S.Neill
@s-neill
Forum Replies Created
Welcome Kaleo and glad ta have you here.
I began my apprenticeship at 18. I’m 41 now.
By the way, both of those tattoos are beyond awesome.
Please quit calling them GUNS. You use a GUN to shoot bullets and kill bad guys and the occasional indian on TV. Cops use GUNS to kill robbers, and bad guys use GUNS to kill anyone. When you tattoo, whether it is a Hyper, Numa, or an Old School machine, then it is a TATTOO MACHINE not a gun. You wouldn’t like it if I tattooed you with a gun, so call it what it is.
Actually you do. Price jumps for tattooing that is. Its kinda like this, people don’t want to touch your junk, so if they are gonna do it they are gonna get paid to do it. I’m a guy, so messing around a gals crotch doesn’t bother me in the slightest, but I’m still messing around a gal’s crotch and I’m doing it professionally, not sexually. I do tattooing and piercing and as a pro I’ve learned that every person is a canvas. When I sit down to work, that is it, they are a canvas, but it is still uncomfortable working in certain areas. I’ll do it, but it costs more.
Now with guys its different. Call me what you want but I don’t want anything to do with a guys junk. Period. I’ve told my wife that if she wants to do genital piercings on guys she’s free to do them, but I won’t. So far she has refused, simply because she isn’t comfortable doing it. Some people don’t care and will do either, or, but I’m not one of them.
In the penis there is a major vein and if you pierce wrong your not gonna be happy, in women there is a chance of permanant sensation loss if done wrong. I think I’d pay more to insure it was done right, by someone comfortable with doing it.
that is some nice work, looks great, I like the vivid greens, the skull work is great.
Had a friend once that drank rubbing alchohol to try to get drunk. I thought it was pretty stupid. Don’t have any idea what the long term ill effects of it was, but I know I”M not going to drink rubbing alchohol.
Nor will I put anything in my skin that glows. Period. There is no way anyone can convince me that ink that glows under a blacklight can be safe. Just my opinion, but I often wonder why people do such things to themselves. There are several other things I won’t do.
I won’t line my house with lead based paint. I won’t insulate my house with asbestos, I won’t drink Drain-O and I’m not putting ink in my skin that glows under a black light. All of those things belong in the same category as far as I am concerned.
To Both of you, this is not a forum for advertising your stuff for unlicensed tattooists to purchase. We do not help people get tattoo equipmenty here for them to screw up someone else with. This is not ebay. I will be forwarding this post to a moderator and hopefully they will remove it and ban both of you from this forum.
Ohio only says riders in their first year or under 18 gotta wear a brains bucket–a passenger has to wear one only if the driver does. I’m kind of two minds of helmet laws. On one hand, they make sense. They’re annoying as fuck, but they do makes sense. On the other hand….I don’t wanna.
Love. Peace. Metallica.
Texas only reguires you to wear a helmet if you are under 21, I rarely ever wear one and I’ve been riding most of my life. Irf its raining or cold I wear a 3/4 helmet, if I go to Ft. Worth, Dallas, or Houston I’ll wear a helmet, otherwise I don’t wear one. I never use sunscreen any more, and I’m sure my tattoos have faded, but not sure its much of a drastic difference. My arms are about 9/10 black and gray, and my legs are 100% black and gray, there is not a great deal of difference in color between the two. Maybe that is just me though.
Could it also be caused by the sun. Exposing the tattoo to the sun too early. Someone told me that, but for some reason, I’m not sure if I believe that.
Its easy to do and even pros sometimes do it. Usually it can be avoided, and it should be but I wouldn’t blacklist the artist for it. At least not in this case, it seems somewhat slight. I’m not trying to defend him either…obviously I don’t know him…and a good artist should never have a blow out like this, but like I said, it happens. Usually it happens when you “float” the needle instead of setting it. I float mine, and with a small detailed piece you almost have to in order to maintain line integrity, so you are working more by feel and instinct, and that is when something like this generally occurs.
Try using undiluted green soap. I keep a little small bottle of undiluted, pure concentrated green soap nearby just for this, and it works well. I’ve tried everything until one day I did this by accident, grabbed the wrong bottle, and it works better thaqn anything else I’ve tried.
