Walkins today on 4th Street

So today I've done two so far. The first one with the lily and the name was an appointment for my coworker but he couldn't make it in today, so he passed one off to me and another to my other coworker who is here covering for him.

So Bill has been on me about doing a color or grey study of the tattoo I'm about to do before I tattoo it. This time I did just that and it really helped me out. It saved me from any guess work while I was working. I've done it before as well, but only after he mentioned something to me about it. I'm going to make sure I do that before any tattoo that I think needs it. I was really happy with this one and hope to get more flowers like this for practice.

This next one was a walkin, the guy picked it off the wall. Only thing we changed was adding color to the ribbon.

More to come.....

Sunday funday!

At No Ka Oi yesterday two girls came in and wanted matching ribbons on their wrists. The stick is a drumstick....


Again another exercise in color and got to play around with pinks.

Next this chick came in... a regular customer at our shop. Just this week she got something else on her chest. She was super sweet and put this on the back of her thigh. Definitely a weird area to tattoo, but with all the stretching practice I'm getting without using an armrest it wasn't as bad as I thought.

The last of the day was this one. Just an outline of the NJ state with a banner and a tiny bit of shading on the banner. It was so weird tattooing him mainly because the skin puffed up so fast! I definitely have to get used to working with darker skin. This guy was super nice and it was also his first tattoo.

Then to today... this walked in first of the day. I was really happy about this one because I got more practice with working with solid color.

Next to walk in was this one.... an old name that needed reworking, and she wanted to add a simple design around the name so that it looked like a bracelet. This is what we came up with.... Sorry about the crappy photo... for some reason the pics came out lighter than the design actually is.

Obviously her skin got super puffed up maybe that's why the photo came out so light.... I hope to see her again so I can see how it healed.

Then the bracelet's boyfriend wanted a kanji design from off the wall. He got it on his forearm and we will add stars around it once hes all healed up.

Another walk in.... really simple kanjis. She didn't sit so well but overall I'm happy with how it came out.

The last walkin of the day so far was this on the wrist. She was really nice and we added some color in the bling stars.

I'm off tomorrow, but will post more when I have more to show you!

ALOHA

Tony's thigh

So on Wednesday Tony and I met up at the South Street shop to outline his left thigh. He told me about a week before this that he wanted a hot mermaid with a clipper ship and water in the background. I was so excited that one of my fellow artists/friends would want me to do something so big on him! So this is what we came up with. This took me roughly 3 hours to outline and Bill was there too.

I'm about to upload the tattoos I did today here on 4th Street. Stay tuned!

More catch up

Due to lack of internet at my house I'm resorting to uploading whenever I'm at work and not busy. So here's the weekend recap....

Im just going to post everything that I've done and then do my best to fill in with comments...

 So I was working on 4th Street the other day and got a few walk ins.... this was the first. Also her first tattoo.

 Then this one was sent over from No Ka Oi and this was her first tattoo.

 Then that same week I was working on South Street with Carlos and a few things came in. This was the second of the day. He was super nice and despite the crappy photo Bill and I were happy with it.

 Next these two girls walked in and each of them got a paw print. One of the girls got hers on the hip so we passed that one to Carlos and I did this one.

 Next was a young woman who wanted a star bracelet. She was really nice and we went with just an outline for now. Maybe another time she will come back for color or shading.

 Then on Friday I worked at No Ka Oi. This girl came in who wanted to let me practice on her! We gave her this which is her last name in Arabic, then she gave me some references for a pomogranate plant on her ribs. I'm going to talk it over with Bill and draw out a design so that we can work on that together. I'm noticing that the simple things are getting easier and easier the more I work.

 Next this chick came in. This was a good exercise in color. Very fun to do and she is going to come back to get a matching one on her other ankle.

After that a couple came in and each of them got this on their inner arm.


More to come......!

Playing catch up

So I haven't posted anything in a few days, so here is what I've been up to. The other night when I posted the holy on the foot, a 18 yr old kid came in with his parents wanting his first tattoo. He came in with a dream catcher design and a logo that he wanted in the middle. Although this design is a bit larger than what I'm working on at the moment, I went ahead and did it. Looking back I should have done a value study beforehand to figure out a game plan, but I just went for it. I talked to Bill about it afterwards and there are definitely things that I could have done differently like put more variation in the values. So today I did a value study so that for next time I know how to better approach feathers. All in all I was really excited about this tattoo and so was the client. Another thing is that he had a 10 yr old scar that he wanted covered, and this was my first time dealing with covering up anything.

