walkins

I know that I was supposed to post pictures of Noah on Wednesday, unfortunately he wasn't feeling well so he couldn't come in. I'll be seeing him this Wednesday though so no worries...


So last night everyone else was booked so I was able to take a few small walkins. I had these two sisters from Australia come in and they wanted matching heart outlines on their feet. I never understood why people want only outlines, but who am I to tell them what to get. If they want an outline, that's what they get. Here's a shot of one of them... I was happy with the linework, it really wasn't too complicated, just took my time.

After these two, another woman came in for her first tattoo and wanted her daughter's names... Anna drew the lettering for her and she liked what she drew, she just wanted a bit more filligree stuff around it. After modifying the drawing a bit we ended up with this....

I was also happy with how this turned out, I wish that I could have approached the swirls a little differently. This was the most challenging so far. I really love to draw lettering, now its time to get really good at tattooing it. There are some things about this tattoo that I wish I could have done differently.... but I definitely learned alot from this one and the next time I do some lettering I'll apply that. This woman was super sweet and the two lovely daughters we with her to see it :)

Meeting really sweet people really made it all the better. It's a bummer when you have people that walk in that are just complete and utter jerks.

I'm not tattooing again until Wednesday... Noah is supposed to come in again. I also have Josh this week to work on his tribal fixer-upper.

More to come.....
Aloha

catch up

So I forgot to get on here yesterday to post my tattoos.

Monday I tattooed two walkins, a small heart on the wrist and small hibiscus on the wrist. Here they are. I was having a really stressful day on top of it.... need to keep my mind focused. Ever have those days when everything you do and say is just off somehow? That was one of those days for me.

This heart didn't stress me out as much as the hibiscus. There are alot of ways that I know to do it better next time. Still need to work on making my lines deliberate, and work on how I'm going to color before I start. Top to bottom.

I struggled a little bit with the swirly lines, but after I chatted with Bill about better stretching, things went just fine. I know for next time now.

This was the tattoo I put on Ashley yesterday.... this went by alot smoother I think and I know she was happy to get it. I think next time I'll use a smaller liner on the flowers, but overall i like the design she picked out, and I got to try out making the brush stroke look.

I get to tattoo Noah again tonight. More pictures to come.

Aloha!

Day 2 with Noah

I got to work on Noah for 2 more hours last night. He sat great! This was the first time that I was left alone the entire time. I have to say that I wasn't so nervous this time around. Since I was going to be alone Bill asked me to stay away from relining the tribal, instead just color in what I could and leave the linework for when him or Anna is around... which I can understand totally. The last thing I want to do is mess up what he has... I'm no where near being confident in my linework yet. Soon enough with more practice I'll be ok....

Here are some more pics.

Heres a close up of the area on his shoulder... used one of the 7's I made to fill it in. there's a light spot at the end of the curve which I could have filled in more with the mag... but to be honest I was too scared to get too close to that point with the mag and risk going out of the lines. After this heals i'll go back in with the liner and clean up the outline and fill in the points. Next time, fill in the points first dummy!

I didn't take a picture of the other side, but after 4 days his other shoulder is already peeling! That's a good sign! No holes. It's still too early to tell if there's light spots or not, but he'll be in again this Wednesday so we'll see then and I'll take some pics.

 Tonight I don't have anything going on, I work the floor with Anna after 5 so we'll see what walks in. The evenings at the shop have been weird lately, either its busy or it's dead... no inbetween.

On another note, saw a huge rainbow yesterday from the condo! figured this would be a good note to end on.

If I get to do anything tonight i'll post pics tmrw.

Aloha!

more tribal

So here is the dude I was telling you about yesterday. he came in and sat for me for about 3.5 hrs. I got alot done! Here are some before and after pics....

here is a close-up of the linework that he had already there....

So here you can see how Anna and I drew some guidelines to straighten out the not so straight linework that didn't really match up right.

After this I lined what I drew and started filling in what I could before he had to leave. Here are some more pics.

here you can see what I started filling in. cleaned up the lines a bit and tried not to overwork the skin. So far no holes! sweet!

it was so sweet working the floor tonight with Scotty and Anna even squeezed one in!

Tomorrow I tattoo Noah's other shoulder again. More pics to come!

Aloha!

recap of thursday

I got to do two tattoos on Thursday and i totally forgot to log it.

These two are some cool people that Noah brought in for me. Miss Liz wanted the word "forever" with some pink diamonds, and the dude Royce wanted some kanjis down his back.