I never cover mine, and I ride Motorcycles most of the time. Tattoo Goo and a couple other companies make a sunblock for tattooed skin
about 70% of my body is covered in tattoos, and tattooing is my profession, and has been for some time. I never picked a tattoo to pick it. Everything I have either means something or was done for a purpose. I have a story for each one becaause they represent something in my life, in my make up. They symbolize a struggle, an accomplishment, a success, or failure. My tattoos are full of pain and joy, loss and gain, and they have become the roadmap to my life with my entire life’s story carved into my flesh.
Not all of them are great quality, many of them are very old and difficult to read to anyone but me. Some of them spoke of tiimes of my life that I find so distasteful today that I’ve chosen to cover them, but even in that there is a great unfolding of the story of my life.
All tattoos have meaning, and if yours don’t, then the emptiness of their meaning is a meaning in itself, it speaks of the shallowness of your soul, and the emptiness of your life. I try to impress upon each of my clients the very fact that a tattoo is a visual depiction of something in your life. Make it mean something.
I can see how these scratchers can seriously f*** up pros’ buisnesses. That is not something I ever thought about before….probably because I’m not a tattoo artist, and therefore I wouldn’t think about those things. It makes sense though, and it would piss me off too.
So anyway, assuming a guy is working in a tattoo shop….with a nice portfolio of work…with art school degrees hanging on the walls, and a tattoo license, how do you tell if he is the real deal or not?
I always just judged him/her on their portfolio.
Irishman, I wish there was a simple answer to your question. Working out of a house does not automatically label you a scratcher, though 90% of them are. Some of my friends…not locally…have built studios in their homes. The studios are professional quality, they handle their business professionally, they charge professional prices, and do a professional job. One of my friends on this very forum has done just that, and had his home studio inspected by his local health department. He exceeded their standards and now carries a license. He is undoubtably a pro.
Likewise not all artists who tattoo out of a studio are pros, though again, about 90% of them are. Near my location is a studio. I won’t mention the name. The owners are drug addicts and they regularly have beer keg parties there. I have made a good amount of money fixing and reworking work that has come out of their studio, and several of my customers come in here telling me stories about how dirty and nasty that studio is and how they will never go back.
But if you pull up this studio’s website and MySpace Page you will see portfolios that depict awesome top end work. They have been featured in tattoo magazines, and they brag about that, claiming to “Dominate the Industry”. so…what gives?
There is another Studio nearby in Ft. Worth, that is named for its owner who is a relative celebrity in the tattooing industry. He charges outrageous prrices, works by appointment only and his work is less than impressive.
Here’s a cold fact in the tattooing field. Portfolios are made up of pictures of tattoos that have been finished all of 5 minutes. they are bright, bold, fresh, and look better than they ever will again. In six months the colors will have dulled, and any problems will be more than apparant.
So back to your question: How do you tell? I don’t have an art degree hanging on my wall. Does an art degree make you a tattooist? Honestly, the whole art degree thing is a relatively new developement in tattooing. They don’t teach tattooing in college. I’m sure an art degree helps. It goes hand in hand that the better artist you are the better tattooists you can be, but an art degree does not make you a tattooist.
You might be able to paint the Mona Lisa, but not be able to tattoo a straight line. Now TATTOO the Mona Lisa and I’ll be impressed. You say he has a great portfolio, well maybe he does, I don’t know, I aint seen it.
Here’s the deal, this whole thing started with me anyway, because I got the impression this guy tattoos out of his house. If he tattoos in a shop then I have no place to comment at all, but I still stand by what I said, he should have told you it was too small and redesigned it to work.
If he is in a shop, then do your research. Check out his portfolio, and look at finished work over six months old. Talk to peoplke he’s tattooed, ask him if you can watch him work. Check other studios and compare their work, and portfolios. Find an artist that focuses on the type of work you want done. Its not out of line for you to ask for thier autoclave reports to see if they pass spore testing, its not out of line for you to ask for a tour of the studio and look for cleanliness.
