Your tattoos are your bona fides–they show what you, as a prospective tattoo artist, are interested in, who you are, and what you’re hoping to accomplish. Having kanji and fucking flash work shows you put no thought whatsoever into your ink, that you don’t care, and that it’s a status symbol rather than a passion for you.
What you need to do is sit your ass down, find out what you’re passionate about, and base your tattoos around that. Me for instance–I’ve got a life long obsession with skulls, zombies, and a life philosophy based around the idea of Metallica (if not the band itself). Most of my tattoos reflect that. Got a zombie squid, a skull gauntlet, and am looking to get a steam-punk inspired cyborg squid, and am going to sleeve my left arm out with a zombie T-Rex.
They’re not serious subject matters…but they show the kind of art I appreciate, and it’s reflected in the tattoos I draw.
Love. Peace. Metallica.
When you assume things it makes an ass of u and me. I have kanji already. I not vapid. I’m not skanky. The kanji I’m getting represent my life philosophy. It takes COURAGE to have a DREAM which will bring you JOY but there is no happiness without PAIN, and you need STRENGTH to survive. So, no offense, BITE ME.
And that celtic knot, overused though it is, represents one of my passions. Your body must be connected to your mind and soul. Three parts. A trinity knot. Also represents my religion. Maid, Mother and Crone. The triple mother goddess, so again, no offense: SHOVE OFF.
My tattoos will all have a deeper meaning integral to WHO I AM. Or they will represent something I find beautiful in some way. So no offense, but I will choose my tattoos, not you, since its my body they are decorating.
Slainte.
Hmm.. I’d love “Bite Me” in Kanji! 😀
I agree with you though… tattoos are a personal choice, and there can really be no wrong or right in such matters. Anyone that suggest to someone else that their tattoos mean they are in any way inferior, needs some serious head readjustment.. preferably with the flat of a shovel.
Back to the idea of apprenticing. i was thinking about this earlier. This thread started with someone saying they were an Art Student.
Did they teach that for free? I wonder…do they pay art students minimum wage?
Hmmmmmmm.
Seems to me everywhere I’ve looked you have to pay some serious money to major in Art. In some cases over $20,000.00.
Isn’t it interesting that someone will go to college, pay out some serious cash and study for no pay for four years to get a degree they may or may not ever be able to use, but expect to be handed the skills to be a tattooist for free…and even get paid for it?
Fascinating.
Did they teach that for free? I wonder…do they pay art students minimum wage?
Hmmmmmmm.
Seems to me everywhere I’ve looked you have to pay some serious money to major in Art. In some cases over $20,000.00.
Isn’t it interesting that someone will go to college, pay out some serious cash and study for no pay for four years to get a degree they may or may not ever be able to use, but expect to be handed the skills to be a tattooist for free…and even get paid for it?
Fascinating.
AGAIN WITH THE FUCKING ASSUMPTIONS!!!
I made it into my art college on a fucking scholarship. I only have to pay $2000 of the tuition for the whole year so back off already.
I never said I wanted a paid apprenticeship. I said I was looking for someone to teach me. And I am. I might not have the money now, I might not have the skills, but someday I will. Who knows what I could become?
And BY THE WAY: I plan on actually using my fucking degree. Huh. Fancy that.
Ahhhh…stepped on a raw nerve there did we?
You can get an apprenticeship on a “scholorship” also. Paying is only one way to go, working for free is the other.
your right…who knows what you could become? But I’ll tell you what, if you let me push your buttons so easily over a computer, you’ll never make it through an apprenticeship in a studio. You think I’m an ass, wait til you land your gig. You better get a tighter reign on your emotions if you plan to get an artist to teach you.
Last apprentice I knew was required to wear a shirt that had “SHOP BITCH” Across the front and back of it. The owner purchased 10 shirts for him and he had to wear one every day for a year before he was allowed to wear anything else.
Is it right?
No, but tattooists are difficult to deal with. There is the exception. Not all tattooists are pricks. Not all are users, but many are and if you want to make it you better understand that.
Oh yeah, and one more thing. You might have gotten in on a scholorship and you might not have to pay much…but someone does. The school doesn’t teach for free.
You can get an apprenticeship on a “scholorship” also. Paying is only one way to go, working for free is the other.
………………………..
Last apprentice I knew was required to wear a shirt that had “SHOP BITCH” Across the front and back of it. The owner purchased 10 shirts for him and he had to wear one every day for a year before he was allowed to wear anything else.
………………………
Oh yeah, and one more thing. You might have gotten in on a scholorship and you might not have to pay much…but someone does. The school doesn’t teach for free.
Yes, that’s a raw nerve. I get alot of people who assume since I go to an art school that I’m rich and uppity and not willing to put in several days hard work. My mum manages apartments in Clifton. Her weeks average at 70-80 hours of college bullshit. I work with her every summer and every spare day that she needs help that I’m free. Having it assumed that I won’t work hard to get to a dream… It runs right through me.
