Tattoooos!!!

Hi everyone.
Well - as very few of you know - I work as a piercer (and trainee tattooist), I'm a big fan of tattoos (good ones and crap ones), so was wondering whether there are any others out there who enjoy a bit of painful artwork?
Well, I start this thread now becuase I recently had a big piece of work finished on my ribs that has taken so long to complete! It's based on the Joanna Newsom Ys album and was done by the wonderful Rachel Baldwin at Modern Body Art Birmingham. Thought I'd share it and let anyone else share their new/old pieces. I've got lots of other random stuff on legs and arms but won't post all my tripe :P



I have worked on some small bits for friends, nothing worth posting (my favourite being a carrot). Here's some artwork I've drawn up for friends who are my guinea pigs..


(start this on Friday - can't wait! )
(the design my boss is letting me do next week :'))

So, anyone else care to embarass themselves or enliven us with your body art ?

Thankss. Nothing yourself then senore??

Thanks!
YES! I love old tattoos haha. What does your calligraphy mean? Or is it just visual only


Thank you very much hednic

LOL! Especially with "Master" on your back

No one else?? D:

I have a sakura blossom up my inner forearm - but it's much more cartoony than that beauty
It looks like a tattoo to me: you'd be amazed at modern advances in tattoo artistry. For example:
Amanda Wachob is doing beautiful watercolour style tattoos
which I think is stunning
And the brilliant Xoil Loic does some very unusuall composed pieces in a new kind of trendy-french-graphic style

Would love some of this work

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Haha, that's very kind thank you, hope you're keeping well!

I find the thing with tattooing (unless of course you have like, just one or two and you think of them as "your tattoos") - they become "your skin" so quickly that, you don't think of them as tattoos that look dated or aren't your style - they are they for so long they are just "you". Like, even though I'm a bit patchy in parts, I just think "that's my leg" not "that's my leg with random tattoos on it" P.S Thanks 30 Roses x

As for the old and wrinkly - you can either have old colourful artwork covering your old wrinkly body or sunspots and veins :P I prefer the first one!

"Scentapede" post a picture of it so far!

Thanks Doog! Yeh well - I picked Rachel becuase I like her traditional style - she reworked the cover for me to whack her own signature on there - I love it! And so glad to have it finished - legs...arms...easy peas, but this was another story - literally after the first hour I was like "What the holy hell have I started" - so painful

Sounds ace! Post some pics dudee I don't wanna be the only on with snaps of my nipples out on here :|

Lol, me beginning to tattoo properly is many many months of practice away yet :')
But thanks! In total I sat for about 16 hours :| I know that sounds excessive but, there was a hellofalotta linework in the hair etc, and we broke it down into lots of sessions (about 5).

Yeh it's without a doubt the best studio in the Midlands, brilliant artists there. All doing their own unique thing.

Just changed the picture to the one Rachel took when it was just complete - didn't realise it was online
Anyway guys no more pictures from anyone? Surely not D:

Yay!! Thanks for sharing CologneJunkie - wide mix there - I love the random penguin - I'd like a penguin or a giraffe, like a big detailed one

awesome silverbullet - love old school tattoos, thanks for posting and a great little memory to go with it!

Thanks for sharing Nasenmann !!!

Hi guys
A quick update, things have been really exciting at work recently. I'm still full time piercing, but I've been taken up as the tattoo apprentice. I'm working under PERFECT conditions. I'm still getting paid my wage (and the money from the tattoos I do goes to the big boss instead which is all discounted, and he has helped me hugely in kick-starting my tattooing). I don't have to do the boring basics, of small flowers, stars and lovehearts and letters to begin with - instead I get to draw up all my own work and take custom work - something which many tattoo apprentices won't get to do for years down the line. I can literally do whatever I want and say no to whatever I want - it's amazing The current artists are a little intimidated becuase I'm picking it up so quickly after pretty much practicing on some close friends, and my own legs for the last 6 months or so.
So here's some of the recent things I've started (and some completed) - let me know what you think

Ben's finished ice cream - freshly done.


Flower pot lady - freshly done - getting adorned with beautiful colours this Saturday


Some Bees on my uncle - freshly done - one is better than the other becuase the one on the right was completely freehanded as he decided after he wanted two - still, my first attempt at a non-cartoony style


Futuristic space city on my boss - can't wait to add colour to it and have a big sunset in the background, it's going to look epic. All those straight lines were a nightmare!


