new works, and some things I've been up to in Seattle
new prints and shirts ^^^
and some random stuff…vvv
four essential aftercare tips for fresh tattoos.
Tattoos, just like a fur or a pair of old favorite boots, require some care to stand the test of time.
Tattoos done before about 1990 have little hope of staying clear and unsullied by sun and weather and wear. The inks used before that time had many pigment ingredients which could react to sun exposure, and to the wearer’s own body fluids. These days, most tattoo inks used by professional artists are inert and hypo-allergenic, and at the very least should not react to the skin itself. They can still be faded and worn if not cared for properly. (Some people might still be allergic to certain inks, but it’s very rare.)
A tattoo is ink that is permanently set just under the translucent top layer of skin. This top layer is like an elastic window that you look through to see the ink. If the top layer is damaged or thickened or darkened, it becomes a dirty window. Age, sun exposure, and scars can all obscure a gorgeous tattoo and turn it into indecipherable mud. Also, the darker your skin, the more “tint” that window has.
- First and most destructive on the list of tattoo-destroyers is the sun. Just as a photograph left in the sun will fade over time, the pigments in a tattoo will fade. The pigmentation of skin is a poor defense, and putting sunblock on your tattoo will keep it looking fresh over the years. If you tan, try using a high SPF lip balm, and apply it just to the tattooed area. If you use a stick lip balm you can use it like a crayon and color in just the tattoo, letting the skin right up to it tan. This makes the tattoo look even newer next to the tanned area. If you will be out in the sun use a high SPF sunblock, even if your tattoo was done last year. The pigments can be faded even after the tattoo is long healed. Don’t start with sunblock until the tattoo is at least two weeks old.
- Second, wrinkles will obscure your tattoo, and may even distort it. Over the years, the cells in skin shift a bit and change relative position. As any dermatologist will tell you, avoiding sun exposure and staying hydrated keep wrinkles away. This will help your tattoo, also. Once the tattoo is applied it becomes part of your largest organ- your skin. What is good for your skin is good for your tattoo, too, so drink enough water. Moisturizing the tattooed area helps. Even years after the procedure, the area that was tattooed remembers the abrasion, and can get dehydrated more quickly than the rest of your skin. So be sure to continue moisturizing occasionally, even after the tattoo heals.
- Third, accidents happen. Scars that destroy tattoos are almost never intentional. The good news is that most scars can be tattooed over. Unless the scar is raised more than 1/4 inch from the surface, or is heavily textured, there are many tattoo artists that are willing to repair or retouch scars. If you’re planning on repairing a tattoo that’s been scarred over, try to allow at least six months for the scar tissue to “settle”. Use some light vitamin E oil or Emu oil on it from time to time and massage against the grain of the scar. This can sometimes help reduce the texture of the scar, and makes the tissue softer and easier to tattoo over.
- Last but not least, if your artist offers a free touch-up, take advantage of it within a few months. The best time to get tattooed is in the winter, when your new art won’t get exposed to the sun. But no matter when you get worked on, wait until after the summer sun has done its damage before you go back to get a touch-up. This way, the artist gets the satisfaction of a second look at your work, and you get to repair any damage the vacation did to your new ink.
When your artist gives you care instructions, follow them to the letter. Every artist uses different techniques to apply a
all healed up!
tattoo, and usually they know which healing procedure will work best in conjunction with it. Artists use such a variety of needle, ink, and bandaging material- as well as the variatons in YOUR body’s healing ability- that it’s impossible to give out one universal set of aftercare directions.
Don’t listen to your friends, other artists, or people you meet out and about. If you don’t trust the artist to know best, you should buy your tattoo from someone you DO trust. Pick an artist who you trust, and listen to them. They know how to help you heal your new work.
It’s OUR job to put the tattoo in just the right layer of your skin, just right. It’s YOUR job to do the other half- to heal your tattoo properly. Keep your tattoos clean while healing, and wash your hands before touching a fresh tattoo. Don’t wear tight things that will rub against or irritate your tattoo. Don’t swim or surf for the first few weeks. And most of all, let your tattoo get air.
A well-healed tattoo will make you happy for decades. Taking a few weeks to care for it properly is COMPLETELY worth it.
(written by me, originally published here)
What to do when your kid wants a tattoo!
