His name is Erich Foster. He owns Rise Above Tattoo here in Buffalo, New York. I think he’s one of the best in the biz at his style. I’m honored that he feels good enough about my work to send people to me.

http://m.facebook.com/pages/Rise-Above-Classic-Tattooing/218177484901377?id=218177484901377&refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsearch&_rdr

ArniVidar;110809 wrote:
Did you draw Bob from scratch, or is it a trace job?

So here’s the story. I have a friend that owns a shop across town. He does primarily traditional work. Some girls came in and one of them asked for thisasked for this. He figured our shop would do a better job so he gave me a call and asked if I’d be interested. He…[Read more]

Friend me dude!

I definitely agree with Sherav about what you need in a portfolio.

What I would say about these drawings is that you need more values and contrast in your artwork. To quote Brandon Bond- “When you think you’ve got enough black in a piece, put more in.”

Black makes tattoos. It makes them pop out. Don’t be afraid of it. Also when you use color try…[Read more]

I’m pretty open about my methods. This one started as a quick sketch done in red pencil in an old sketchbook. I refined the line drawing with tracing paper then traced it again on to drawing paper with black micron pens. Then I built up the color values starting with the darkest colors and working to the lighter colors with Prizmacolor colored…[Read more]

Here’s a new one. It might already be sold.

Let the image speak for itself. I would leave out the text. The crucifixion is a very powerful image on its own. I tattoo words on people all the time. One or two words can work in a lot of tattoos but when you do any more than that it can start to look funky because words aren’t meant to be written on an uneven canvas. They are meant to be read…[Read more]

Panter;110065 wrote:
Easy tiger, I was agreeing with you 😉

There’s no law to stop him from calling it a gun, same as there’s nothing stopping me calling my dog a squirrel. It’s not true though…

I quoted you because I was agreeing with you. The animosity was directed at the original poster. I should have known. That dude baits people all…[Read more]

And by your logic we should be calling a sewing machine a sewing gun. They work on the same principle as a tattoo machine.

Panter;110046 wrote:
You can call it a gun if you like, it’s your choice.
The same as I can call my dog a squirrel…

Percy Waters patented it as a tattoo MACHINE. I guess he was wrong though.

It’s a tattoo machine. It was patented as a tattoo machine. Tattoo artists call it a tattoo machine. It doesn’t shoot anything. It isn’t designed to kill.

Call it what you want, but you’re wrong if you call it anything other than a tattoo machine.

Reminds me of the famous Spiderman skin tear tattoo. I used it as a reference for a tattoo that I did to make it look like a guy had camouflage under his skin.

I know a lot of tattoo artists that use sharpie markers and draw right on the skin and they look great. I hate using this method personally. I think that a second or third draft of a drawing is always going to be better than a first draft. You can only do a first draft on the skin. Using stencils and drawing ahead of time lets me be able to plan…[Read more]

Start by using real photos as references. If you want to draw a koi, find a REAL picture of a koi. Same goes with skulls and women and roses, etc… You can’t run before you can crawl. Don’t worry about color or shading yet. Work on your basic shapes that make up an image. Focus on line drawings first.

I use a lot of the above. I also use some other pigments. For me, some go in and heal more solid than others. I do however use inks from the best companies and only from suppliers who sell to legitimate artists. My suppliers basically did a background check on me to make sure I was legit.

Mrchen- You’d get up and leave from my booth, but I still…[Read more]

I agree whole heartedly. I’m working hard at making more solid lines. Unfortunately the line work for this was done a few months ago and I’m trying to correct my mistakes. I’ve been taking on as many script and text tattoos as I can handle to get me better at lines. I’ve been told it takes years and years though.

Still not bad for $200 though right?

I don’t know how to say this without sounding like a jerk. Anyhow, here goes…

This forum bans all unlicensed tattoo tech talk. Questions like this should be answered in person between a mentor and student. I have been an apprentice for a year and a half myself. It was hard to get and I’m almost finished with the traditional part of it and am…[Read more]

Cledus985;109601 wrote:
Looks good, but I see a mistake in the numbers. 4 is wrote out as IV in roman numerals as I can only be grouped into 3.

I was given a painting to turn into a tattoo by the client. The original reads IIII. I didn’t want to deviate because that might be some special part of the painting. I don’t know. I just make tattoos.

yodaddynukka;108705 wrote:
Kore flatmo

I would love to get something from him. He’s an artist I really admire; artistically and as a person.

I’m not a big fan of autograph tattoos either. I’ve never been the kind of person that cares whether or not I meet a celebrity. I don’t remember ever even asking someone for their autograph.

That being said, your tattoo is actually very well done. It looks like an autograph. It’s crisp and solid. I also like that it goes behind your existing…[Read more]