I told him to come in once this heals so we can add some darker values to the feathers.

Saturday was my day off and my cousin Jimmy came in to get his first tattoo, his last name across his back. We only did the lettering that day, he's going to add shamrocks on either side of the letters the next time. This one went pretty smoothly, learned some lessons about stretching with Bill there and about proper shading. Next time I think I won't go so dark. Use more lighter values to make the transition smoother.

Yesterday I worked at No Ka Oi and it was fairly busy. The first one of the day was a woman getting her first tattoo, and wanted a ladybug flying off her arm. Bill helped me out with the design and adding the shading around the flight lines to make it look more like the bug was in flight. This was a good lesson in color and dealing with darker skin.

The next was another first tattoo for a young man in love. This one is self explanatory.

This one came in after, something really simple on a med student. He chose a font from our lettering book and went from there.

The last couple of the day were really sweet! They had read my blog and wanted to get something from me, way to take one for the team!!! This went on the one girl and the other got this next one on her wrist :)

This one was really funny and I had a good time tattooing these two ladies. I hope to see them again!


Now off to another day.....

Another day on 4th Street

So I'm working today til midnight, and this one came in about an hour after we opened up. She wanted this on her foot (upside down of course) with the end of the word turning into a cross. She wrote it out herself then I redrew it and this is what we came up with.

Overall I'm ok with this one. I'm fairly comfortable tattooing feet, just not really excited about the design. Next time I do something like this I'll try and talk them into integrating the cross in another way.

Until next time....

Slow days on 4th street

So yesterday and today i'm working at our 4th street Body Graphics. Yesterday I got to do one walk-in, a small little high heel. This chick was really nice and we did it small and simple with a little grey shading. The pic isn't the greatest but it'll do for now.

I felt confident doing this one since it was so small, and she liked it too.


Then today I had the lovely Kim from over at Infinite to come by for a small pin up girl so that I can get more practice. I didn't need as much black in this one because it's mostly skin tones but I did put some grey in the shadows and used a tiny bit of black. This tattoo was alot of fun to do. I took my time and didn't rush, and she let me do whatever I want with the shading.

Overall this tattoo went well... her skin was great so I didn't really have any trouble with the linework. As for the shading, I had a little bit of machine trouble and had to switch shaders. I have to get used to the fact that my machine bogs down when I use thick colors. I also got to try out this peach color that a coworker of mine mixed up. Other than the bleeding in the hair area I hope that the blonde in the hair stays, thats when I started having the troubles. After I was finished with this I messed with my shaders again and I think theyre running much better now.

BIG thanks to Kim for donating some skin for me, and I'll be sure to post healed pics as soon as I can.

Hopefully we get more walkins tonight.... we haven't had one all day... probably the rain :(

Back to Philly

Heres an update on the stuff I've done since I left Hawaii. I got to work add onto this guy's dragon the day before I left the island. He walked in an hour before I was about to pack up. Talk about good timing! We added a tail and I got to touch up a few areas that were a little light. It's really interesting to see how it healed and what I should improve on.

Yesterday was my first day back in Philly... worked at No Ka Oi and it was super busy!! This was the first walk-in, a really nice woman who originally wanted this in color and then once we finished the outline decided to stick with that. I'm not entirely excited about this one, I felt like my lines could have been a little better and I have to admit that I was super nervous working on the floor there. So intimidating to finally be working with all these amazing artists. I felt like after I finished this one I calmed down a bit. Gotta work on my breathing so my anxiety doesn't get the best of me.

Thanks to my good friend (and our sales girl) Rachel - I was booked all night last night! This tattoo went MUCH better than that last back of the neck I did. Her skin was great and she sat good too.

This girl came in next. She got one on each wrist.

Later on in the night this group of three came in. One girl got this on her wrist.

The second kid wanted this wawa bird on his inner bicep. He also had great skin for this and I felt much more confident with my linework. We varied the line thickness too which he liked.

The last guy of the night and third from the group wanted a Sailor Jerry inspired mermaid sitting on a pot of gold. I drew this up for him and he let me do whatever I wanted.

Im going to meet with Bill today and talk about how I colored this. I should have put more color in the tail.

More to come!