There are a lot of younger people today who are very interested in tattoos. In many cultures tattoos are used as a rite of passage from youth to adulthood, and in our Western culture it is no different. The lack of culturally-based rites of passage and tests of maturity leads many teenagers to seek alternate forms of self-challenge, and tattooing is currently high on that list.
Children are only tattooed usually by indigenous or tribal groups to whom it is a cultural staple. Occasionally there will be a photograph of a child wearing airbrushed tattoos (which are painted on) in a magazine, but actual children are extremely rarely tattooed. If they are, it can be considered child abuse.
Although most jurisdictions outlaw the tattooing of minors, many children and teenagers will tattoo themselves at home, using sewing or other needles and common household dyes and inks. This can be extremely dangerous; using an unsterilized needle or one that has been used on another person can transmit disease or cause serious infections. Home-made tattoos tend to be deeper in the skin surface than professional tattoos, and this can lead to infections that cause excessive scarring.
Most commonly found dyes and inks in home use are not inert and can cause allergic reactions or other problems. Young people should NOT use household items to tattoo themselves; this is a given. That they WILL do it, is incontestable. Educating young people and explaining to them that sharing needles (no matter what sort of home “sterilization” they invent) can transmit HIV, hepatitis, and bacterial infections, is a good beginning; also it may help to explain that running a needle through flame, boiling it, or soaking it in alcohol or antibacterial wipes will not kill all bacteria or viruses that may be present.
In addition, a home environment contains many bacteria and other germs that could infect a fresh tattoo. Lack of proper knowledge about cross-contamination and bloodborne pathogens can put kids at serious risk when they get tattooed in a home environment.
Since minors can not obtain a legal tattoo, they will often try to use fake ID to do so,and try going to a real studio instead of someone’s house. Usually shops can tell when they’re presented a fake ID, but a very well made one can occasionally slip through. Especially a real ID that belongs to someone who looks similar to the kid…
Parents should know that professional studios are not pleased about this; parents should always attempt to contact the studio where their child claims to have received a tattoo. Studios often are required by law to keep consent forms for up to two years, and can usually provide a copy of the false identification that was used. This is not negligence by the studio, but fraud by the minor. In some states the studio can prosecute the minor and their parent. Parents should make sure that their teenagers have no access to their wallets and purses.
When a teenager is nearing eighteen and the age of consent, parents should do research with them into studios they may frequent or patronize. It may be reassuring for parents to know that the studio is clean and reputable. Minors are often not welcome in tattoo studios without a parent; this can be a good opportunity for parents to ensure that if their teenager decides to get tattooed they are at least in a situation that is not unsafe or unhealthy.
Every professional tattoo shop should have an autoclave which is regularly spore tested, disposable latex or nitrile gloves should be used, and all workers there have proper health and safety training. Go with your kid, ask questions. We’re happy to explain all this stuff to you. We want all of our clients to be safe.
Bringing your teenager with you to investigate their options may also discourage them from performing unsafe tattoos on themselves at home, and may even dissuade them from getting a rebellion-motivated tattoo at all. After all, if parents approve, many teens won’t participate.
And if they decide to get one anyway, you will know where they’re going, and that they won’t be risking their health for it.
(originally published here)
Things your tattoo artist doesn’t tell you (Part One)
- In Tattoo Advice, you,
The tattoo we do for you is just a tattoo. For me, it’s a way to make something awesome that someone gets to keep forever no matter what. It’s not ‘therapy’, ‘psychology’, or some kind of healing…for you it may serve some of those purposes but that does NOT HAVE TO INVOLVE ME. It’s not my place to heal you, listen to your life story, or pick up your emotional weight for you.
If you use your tattoo for healing that is great. Tattoos can do that. But be careful of anyone who claims THEY can heal you, that they are the one doing it. They’re not. It’s YOU doing it.
If they say they can heal you? They’re just as sheisty as any snake-oil peddler.
