Jewish Sistas

The other day this really adorable group came into the shop and wanted matching tattoos. We get this all the time, and they wanted script which is also nothing new. I did the ink and they told me this amazing story about how they had just met each other (they're both in their 40s) and discovered they're sisters. Apparently they had a  very promiscuous father who recently passed away and they met each other at his funeral. I thought it was sort of beautiful that on a day that they lose someone they find someone new..

Shortstop From Tokyo Finished!

SO here it is! About 4 more hours of effort and it's all nice and colored. Unfortunately this series of photos was taken under a light so there's an annoying glare. My bad. Also, the white hasn't set in yet so there's some blood turning it pink.. I swear it looks pretty good in person!

Sugar Skull Dagger

Today I spent a total of about 6 hours tattooing this on the side of my boyfriends leg. He designed it and I was really worried about this big long straight lines but I think it's coming along really well and he seems to like it :) This is just at the end of our first session and hopefully we can get it all colored in about three weeks when it heals.

Fiddling

This was taken during my very first tattoo in August of 2010 by my mom.

I was fiddling with my machine a lot.. had a little trouble getting started because I was so nervous. But thankfully the tattoo was on my mom and she was very patient with me.

I know this doesn't really reflect very well on my as it makes me look amateur but so much has changed since the time this was taken that it's fun to reflect... For instance, I went through about 8 pairs of gloves just setting that machine up. As you can see in this picture I'm not even wearing any because I kept getting them caught on the frames of the machine. (In hindsight, they were probably just too big for me) and besides my skill level my appearance has changed quite a lot!

So there. A useless post full of my own little nostalgic feelings. For shits and giggles I spose.

Shortstop From Tokyo

Those who have read my previous posts will recognize the name Austin as he has let me do several tattoos on him which was a big deal when I was very first getting started. He sort of dropped off the radar for a while but he's baaaaack and with some brand new ink. He let me do this on his calf, which I think is safe to say was zero fun for both of us. I have never had to deal with that much twitching from anyone ever. Not even exaggerating when I say he would kick and flex and twitch at least once every 20 seconds. It took probably four hours to get these lines down because I had to wrestle him the entire way. Poor guy claimed it was incredibly painful but sat it out anyway. This is the logo for his band Shortstop From Tokyo (I'm sure they have a website somewhere around here.... ah! yes! http://skaspot.ning.com/profile/ShortstopFromTokyo) go show them a little love.

For All You Nerds Out There....

A frig'n Tesla coil! That's right. Look at all those itty bitty straight lines and circles and tiny handwriting.. I nearly went cross eyed focusing on that for so long. About 4 hours including prep done entirely with a super tight 5 round liner. This was intended to look like a sketch... as it was originally a sketch. Hence the scripted handwriting and what not. Rick was a trooper, didn't ever twitch or whine or nothin'. It's a good thing he was a pleasure because I really can think of very few designs I would be less excited to do but now that it's done I'm glad to have it in my portfolio.

Animal Awesomeness Complete

Here it is! Completed! In case you've not been paying attention, this tattoo took several sessions and is now finally done! I'm so thrilled I could cry. This was hands down (ahurr.. hands... get it? theres a bunch of hands up in the tattoo..) the most fun tattoo I've ever done. I don't know if that's really saying much since I've only been tattooing for about 6 months now, but still. Awesome experience.

Mostly done with a super tight 7 round liner with the occasional grey wash with a 9 mag. Finishing up this last stage only took an extra two hours from our last session so it was nice and quick. I intentionally kept the sketchy feeling, shading, and lines so as to match the style of the original piece. If you're interested, the artist of the design can be found http://nonbunkjunk.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/matty-m-cipov/ PLEASE go have a look! His work is awesome. 

Appealing to Your Tattooist

My mothers cousin (what does that make her to me? my second cousin?) recently got a tattoo done by a female tattoo artist in Washington and she sent me a picture.

She sent this to me because she had looked through this artists work and knew she was capable of creating beautiful imagery but was somewhat dissapointed with how her tattoo came out. The lines are uneven in some places and my cousin was less than impressed with the shading. She sent me this email asking if it looked ok and if it was fixable. 

My response was yes, they're just lines and they can absolutely be fixed. Do not fret!

A few weeks go by and she e-mails me again about her tattoo. This time she says " I have been a huge idiot asking her to do this crappy tiny gray-and-white map tattoo, so now she's drawing up thisawesome scene to go on top of it that will have trees and waves and color and birds and fish, etc- and it might be twice as big and some of the trees might go up my arm"

This was somewhat enlightening to me. She was right! Tattooists are artists who are contained to doing wahtever you ask of them. My cousin noticed this particular artist was very good with nature scenes and loved working with color and has now gone back and asked her to do something she enjoys. I am waiting on a picture to see how it went but I bet she will now be happy with her tattoo :)

The lesson for today, you will be more pleased with the outcome if you find an artist who enjoys doing the work you want done. I relate this to my personal experience where I do not enjoy tattooing text or symmetrical/geometerical designs but love the more freeform pieces with organic detailing and shading.

Yakuza Body Suit

      Japanese are well known in the tattooing community for their body suits. This is a very large tattoo design that envelopes most of the wearers body and has lost most of its meaning in the modern day world. However, traditionally the process of tattooing was called Irezumi which literally translates to “insert ink”. The earliest designs were believed to have spiritual significance and also meaning relating to status within the culture. It was also common for slave owners to tattoo their slaves as punishment or to alert others that they were slaves if they ever escaped. In the 15^th century tattoos began to develop into decorate designs and elaborate tattooing was found on the heroes in book illustrations and so forth. It wasn’t until modernization with the West that Japan sought to make a good impression and outlawed tattooing which gave it a criminal connotation, as it was still commonly used in the Japanese mafia- Yakuza. In 1945 tattooing was legalized once again and, like in the West, is becoming more popular and socially acceptable. It is possible to get a traditionally done Irezumi style tattoo but the process is painful, extremely time consuming, and expensive as the traditional body suit can cost upwards of $30,000.

google gave me the image

Bunny Bits and Fish Faces

Megan came back to see me! Ahhhhh!! yay :)

So this girl has got to be my favorite person in the whole wide world. Why, you ask? Because she tipped me with a home made blueberry muffin and brought me a valentines day card with a pentagram on it.

Ah-may-zing.

Anywho, we sat for about 3 hours and got about.. hmm.. 40% done.

And here are some progress pictures for you! Observe, the atypical shading used here. I drew all the little goddamn fur lines in the bunny and that soaked up most of our time but hot damn it looks good, huh? I'm pretty pleased with how it's coming out thus far and it's pretty easy to tell on here which lines are new and which ones are old. The fish are about half done and have the cutest little fish faces. If you can't tell, I love this design. I wish more people came to me with stuff like this. Nothing but fun.

Useless Post Full of Uselessness

A pointless post updating the world on my chest piece. Obviously, I'm not tattooing my own chest so it really doesn't belong here and in order to not look like a joke compared to an artist who has been tattooing for much longer than I have I will upload this artistic blurry picture I took while I was getting worked on.

Is That a Walrus?

Yes, yes it is.

About 4 hours of work thus far, including making the stencil. With the lines done we have one more session schedules next week to finish up with shading.

update: underestimated this! Didn't get to finish it in one session- search for 'animal tattoo' to see other posts about megans tattoo and the progression pictures posted.

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"

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.

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 :)