I’ll start looking for a “scholarship” situation near me.
And that shirt would’ve been a laugh for me. I wear similar shirts for the hell of it. And because I find them funny. Call me crazy.
My scholarship is mostly paid by FAFSA so the governments paying. And the other half is being paid by a private donor who liked the portfolio I submitted.
I’ll start looking for a “scholarship” situation near me.
And that shirt would’ve been a laugh for me. I wear similar shirts for the hell of it. And because I find them funny. Call me crazy.
My scholarship is mostly paid by FAFSA so the governments paying. And the other half is being paid by a private donor who liked the portfolio I submitted.
An apprentices biggest “weapon” is his or her portfolio. Artwork that translates well to skin and shows a knowledge of color and irony. The larger the portfolio, the bigger the possibilities.
some make a common mistake in using inferior supplies to do their work. Tattooing is “Like” painting, but it isn’t painting, use pen, pencil, colors like prismacolor, and work on finest quality art tablets. Tattooists don’t just know tattooing, they also know art supplies and if you use crap it’ll hurt you. spend the money to have the best work and you’ll have the best chance.
Hi
To get a scholarship is a damn fine achievement in itself and I am sure that you will make a great artist – lets face it they don’t subsidise ppl who cannot draw.
Also i think what S.Neill was putting across is that no matter the skill you have to be able to take a lot of flak in the industry simply because there is no room for the weak, unskilled, or highly emotional.
I certainly found in my own work apprenticeship I got baited a lot – in a way it helps me deal with teh abuse i get daily from scummy clients.
I personally don’t hand out that sort of treatment to the ppl I train but I do warn them that you have develop rhino skin to survive and don’t let ppl push your buttons with a few well placed words.
I would certainly love to share some of your work if you feel like making an album – it also gets you some feed back from the pro’s on what they would be looking for in a portfolio.
Take Care
Matthew
Never said you were. I said that the fucking brainless co-eds who inhabit my college get them because they don’t give a shit. It’s a sign of petty, fashionable rebellion, by people who don’t understand what tattooing is, the ineffable, spiritual, undefinable art that it is.
And when you get the same flash work bullshit those vapid morons of both sexes get, you get lumped in with them because any idiot can walk in and point at a kanji on the wall and say “I want that”.
It takes vision to come up with a good custom job that represents what you want.
As for biting you, well, I am newly single again. If you’re in the Cincinnati area, feel free to look me up.
All I heard was blah, blah, blah, justifying retcon for my craping celtic knot. Like tribals, Celtic knots can be gorgeous works of art in the right hands, yet you choose another piece of flashwork that some tattoo shops mass produce on the skin of those who, again, don’t understand tattooing.
If you want something significant, don’t go with a piece of flash–it again shows a complete lack of vision, and says you don’t take this seriously. Besides, if it’s a mass produced, almost corporate image, how can it BE meaningful other than a status symbol?
I’m trying find a cute way to turn shove off into something perverse to annoy you, but, unfortunately, I don’t appear to be that witty.
Slainte.
Well you got a point there. It *IS* your body, and if you want the same meaningless bullshit that everyone in the universe has and then claim it makes you unique and a rebel, well then, I suppose it is not, in fact, my business.
Also, I’d listen to Neil and Matthew. Those two know their shit.
My sister’s best friend Joey (who’s the kind of artist I want to be when I grow up) just got an apprenticeship in Chicago….making ten dollars an hour.
I’m not refuting or even trying to argue with you man–again, you’re more or less who I want to be in twenty years. I’m just saying, again, that he’s the fourth guy I’ve known in the last couple years who’s got taken on as a paid employee during his apprenticeship. Listening to the artists and apprentices I’ve been hanging out with over the years, I’m seeing that every shop and artist handles apprenticeship differently, because I’ve known just as many guys who worked for knowledge, or even paid for it.
Hell, my current artist told me he got hired on as a paid employee to his original shop out in Colorado.
That doesn’t make your way wrong–hell, I’d pay you to apprentice me (if you’d have me) when I graduate if I didn’t have two artists already interested in me here in Cincinnati. But, did you ever consider that maybe regional differences dictates what’s common for apprenticeships in your neck of the woods vs. how it is elsewhere?
Now, granted, I don’t expect to get paid for my apprenticeship if either of my guys comes through for me, and would pay to follow this stupid ass dream of mine, but it doesn’t seem outside the realm of possibility.
Love. Peace. Metallica.
Knighthawk,
I hope you make it. You’ve got the attitude to follow through, and maybe that is just the way here in Texas, hell if you can get paid for it, go for it. If you were in Texas I might just put you to work…but youo aren’t, and I couldn’t pay you if you were.
I plan to open another studio within the next five years and my next studio is going to be placed for money. Talk to me then and you might be able to get paid.
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