I don’t need to know why you are getting a tattoo. In fact I usually would rather NOT hear the long tale of woe or history behind your decisions. I can’t see your tattoo from my house, I can’t fix you, my knowledge of your reasons isn’t going to make the tattoo better at all. It might in fact distract me from my actual job; making something beautiful that you will want to look at until you’re ancient.
hobo how-to, makin an old-timey drawing
- In artwork, graywash, hobo, how-to, old school, old timey, painting, step by step, Tattoo, Tattoo Advice, tattooing,
Here’s an old timey post for you guys. Tattoo artists that like old-timey stuff will recognize some of the in-jokes here that others might not- I kind of wrote it for you guys as a joke anyway, but these directions WILL work…so enjoy. You can actually buy prints of this guy here, YES PLEASE FUCKING BUY ONE I AM A FUCKING BROKE HOBO.
How to make an extremely old-timey picture
1.First, You have to brew coffee.
Good strong coffee.
The kind your grandpa would make at a hobo camp.
Coffee that will put hair on your chest.
Shit your sister would never drink.
The kind of coffee that people see in the glass and look confused about.
Brew your coffee first and brew it strong,
Not only will it keep you alert throughout this process, and taste better with whiskey in it,
but we’re going to use it as a dye.
2. Then, pour into a tray. Soak some cardstock or watercolor paper in the coffee,
crumpling it and savaging it at random, if you are in a foul mood. or just soak it flat if you feel pretty amiable.
3.Lay the paper out on a towel or other handy surface, to dry out a bit. You want the paper to be just about totally dry when you start working with it. Not damp, just chilly. You’ll notice that the crumpled scapegoat paper looks kind of cool.
4.Next find yourself some reference, or using your brain and its own images, start drawing in light pencil on the paper. I used a 6h pencil so it would be very faint.
If you use a hard pencil don’t get too angry at the paper.
You’ll rip it to bits.
If you’re using a softer pencil go ahead and be a jerk to it.
Then take a small soft filbert brush, dip it into black waterfproof ink, and draw some more.
Right over all the pencil marks.
I use either FW or higgins ink, for this.
5.I have used reference for my hooter picture. Whatever you are drawing, remember that you only have a few minutes before the yard bulls show up and stick ya in the pokey, so hurry the fuck up.
Keep it extremely simple.
6.I mean real simple. You can use watercolor black from the tube. Or you can use some liquid watercolors.
Or you can use kid’s paint, dry watercolors, although those are a pain in the ass. I suppose you can also use sharpie or prismacolor with alcohol on the brush, too, but those dry really fast, too fast for me to do old timey stuff with them. They do have the benefit of using up your whiskey spit.
Here is my ink and brush- as you can see, my brush is flattened and curly? That’s because I’m too lazy to clean them up right away, so they sit in the water til they dry out weird and curly. Don’t do that.
7.I usually lay in the darkest areas first, then come back through with a dry brush and smooth out the edges, then with a only very slightly damp brush I moisten the edges of that again, making it blend. it doesn’t take long and you don’t need water- it’s easier to use a damp sweaty hand or your spit to do it. if you are drinking your coffee like you should be then your hands will be nice and sweaty by now. I know a lot of people will have the unbearable urge to wet the paper then paint onto it, like you’re supposed to use watercolors.
WE’RE NOT DOING THINGS THAT WAY IN HERE, GO BACK TO WETCANVAS FORUMS.
8.At this point, just crank up the music and keep going. you wanna
keep it minimal.
Suggested music would include baby gramps, tom waits (early works, or like bone-machine)
I actually think I did way too much on this one, way more shading and fucking around than I should have.
The simpler, the smoother, the less work, the better with this stuff.
If you mess up somewhere, just find a way to hide it with more black.
That’s what it’s there for, right? I guess if I was truly old timey I’d be using lampblack soot, dirt, and saliva to make the picture.
I try to get pretty close, anyway.
Eventually, you will come to believe you are finished, or the yard goat’s light will pick you out, and you’ll have to stop with the feverish sweating and blending.
9.Now, since you’ve come so far, finish out any little things you got confused about,or forgot to do, while you were blending.
Like his fucking feet and the perch.
Everything will probably look a little rough and shitty at this point. It helps when doing this kind of artwork to make sure your lighting is inadequate, and that you have someone sitting near you drinking and exclaiming at random intervals,
and that you work on a shitty piece of uneven wood, or at least a stained old clipboard precariously balanced
on your knees.
Markers are only considered cheating if you do them with your right hand.
roughed out
10.Now if you want to be schmancy, you can pick a few spots and put a color in it. One color. What do you think this is, art school?