I was super excited about these... I think that I could have done better on the lettering, but for my first script on skin i definitely learned alot and applied that to the application of the kanjis. totally weird tattooing her thigh too. gotta work on my stretching. my biggest thing with the lettering was that i was too damn scared to go too deep and scar her. i asked her to come back when its healed for a touch-up and let me go over what i need to work on. She was a super cool chick, really sat well and already wants me to do something else very small on her. it made me happy to know that she has some faith in me and doesn't know me at all.

my letter consistency needs to be dialed some more so that all the lines look perfect. i've seen ALOT worse in my experience working in a shop, but i sure as hell don't want to give anyone anything less than perfect. this is my first attempt and i intend to improve...

The next one was some kanjis and they came out great! i took what i learned from the lettering and my linework came out alot better and wasn't so afraid of making my lines as much.

This guy was really nice as well. it didn't take me as long to do these either. what really put me in the zone is that Bill left me alone for about an hr after i did the linework to these... this is going to sound stupid but i was totally at peace or something. it was like nothing else was going on.

here's a close up of the kanjis.


I'm excited for this evening! a young guy in the military walked in for a spider on his leg later that night. so i hooked him up with one of our artists at the shop to do that for him, and then i noticed that his entire left arm is outlined only in tribal. soooo of course it wasn't hard to convince him to let me redo the outlines and finish his arm.


i'll post pics of my progress on that this evening after work. then on sunday... noah again! i'm gonna start fixing up his other side! so awesome!


Until next time...

ALOHA

First Tattoo in Hawaii!

So I just finished up tattooing Noah for about 3 hrs. He has some old tribal from about 11 years ago that needs to be refreshed.

Here are some pics from my day. So stoked! Learned alot today! I outlined three large areas and was able to fill in two of them before he had to get going.

I started re doing the outline obviously, then worked up to filling it in.

It was really weird tattoong this area! So stoked on it!  Noah was a really good sport the whole time. Bill sat with me the entire time too. Enjoy the pictures! More to come tomorrow....

I booked some diamonds on the thigh and some lettering!

Aloha,
Tina

First few days

Aloha! It's official! I am here....

Of course the weather is gorgeous, I've just been hanging out with my friend Lorna alot. After about 14 hrs of flying, we went out with some friends to a few local bars, had some good food and had all the fruity Hawaiian drinks we could! HA!

This is what got us through the 14 hr flight.... a sweet layover in Houston :)

A few of these and two Tylenol PMs later, we're here!

I start work tonight just doing sales until Wednesday which will be my first day tattooing on the floor! So stoked! I believe I'm tattooing Noah, a super awesome local guy with some large tribal work on him that needs to be recolored.

I will (of course) keep you posted on that.

Of course we made a few stops to the beach bars and whatnot since we've been here. :)

I'm gonna head down to the beach now.... going to relax a bit and stretch out my super-sore legs after a 45 min run this morning (which I am NOT accustomed to).... I'm going to try my best to run or jog every morning, eat a good breakfast and eat healthy. So far, I've ran 2 days in a row and my legs feel like they're going to fall off!

Here's to a nice, SLOW walk to the beach.

Aloha!

The first step

So today I got to tattoo my Mentor! Bill sat for me while Anna worked with me the entire time. Super stoked! Here are some pics. I didn't do much, just re-colored a flower on his arm that was about 15 yrs old. You can't really see the final product but once I get more pics I'll post those.

These are mostly for my fam and friends that have waited so long for me to get started! I leave for Hawaii tonight around 3am and should be there by 1pm tomorrow Hawaii time. I'm so excited I can't believe the time has finally come. I intend to post as often as I can to keep everyone in the loop with my progress.

hahahah! So much fun! I was sorta freaking out while this was going on, but the biggest thing I have to keep telling myself is to slow the hell down, and take it one step at a time. My biggest problem in general is the fact that I want to get things done quick and efficiently... which can be a good thing when you're sure what you're doing. In this case, I have to take a deep breath and relax. One thing at a time. This is not a race. Once I learn the technical part everything will fall into place.

Thanks to Bill and Anna for bearing with me for the whole hour it took me to fill in the damn thing! One color at a time!

Once I get some better photos of the tattoo close up I'll post those.

By this time tomorrow I will be in Hawaii!

Aloha!

4 days left....

Last few days!

i'm trying my hardest to not stress out.... just had to drop $427 on my damn car this morning for a routine inspection, which turned out to me needing some tires, hoses, whatever. On top of that trying to come up with rent, which was due 3 days ago. i'm so sick and tired of being broke.

anyway, been doing some exercises involving making the "perfect" stencil from a shitty drawing or photocopy and working on shading. basically i've been taking my mentor's stencils and shading them in myself on paper, seeing how i would lay out the black and gray. nothing too fun but its good practice.

i haven't worked on my fake skin in a few days.... been too busy working sales every day and trying to hustle that money to take care of some bills before i leave town.

i'll post some sketches soon.