is this working

I have been an apprentice for 6 months now, cleaning, mopping, setting up for the others. My mentor wanted to see how i would do, so he came at me with the chance to tattoo one of his buddies.( i dont think he like him too much). I realize i am just getting started, but i hope to get better. Any advice on what im doing right or wrong?

its hard to say too much since your begining, but isnt your mentor sitting with you and telling you what your doing wrong and how to do it? i mean it looks like your a beginer and your going to do things like this, but if your mentors doing what hes suppose to you will not be this bad for very long, you really should be useing practice skins or pig skins for this first without sitting there watching its too hard to say what you did

its hard to say too much since your begining, but isnt your mentor sitting with you and telling you what your doing wrong and how to do it? i mean it looks like your a beginer and your going to do things like this, but if your mentors doing what hes suppose to you will not be this bad for very long, you really should be useing practice skins or pig skins for this first without sitting there watching its too hard to say what you did

Yea, he kept telling me to breath! I was pretty nervous, and sometimes would hold my breath, while i was trying to do the outline. I wasnt nearly as nervous when it came time to color it in. He also told me you cant worry if your hurting the person or not. Dont get me wrong i KNOW this doesnt compare with what others are doing, and im not saying hey look how great i am either, i am just excited that i did this.

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Damn i thought for sure ppl would be tearing my first attempt at tattooing up.

If the only advice your mentor is giving you is to breathe and not worry about hurting someone, (s)he/ isn't giving you close to all the information you need. He should be discussing technical application, giving you feedback on the final product, etc. Not just holding your hand through the process. Anyways that being said 1. The pictures suck. If you want people to give a good valid opinion and be able to access your tattoos and skill it needs to be a nice clear photo. I would suggest taking the pictures against a black backdrop. The colors and contrast will always end up looking better without a distracting background. 2. Its hard to tell everything from the pictures, but the tattoos need a lot of work. The stars are wonky and not even close the symmetrical, the line work is shading, there's no blends, the lettering is pretty whacked and the shading in the banners is way off. All that being said, it's your first tattoo, so there's always room for improvement, however if you're mentor is not giving it to you I'm not sure how he expects you to improve. Those tattoos are not good, and you should have a mentor telling you why they're not good and what you can do to improve for your next tattoos. Good luck with the learning process.

Also I meant to say assess your skill not access in case that cause any confusion.

Jesus I also meant to say the line work is shaky not shading. Man, typing fail. I can sure spell, I apparently just can't use the right words.

Well coming from someone who is also learning here is a few tips. First off don't hold your breath. You wouldn't want to fuck around and pass out while tattooing. Second always, always make sure whatever designs your doing are always symetrical. Especially like the ones you did in the pics. Your line work is very sketchy but so were mine when I did my first. Also your mentor should be constantly telling you what your doing wrong. The whole process should be nothing more than a learning expierence. I won't get into technical talk here but there should be alot more advice coming from him. Take your time and always get your lines done in one hit. Going back through to make your lines even is your chance to fuck it up really bad. Good luck man hopes this helps a little.

Yea, i dont think he's showing me ALL the ropes like he should. The person that git tattooed doesnt really care, hes got a bunch of prison tattoos.

What i mean is the person who i tattooed, is my mentors friend, and he knew i had never tattooed b4, but he agreed to let me. My mentor also told me i might lose a few pounds, to help with my stamina. I mean im not runing a race.

I don't know the whole situation but honestly it sounds like this mentor is a d-bag. I would seriously evaluate if it's worth continuing to work with him, because it seem like you've put it a lot of effort, but it's also hard to un-learn bad habits he might be teaching you.

YEA he has his good points, but i try to stay focused on the big picture. The other guys in the shop keep trying to mess with me, and tell me one thing when my mentor has told me another. I mean come on! Im trying to learn here! One of the older guys had his station not get cleaned and it wasnt me, it was the newer tattooist in the shop that had rifled through his needles and spilled some of his ink. I thought about telling him who it was, but i dont wanna be a rat, so i just said i didnt know what happened and cleaned it up. Im just want to learn to tattoo so badly. Now i am already in it for $1,500 (no refund).

