperately want to be, then go get the training that is necessary, like a fine arts class. If you’re not ready and you’re not willing to work hard to get there, then tattooing is not for you. If all you want to do is trace flash and make fast cash, then you have nothing to offer to the continuation and evolution of the art of tattoo. If you have nothing to contribute, then you need to find something else to do.
Anything Worth Doing…..
Ever hear the saying, “Anything worth doing is worth doing right (or well)â€? Well, the same thing goes for learning the art of tattoo. Being an artist on paper is one thing â€" being an artist on skin is another. But before you can be a tattoo artist, you need to learn the other aspects of working in a tattoo studio. Even more important than drawing, more important than tattooing or making money, is knowing how to keep your customers safe. You need to learn how to clean, how to prevent cross-contamination, how to sterilize your equipment, what can be sterilized and what has to be tossed, how to safely protect your equipment and how to properly dispose of contaminated materials. If you don’t care about any of these things, then you damn well had better not want to be a tattoo artist because you will have someone’s blood on your hands faster than you can say "lawsuit". Safety is the number one priority of any reputable artist and studio owner. The way to learn it is to apprentice under someone that’s been doing it and living by it for years.
Once you learn the basics, they will then teach you the art. Learning how to effectively apply a tattoo to hundreds of different kinds of skin without damaging your client can take months or even years. You will be trained in how to customize particular designs to meet the needs and desires of your customers. Through many hours of practice you will learn how to increase your speed, improve your consistency and efficiently go from one customer to the next. You will also learn customer relations and possibly how to run a tattoo business and manage the studio. All under the direction of an experienced artist, who is there to answer your questions, correct your mistakes and give you constant guidance. This is the only truly acceptable way to learn how to tattoo. Even artists that once taught themselves will strongly advise against it to anyone else. If you want to make an impression, don’t be lazy and stupid by trying to take the “easy†road. In the long run, it will only hurt you and potentially anyone you tattoo.
Pure Dedication
I said in the beginning of this article that desire alone would not be enough to make it in the tattoo world. Desire is wanting, but it’s not doing. What you need is a dedication that inspires you to action, and enough dedication to stick with it for the long term. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme; it’s an art form. Some painters become famous and get rich from it, but most don’t â€" and all do it for the love. The same goes with tattoo artists. If you love it so much that you would be willing to do whatever it takes to become a competitive artist with a honed talent, then you are certainly on the right road. If you love the art so much that you would be willing to do it for free, then I wish you all the success in the world.
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