Lynn Still Loves Dragons

Drawn on tracing paper with .02 micron pen and black and white colored pencils used to shade. Reference used, took about 6 hours to complete and is about 8"x6" large.

Lynn Loves Dragons

I absolutely adore drawing dragons.

'Nuff said.

Shading practice. Drawn on tracing paper with .02 micron pen and colored with black and white colored pencils. Took approximately 4 hours to complete and reference was used.

Minimal Lines Maximum Annoyance

A lot of early apprenticeship work begins with script and kanji.  To prepare for this, I practiced my thin delicate lines.

Ambigrams read the same way if looked at upsidedown. These read "Destroyed", "Nobody", "Patriot", and "Sister" and were done to practice clean lines and minimal coloring. about 3 hours of work done with .02 micron pen and prismacolor pencils on tracing paper.


Below, as you can see, I was practicing the alphabet in various fonts. Done with the purpose of practicing clean lines with lettering and minimal coloring. Done with .02 micron pen and prismacolor pencils on tracing paper and reference was used.


Not the most exciting thing to practice, but good to know and helpful in building up your drawing muscles. That sounds silly, but honestly, those machines are heavy and you will have to work your hand to get strong enough to gain the proper amount of control needed to make clean, fine lines.

A Rancid Tattoo

Austin came back for more pain! This takes up the entirety of his inner arm. It was a huge time commitment that consisted of three sittings and a total of about twelve hours of work. That's a ton of solid black! I definitely feel confident with solid colors at this point. :)

If you don't recognize it, this is the album cover for Rancid's "And Out Come the Wolves"

Pirate Update

Here I'm showing the original stencil I made done on tracing paper with .02 micron pens and prismacolor pencils and is about 8"x15" with about 10 hours of work done. The colors were made up by me as it was initially a coloring practice but the lines can be found on deviantart, link not currently available. It was a big project.
 

Changes were made when I tattooed this on my leg. I took away the nautical stars and banner (they might be added again later) and the roses were made huge so that they looked cleaner and more cohesive as a whole. I might ad the steering wheel again but I'm not sure. It really hurts down next to the knee! 


Anywho, here's the updated image of how the lines on my leg have healed. Next week I'll implement the colors shown. :) Very excited to see how it will turn out.

More Tony Ciavorra Stencil Practice

The Ape: A Tony Ciavorra replica with the purpose of practicing coloring in a different style. Emphasis on colored rim lighting and exaggerated features. Took approximately 3 hours to complete. About 3"x4"




The Geisha: A Tony Ciavorra replica with the purpose of practicing coloring in a different style. Emphasis on colored rim lighting and exaggerated features. Took approximately 3 hours to complete. About 3"x6"




The Pear: random assignment from an artist at my shop. He asked me to draw a pear with a banner reading "Life is Good" approximately 3 hours of work, done with .02 micron pen and prismacolor pencils on tracing paper and about 3"x5"




I chose images done by Tony Ciavarro because I wanted to practice the technique he uses for shading. He almost always has some brightly colored rim lighting in his tattoos.



If you're interested, check out this gallery featuring his tattoo work
http://www.tattoonow.com/Tattoos/Tony_Ciavarro/

Queen of Hearts Thus Far

Here we have it, the tattooed Queen of Hearts. Michelle was a trooper. We sat and did this all in one day and it's pretty large. It takes up the entirety of her inner arm (bicep area) and we sat for a total of about 6 or 7 hours that day. That's including the preparation before the tattoo but with only one 5 minute break it felt like a pretty long day.

If you remember the design that I previously posted with the concept drawn up you will notice that some things were changed. Michelle decided to simplify the coloring so that it matched some other tattoos that she had and so it gained a sort of old schoolish feel. The faces were also changed very slightly, mostly because the stencil was blurred and I had to redraw them on, but we were both really happy with how they came out.

What I am most proud of is how much better I've gotten at solid color. That is some nice thick red and black, if I do say so myself. This was my first time working with a light color, such as yellow, so I will be anxious to see how that heals. Also I'm pretty excited about how the details turned out. The designs on her robe, the crown, the thin little Q's and hearts all intimidated me but I think they turned out well.

I'm pretty thrilled with how this went, it was a lovely experience and Michelle is a lovely person. I do hope I get the opportunity to tattoo her again.