One color only. Remember, you’re a bindlestiff, a wayfarer, a gandy…you ain’t got no room for paint pots in that sack, kiddo. One color. It’s not even 1940 yet, so simmer down.
I like to use red everytime. Feel free to use green, yellow, or brown if you prefer.
No blue, no purple, definitely no hot pink- you’re in the wrong place to get fancy.
Put a dot where you think the darkest red should be.
11.Do this for every place red will go.Then use the almost all the way-dry brush you’ve been chewing on, to blend them out. I like to make the areas of color into little half-circles.
12.Wow, that’s come along pretty far. Looks nice and clean. At this point I usually would put on a monocle and top hat.
No matter what you are drawing, just go ahead and do it,
trust me, monocle and top hat.
Man, if you can give it a cigarette in a long holder, even better.
The closer you get to the monopoly guy, the better.
You want the art to be classy, goddamnit.
If you can’t do a monocle and top hat, whatever you do, DON’T ADD A MUSTACHE-
This is old timey, not HIP.
13.At this point, get out a thin liner brush, or a permanent black non-water soluble marker,and clean up the edges of the black and all the lines.
Now if you want to be a dick you can add a bunch of crap around it. This one looks like a capitalist pig owl to me, so I’m giving him a name and a joke.
It’s a shitty joke, I know.
No really. I know.
You will be tempted to draw blood, or if you are a tattoo”er” some raindrops, around the object. Resist this temptation!!!
Your picture should be a combination of items that is humorous to you, and you alone.
that means no unicorns, no mustaches, no ironic shit.
Nothing that popular modern culture would enjoy
(says the one painting an owl in a top hat)
14.Now get a damp, really damp rag, and a candle, and set that shit on fire!
15.The rag is for putting out the fire, so that you only burn the parts
of your page that seem useless to you, or where it would look cool to have a singe.
You need the rag.
I should make it very clear that if you’re kind of half-assedly following the instructions and didn’t bother to get a damp rag you might be kind of fucked right now,
because you set your shiny new art on fire.
That’ll teach you to follow instructions.
16.Bet you like it so far, huh?
Think you did a good job?
That’s some kinda cool picture?
BULLSHIT, IT’S GARBAGE!
THROW IT THE FUCK AWAY!
YOU SAD SACK OF SHIT,
YOU CAN’T DRAW!!!
UGH SERIOUSLY YOU SUCK!
JUST CRUMPLE THAT WASTE OF TIME INTO A BALL AND THROW IT AT A POKEY OR A COP!
IT’S NO GOOD FOR ANYTHING ELSE!
Damn, I was just kidding!
Sheesh, man, try to have a thicker skin!
Why you gotta be so worried
about what I think, anyway? flatten that
thing out again, let me get a closer look.
Go easy on it. I mean it’s still kind of-
oops oh shit hey I’m sorry-
Hey waittaminute…ok
dry that crap off with the rag. the burny rag.
You really needed that rag.
17. Crumple it up, flatten it out,
spill coffee all over the back of it,
and let it soak for a few. Don’t do this
until ALL the paint has dried completely.
That looks right out of a hobo museum.
Good show, sir, good show.
Originally Published on: Nov 12, 2007
pair of pairs of scissors scissoring
something new. this was really fun. thanks marilyn for having the great idea and for getting a cool, propaganda-ish piece.
rats win races, sloths succeed.
a reminder tattoo for a tattoo artist friend of mine. he wanted to remember to slow down, and do more focused work, instead of hurrying up and rushing himself. He is the kind of artist who feels a lot of pressure from his clients, he tends to feel so glad to be tattooing that he forgets that his work is valuable, that his BEST work is worthwhile…that people who want really good tattoos are willing to pay for them, and that he is capable of doing great tattoos, and therefore shouldn’t undervalue his time…
If you undercharge people, you start to feel rushed. it’s inevitable- you end up booked solid for months but barely making ends meet. hurrying up to get that tattoo done in time, in the small amount of time you quoted them for. it’s far better to quote high, to take your time, take that extra hour to do your VERY BEST work on people.
any rate- I love fucking sloths. And this one is particularly classy, too.
also,
Dick.
- In original art,
Memorial tattoo for his dad who was a shriner. Yes, his name was Dick. Photo by the beard.
