tattooing - resonanteye

basic lettering for tattoos, script

13th of January 2012

In art, DIY, female tattoo artist, geek, how-to, learning, pictures, questions, step by step, tattooing, tech,

I do not know enough about lettering to call myself any kind of expert.

seriously. (check out some of my art with lettering in it for verification of that)

I am sometimes shaky, I am often confused by fonts, and although I have done thousands of tattoos with text in them, I still struggle with the forms and shapes. I owe the little I DO know about lettering to B.J. Betts, who is well-known in tattooing as a real expert on this stuff- he has some books out, if you are a professional tattoo artist you should keep your eyes peeled for them and buy them. (but if you work in a shop or have been around a while you already own all his stuff…)

I learned to do lettering before I ever heard of his work- the way I learned was through calligraphy, and through sign painting. A combination of those things and Betts’s work has formed my meager abilities.

Here’s a walk through on drawing this stuff. If you’re a tattooer you will naturally make the proper adjustments to the text as you go in order to make it applicable to skin, so I won’t be explaining the precise tech needed for that. If you just want to add a tattoo to a painting, a drawing, if you are not a tattoo artist you can use this how-to to make script lettering … or if you are doodling reference for your tattoo artist to build you a tattoo from, you can do this to give them an idea of what you’re after.

This is a step-by-step for script, cursive lettering in a slanted style in which the letters are connected.

I will post a separate one for block or stylized lettering next.

My tools:

Liquid acrylic ink,

fountain pen

(with round nib- just what I prefer)

colored pencil

(for beginning sketch/marking symmetry)

standard black #2 pencil

tracing paper, paper that is easy for ink lines

(I am using a scrap of srches hotpress here)

The rest of the steps, after the jump.

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on learning to tattoo.

6th of January 2012

In apprenticeships, deep thoughts, DIY, dos and donts, ethics, female tattoo artist, health and safety, how-to, learning, questions, step by step, tat zap wizard, Tattoo, tattooing, tech, you,

I get a lot of people asking me how to get started, wanting to show their art and find out if they should try to be tattoo artists.

They will ask about apprenticeships, teaching, equipment, schools, kits, “practicing at home”, “teaching themselves”, and all kinds of other stuff. I took the time a while ago to write up an article explaining how to get into tattooing the right way, how to learn without fucking people up, and how to find a decent place to learn from.

I hope this helps someone decide to go the right path to tattooing, and helps others decide it’s just not worth that much to them.

If you really are dedicated and persistent, if you really, really mean it, then you will eventually get there.

Unless you take shortcuts. Don’t take those. Do it the right way, even though it’s harder at the start.

I don’t review portfolios or teach anyone; but if you have more questions after reading this article, feel free to email me.

“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.”
– Leo Tolstoy

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Tulip!

19th of December 2011

In clients, coverups, female tattoo artist, flowers, pictures, Tattoo, tattooing,

I had the chance to do a purple tulip today.

I LOVE these flowers. So much. She had a few stretch marks- she has been losing weight. Right now, in this picture, the tattoo is fresh and so they appear raised a bit, but when it heals they will be barely noticable. Stretch marks are easy to cover with tattoos, as long as the tattoo subject itself has some texture- like a flower, a branch. Something with varying contrast and color.

She sat like a champ, and her friend (one of my regulars) brought me some chocolate-marshmallow-peanut fudge stuff which is AMAZING. After this I did a smaller piece on a good friend.

What a great day.

my daily routine.

20th of August 2011

In art, artwork, deep thoughts, female tattoo artist, how-to, journal, learning, motivation, oregon living, personal, pictures, posts with lists in them, questions, step by step, tattooing, tech, travel, true stories,

I have two separate routines for work. it depends whether I am having a tattoo-studio day or a home-studio day.

if I’m working at the shop, I wake around ten or eleven and lay around like a slug until it’s time to rush to work. I arrive, drink coffee, plan out my hours. talk to clients. clean my inks off or monkey with a machine until “real work” shows up. I leave right after the shop closes for the day. I usually don’t do any other art on these days; working on commission is draining (satisfying though!)

if I’m not going in to the shop, I wake up late, noon or one. I have coffee and laze around a little.then eat, and start looking over the mess I left the previous day. usually I will have something drying and ready to be worked over a little more. so I pick up where I left off. at some point I’ll reach a moment where everything is tacky. then I start something new…I work a little, stop and stare. smoke, have a sandwich and more coffee.

a lot of times I’ll just get in the car and go exploring, searching for objects or supplies, detritus. things that make me feel creative. it’s a lot of walking along the river or the side of the road.

I work until very late at night when I’m doing my own art. I’ll stay up until the birds are talking. sometimes I work all night and into the next day. coffee is my friend. this happens a lot more in the winter. I tend to have a very hard time waking up in the mornings, it’s always been that way.

of course I spend about two months each year “on the road”; I can’t call it a vacation because I usually am tattooing just about that whole time- I don’t like not working anyway. but when I travel I have no routine at all, and when I return it takes me a while to get back in rhythm with my schedules and routines at home.