Lynn Learns Rim Lighting From Tony

I would also like to include images of art I do when I'm not tattooing. These are easy to recognize because they are all done on tracing paper with a .2 black micron for a lining and colored with prismacolor pencils. This particular image took about three hours to complete.

Here's an example of a piece I did mimicing an image done by Tony Ciavarro because I wanted to practice the technique he uses for shading. He almost always has some brightly colored rim lighting in his tattoos.

If you're interested, check out this gallery featuring his tattoo work
http://www.tattoonow.com/Tattoos/Tony_Ciavarro/

Self Mutilation

I wanted to try tattooing myself.  Here I have the before and after images of how that went.  should have taken the picture before putting AnD ointment on because it made it all shiney and seems like her lips are crooked, which they aren't really. The before image if of how she looked from my first attempt tattooing my own leg. Obviously spotty, really terrible line quality, and as indicated by the stencil, I didn't even bother to fully finish it.Over all pretty terrible tattoo. So I went back and fixed it up a little. I'm so much happier with it now! I think the difference is huge. All done with a 7 round liner. The initial drawing/stenciling took about 4 hours (it's pretty damn big) and then the first tattoo session was about 2.5 hours and my second session where I cleaned up those nasty lines took place about 3 months later and took about 4 hours. More content, more patience, more attention to the details, all contribute to why it took so much longer. I'm certain when I sit down to color it it will take even longer. This project has been quite a time investment!

Are you getting ripped off?

I would like to take a second to talk about the cost of tattoos. I offer my tattoos at a very discounted price because I'm still an apprentice for another half a year. Even at this extreme discount I still hear gruff about the cost! It's important that you consider everything that goes into a tattoo before you whine about our shop minimum.

1) Our time. You get a lot of it. Even the simple tattoos have preparation in some way or another. If you are expecting a custom piece you are absolutely paying for our time. Time spent drawing, making stencils, talking with you about what you want, setting up, actually tattooing, cleaning up afterwards, etc. More goes into than what you personally see or acknowledge.

2) Our talent, experience, and knowledge. You came to us for a reason, right? Because we have the creative juices. If you're going to whine about how much it costs to get a drawing or a custom tattoo or the outcome of the tattoo... Do it yourself. It's easy to criticize a process you know nothing about, and it's hard to appreciate an art that you have never had to hone for yourself. Please try to be appreciative and understanding of the stress and concentration and effort that goes into this aspect.

3) Our supplies. Obviously the expense of a tattoo also has to cover the supplies that we had to purchase in order to create this for you! Tubes, machines, needles, power supplies, shop space, cords, bottles, ink, sanitation supplies, healing supplies, chairs, stands, lights, etc. It's a lot!

4) Permanence! This is something that will last for the rest of your life! Think about that little sexy tattoo you got for 150 bucks and whined about for being expensive. I wonder if there was ever a time you paid that much for an outfit that you wore once, or that only lasted for a couple years. This is an accessory you have forever and ever, which sounds like a bargain to me.

This doesn't cover everything but it seems to sound like an angry rant so I'm gonna wrap it up before it becomes offensive. Hopefully this helps to shine a little light on why artists charge what they do. If you're not getting proper sanitation, proper attention, quality art, or a proper environment, that is the time when you should question their prices.

Queen of Hearts Process

 Alrighty, how about a little behind the scenes? I have just finished my very first custom tattoo design! 

I'm still only working for friends. Michelle requested I draw her a custom Queen of Hearts to go on what will be an Alice in Wonderland sleeve she has been working on. How exciting for me!

Portrayed here I have a few of the steps I took to make this design. The very first one was just a basic concept of what we were looking for and it was a little too detailed for the size she wants (3"x4") and so I had to fatten her up a bit and take out some of the smaller details plus something was needed in order to break up the two characters since the piece is going to be in color and we don't need a big block of red.

The next step was to play around with some color and add the Q details that a playing card would have. I wasn't sure what color the hair needed to be at this point but that's ok, this is about 3 hours of work so far.

I sent the designs to Michelle to see what she thought and she preferred the blonde hair and gave the go-ahead to finish it up. I bolded the tiny detailing on the sleeve, turned her blonde, and squished her together a little so that she's the proper playing card size.

