How to start practicing tattoo.
Subject: tattoo practice.
-Subject: tattoo practice.
No matter if you have started apprenticing with a shop or working towards that goal knowing how to practice will just always be beneficial to build your skill set, So lets see how do you start off if you are starting from zero, first I’d assume you already have a machine, If not you can get a tattoo machine online, there are two main kinds coil and rotary. If you are completely new to tattooing getting a rotary would be easier to handle, Coil machines are more geared towards thick lines thus better for old school work, I’s say for the first 1-2 years you’d be working on fake skin(plastic) or you can be a little hardcore and get some pig skin. So you’ve tone your machine what should you do now?
1.Get fake skin or pig’s skin from a meat store to practice on it, One very important note both fake skin and plastic skin is much harder then actual human skin, If you use the same power you use on these you’d damage the human skin, but they are the closest thing to go for. For fake skin you can buy online and for pig skin you can talk to your local meat store owner to save some up for you. As for what should you practice on it, you should do simple straight lines and basic shapes like cubes then you can work up to a portrait, The main goal is to be comfortable with your machine and work out how’d you hold the machine, I’ve changed around 3 styles of holding until I get to my current form. Don’t be scared if your lines look terrible it takes time and practice.
2.Learn portrait drawing. If you haven’t yet I’d suggest learning portrait drawing with pencil and eventually work towards doing it on fake skin. By learning portrait drawing you’d learn proportions and shading skills. One thing which is great is that you could emulate a real tattooing process by looking for the subject, create a stencil and transfer it on your fake skin. But for starters after learning it with pencil and paper try the achieve the same tones on your fake skin.
3.Study tattoo works you like. Open up a file on your pc to collect pictures from artist you like. Ask yourself questions like how did they do it and draw over it, Also doing a study on it is a great way to learn. The meaning of a study is to copy it as best as you could. Copying has a bad feeling to it nowadays, But if you look back even in renaissance copying your master for years is always a preferred way to learn. So just do it, every great artist before you has done it, just do it.
Hope this helps you starting off, If you’re looking for a shop these experience will definitely make you look better then the other guy, make things happen.
Keep growing,
-Din
More reading:
Hello Folks, Studying value is one of the most important task as an artist, And even more so as a tattoo artist since we don’t have full access to full values when we are working on skin. So today we’re going to do a mid tone study.