Did these this morning on a regular customer who I pierce quite a lot. It was her first ever tattoo and she let me do it! Also my first ever black and grey (it will get lighter as it heals). She sat so so well


Yay!

It's just excess ink from wiping. The girl who had it was sooo good - she said she could have slept through it. I've been told I'm light handed already so that's great hahah.
But the futuristic one is huuuuuuge :P Was so scary doing that! Thank you though mumsyyy.

If you like it initially you probably always will (providing it is tattooed nicely) - after a while it stops becoming a tattoo and is just part of your body. I pay as little attention to my tattoos as I do the blank skin

Lol!!! The shark stump makes me uncomfortable :') Haha. There's another guy out there online who tattooed a giant fingernail and wrinkles on his stump so it looks like a giant thumb D: !!! I love looking at terrible tattoos online - it's sad that so many out there don't realise you can't go to your local tattooist for a portrait - if they can't draw a photorealistic picture in pencil - your tattoo won't come out like it either!





UHOH :')

Some more recent work of mine


russian doll on my boss' mum! (will need a touch up!)


finished flowerpot lady - the colours turned out amazing!



did this today: it's half finished outline, doing the tail (which goes down to her knee on Monday - then many months of colouring and shading!)

Aw thank you mumsy That means a lot! I'm coming on good haha. xx

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Finished the peacock outline today ! Cannot WAIT to start colouring this beauty in - it's gonna be amazing



And a standout piece in my start-up portfolio, I hope it brings me in a ton of work

Thanks! I'm so proud of it It's like, my 12th tattoo :') people don't get to do this kindda stuff for agessss normally. Yeh it's gonna be flourescent! My colour work is really really bright so we're doing it all peacock blues and turqoises and greens, yellows - all sorts And have it all highlighted so it looks reflective. Gotta wait three weeks until colouring though.
Starting to colour/shade my boss' leg tomorrow (the futuristic city) and then get some really cool watercolour pieces to do this week which I'm terrified to do! But hopefully will turn out good :')

:P It'll look so awesome when it's coloured and shaded (and will disguise the little wobbles! haha) - yeh people are picking up my stuff really quick whilst I'm offering the prices so cheap - they'll be much much higher after christmas. I have some REALLY exciting stuff to do tomorrow and thursday... OH and friday haha - getting busy and it's all my own artwork, I feel so lucky it's really cheered me up
I know it's HUGE isn't it?! Puts my massive piece to shame haha!
Thanks for the kind words mumsy I so appreciate it x

To be honest, when you're learning and acting like an apprentice, you have to be pretty certain that you HATE something as to not want to do it. At the end of the day - you can't go in at the deep end and do an awesome piece of artwork becuase it won't turn out like that. You need some shit to practice on - becuase at the end of the day, it'll look crap, but you can make a neat job of it. It takes a long time to get to a point where you can simply deny stuff (funds wise as much as not wanting your name attatched to it) - but no one really takes you seriously until you are established, then you can refuse what you like and develop your style. Thankfully, my apprenticeship is a little informal in my studio and I can deny whatever I want. A girl contacted me yesterday and wanted a jack daniels bottle with lipstick and mascara and a necklace around it... I said no - I tried drawing it, it doesn't work, the proportions are all wrong and it doesn't go no matter what way you draw it. Also denying all the black and grey "crouching angels" I've been asked for... painful. Taste varies though.

As for meeeeee, I did something I'm SO proud of today - it was my own painting and I advertised it on our shop Facebook and a girl really wanted it, took three solid hours (to look this messy! haha)





(the writing is not mine)

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More work from today (half finished!)

Yay! Thanks mumsy Yeh I'm using the best brand of inks - the colour stays really good with them - but obviously just, matte, and not slimy like they are there :P
Been getting lots of compliments on them - i really wanna improve that smudgey style.

I've been wanting a bottle of perfume for AGES on me, I was gonna do it myself but, I know I wouldn't make as good a job as I should becuase tattooing yourself hurts too bad haha.

Lol! Your husbands idea is hillarious :')
The maori designs if done right can look beautiful. I was in awe of them when I spent time in New Zealand and how the modern culture had embraced them.