All said and done this is about 5 hours of work and the next step will be setting a date for the tattoo :)

Oh the symmetry!

I had the pleasure of doing this tattoo on my old room mate Jan. He and I had talked a little about him coming in to get work done from me when I had first started tattooing but things got busy and it never really happened.

He moved out a few months after I had moved in and he was closer with my boyfriend (as he was really my boyfriends room mate..) and so i was tickled pink when he contacted me about finally getting a tattoo done!

This is a Polish design... That's about all I know. It was done on his right forearm and he has a matching one on his left forearm. 

I've decided i really enjoy doing tiny details, like feathers and talons, but I really hate doing text. It's so stiff and straight and if you do even the tiniest mistake it sticks out like a sore thumb. I have grown to have geometry as well as symmetry in tattoos. That being said, I did still really enjoy doing this piece and it took about 4 hours.

Done with a super tight 5 needle to line and then switched to a tight 9 for the thicker parts. I really enjoyed using a tight 9 round because of the way the needles are stacked. When you hit very lightly with this round the lines are tiny and petite but then if you hit harder it bolds out to a nice thick line. I enjoy the versatility of this needle size. 

Lynn learns delicacy...

Time goes on and Austin comes back for even more ink from me.

This piece on the right of the logo for The Lawrence Arms I was really excited for. It is currently the most intricate design I have attempted as it has so many tiny little lines that run so close to one another. This took about 4 hours and was done with a super tight 5 needle liner and a couple spots in the crown could be complete with a 7 mag shader. I'm pretty proud of how it turned out and it was after this piece was completed i started to feel like I might actually be able to do this.

The delicacy that I had to learn here was the key. A much more aggressive approach had been taken on previous projects but with such tiny details I had to really take my time and focus on the line work.

Austin brought in a friend who wanted to get an outline of Ohio done with a tiny heart in it. I can't recall the city that it is suppose to be located in.

I went a little too delicate on my first time and had to redo the lines in a touch up (where this photo was taken.. unfortunately blurry picture with a spot of blood in it) but that makes about an hour of work with a super tight 5 needle. Very tiny tattoo.

both people are coming back for more work from me which makes me feel great :)

Lynn learns patience..

I've been told that lines, circles, and solid color are the hardest things to pull off in tattooing. Needless to say, I was a little intimidated.

The first image to the right is on my friend Austin's upper arm. He wanted to the Japanese rising sun. This is a huge piece and it took me a very very long time. We have spent a total of three sessions on this; 1)lines 2)color 3) line and color touch up. A total of about 20 hours of work if you include stenciling, set up, the multiple sessions, and the clean up. I used this design as an opportunity to experiment with different size needles, I used a 7, 9, and 13 mag shader and originally did the lines with a super tight 7 and went back over with a size 9 liner. This was a great learning opportunity and I learned a lot about what kinds of needles i prefer.

A friend of mine named JD was also kind enough to let me tattoo her. She already had an image in her mind that she wanted which she drew up for me. This is my first experience in tattooing a design made by someone else!

This is located on her right forarm and as you can see it is entirely composed of straight lines and circles! What a headache. JD is an artist and so she has an eye for what I'm doing and would instruct me along the way on where she thought needed more attention and what not.

 I actually really enjoyed the experience. She is a very sweet person and tipped me really well :)

Joining the Cobra army

For the entirety of my tattooing experience I have been seeing a man named James who has been incredibly supportive of my career choice. In fact, nothing proves it quite like this picture.

My next tattoo- the Cobra symbol from GI Joe. Took about 3 hours to complete including set up and clean up done with super tight 5 liner and 7 mag shader. It is located on James' left butt cheek.

Hah, you have all seen a few inches of his butt cheek now, whether you like it or not. :)

How lucky am I to have such supportive people in my life?

Practice practice practice...

More and more tattooing went on. I needed more guinea pigs and more practice. I did some very small and simple tattoos (super tight 5 needles) Portrayed here are a few some friends let me do. I seem to be able to get people more willing to let me practice on them if I work for extremely cheap. My shop wont allow me to do work for free because I use their supplies so I offer tattoos as cheap as I can ~25 dollars per session.

These images are of some of the earliest tattoos I did. I learned a lot, I tattooed on body parts I hadn't before (top of the shoulder and behind the ear) and it was more learning experience. I still found myself really nervous and taking much longer to finish these simple tasks than I should be taking. A total of about 3 hours put in between these two and they were done right after another in the same day.

practice hopefully leads to perfect...

Lynn learns humility..

So I have been lucky enough to make a good friend who has sacrificed much of his skin to me. His name is Austin and he is responsible for a lot of the work I do in my early tattoos.

I was eager for another chance to tattoo after my first one and I was fortunate enough to have a friend who wanted multiple projects done. So we set up an appointment and I began the emotional roller coaster once again!

This image to right is what appeared. Eventually. This is a touch up picture which means I worked on that multiple times. This image looks blotchy because it was taken after the third touch up where i went over the color, hence why the red is darker in some areas. It heals to be an even color.

This tattoo, although a wonky and free form design, was very difficult for me. It was the first time I had to color anything and it really slapped me in the face with the realities of tattooing. I went in feeling strangely confident and struggled throughout the entirety of the piece. It took me about four hours each sitting and there were three separate sitting. This is an unusually, and really unheard of, length of time to spend on such a simple piece. But it was my second and I was nervous. I went very slow, took my time, and then felt crushed at the end. I walked away feeling defeated by what I thought to be a very simple project. Not taking failure very well, I began to doubt if this is really what I wanted to pursue.. Maybe I just wasn't meant to tattoo.

But I was comforted by a tattooist at the shop. What he said to me made all the difference. He said not to worry, that everyones beginning tattoos come out awful and it's all a learning process and to not beat myself up. It can all be fixed.

He was right. I scheduled other sessions where I could clean up the lines (from a super tight 7 to a 9 round line) and another to fill in the blotches in the color that formed after the healing. (7 mag shader) And now I feel better about my work, I got a total of about 12 hours of practice from this single piece, and I hope that the wearer enjoys it as well. I assume he does because he has come back for more and more tattoos from me :)

Beginning to share the ink..

I did my first tattoo on my 20th birthday. The nerves were unbelievable but so was the support. I had the privilege of doing my very first tattoo on my mom. Now, I wont go into a rant about how amazing it is to have a mother that is supportive enough to help my career in this way. She has been the sole reason I was able to get where I am today and she has helped me in so many ways. So without the rant, I do want to acknowledge how grateful I am to have her in my life.

She got a formula tattooed on her foot. On the right is a picture I took of it as we finished. It took about fifteen minutes to complete and I was shaking for then nerves, which certainly didn't help. My first time using my machines using size 5 super tight needles with my newly tuned liner and Eternal Ink's triple black.

I will never forget the feeling that I had when I finished. I felt so incredibly accomplished and relieved. I had done it! I had done my first tattoo! All of that anticipation and worry and dread was suddenly gone and I felt as if I were glowing.

When I look back on this I feel proud to call this my first tattoo. I was nervous because I had been told that I will mess up. I will make something I regret and it will be just like every other learning experience. I know this must not be a perfect tattoo but I did so much better than my imagination was leading me to believe I would.

I am a tattooist. :)

Shall we begin?

Ever since I was a little girl I have always been an artist. In retrospect, I was a self absorbed, an immature artist. I believe that if I had been more open minded perhaps I would be creating works I am more proud of at this time. I did not enjoy museums, I did not care about the work my peers did, the internet wasn't available to look through online art, and all i cared about was what I produced. This is until something caught my attention. I noticed art that others were wearing..

The older I got the more I began to notice the art around me. I began to grow a fascination for body art. For piercings, for abstract clothing choices, for colored hair, and most of all for tattoos. 

This interest has persisted into my adult life and it lands me where I am today. It opened my eyes to the art of and on other individuals and I know spend more time observing than I do creating; honing my ability and trying to understand the motif behind the work of others. I hope to soon spend more time creating but for now I'm learning.

For the last year I have been apprenticing at a tattoo parlor and in the last few months I began tattooing as well. 

In this blog I will address my work, the works of others, the world of body modification, the world of art, and this is because it is my passion. I hope to share in a little knowledge of the industry and offer a new point of view to those who may disapprove of body modification. I know not everyone will share my views, and many must not care at all. So if nothing else, maybe I will learn something new about myself in this experience.

A cell phone picture of a recent body of my work put up in a small gallery space 12/2010

See more of my art work at erinlynn.squarespace.com