I can imagine that hard, but it sounds like you're working in a bad environment. I mean it's one thing to put apprentices through a bit of hell, and play some jokes, but if they're fucking with you by telling you different things about a trade you're trying to learn thats crazy. They want to confuse you about tattooing, so you don't know up from down, and won't be able to successfully help or tattoo the shops clients? Brilliant, they seem like awesome dudes. I don't know what you have left in your apprenticeship but I hope you can get out of there and get into a place that will have respect for you and the industry. Any tattooers who find it amusing to try to mislead or confuse their apprentice about important information, shouldn't be tattooing. Stuff like this bums me out because you seem like a nice dedicated guy who got bamboozled by a shop that wanted to take your cash, and give you as little as possible in return.

Yea i get kinda bumed myself sometimes, but i wont give up. Im no quiter. I just love being around the entire art of tattooing. I may not be very good right now, but i hope that will change. I have always been attracted too, and fascinated by tattoos. If one day i can make a living, even if it just barely pays the bills, doing tattoos, then i will have made my dream a reality.

ive seen much much worse.

Here is my latest attempt, sensai says im getting better but need a little more refining.

a href="http://s898.photobucket.com/albums/ac186/greenskull/?action=view¤t=S5030450.jpg" target

So are you learning from a house? I ask that because your picture was taken in a kitchen? As for the work looks a bit better. Remember just takes time. And as for the kitchen thing if you are learning from a house are going to your "mentors" house to learn then you are by no means doing an apprenticeship and are doing nothing more than wasting your time and money. Hopefully thats not the case and your apprenticeship is getting better.

The tattoo shop is located adjacent to my teachers home, but tattooing is completely done in the shop. The shop has a door that does lead into his home through the kitchen, and out to the parking lot.( the main door currently has new steps being poured, so no one could go that way for a few days) The shop is totally clean and is just like any pro shop, clean sterile equipment, autoclave, and mostly all disposable stuff is used. The cords and machines are always bagged, and so are the ink bottles, the knob on the power unit, gloves are worn, and the whole nine yards. He just had a mini house built onto his house for a shop, which has its own restroom, running water, and is completly self contained.

Well here is my opinion and this is not trying to cut you down or anything like that. First the dog one seems like it is a little complicated to pull off for someone in there apprenticeship. I myself am about 8 months into mine and the first real detailed tattoo I did was a David Bolt Flash Piece. Before this one it was alot of kanji lettering. Basically any type of ink that I could mess up on and my mentor could still fix. Second if your setup is the way you say it is start taking pictures in the shop not the kitchen. Its going to be hard to convince people that your an actual apprentice if all your pics are coming from a kitchen. The rest of my opinions are more technical talk so not going to get into that part. Remember tattooing takes a while. Stay in areas that you know you can do perfect. Don't bite off more than you can chew. The way I look at it is if your not doing the best work possible why even do it. There are thousands of great artist out there, some more famous than others but they all hold the same quality of work. If you are learning from a good teacher by know you should already know this. Good luck too ya.

thanks for sharing your work, good job on it too.

As I mentioned before your pictures are shit. They're blurry, taken in a kitchen, some with saran wrap still on or seeping. You seriously NEED to stop. It's a horrible reflection of your work and professionalism, or as these pictures would reflect, lack there of. It seems like you have a good head on your shoulders but if I saw the picture of a tattoo with dishes behind it I would run screaming. The tattoos still aren't looking good. I'm not sure if I'd even say better. From looking at them I can see that you're not getting pigment depth right and I'd be willing to bet when those heal half the color is going to fall out. I think you need to go back to the drawing board. Literally. I would stop tattooing and draw your ass off, I hate to say it but this doesn't seem to be going anywhere good.

Mary i guess you tell everyone to stop tattooing. I have an apprenticeship, and my mentor says im getting better, i have paid good money for it, and i have drawn my ass off already, and i am still doing drawing. Why should i stop tattooing, because you say so, how will i ever learn to tattoo if i dont tattoo. I have seen the healed results of my tattoos and no color fall out, in fact i have had ppl come back and let me tattoo them again, yea im not ready to work for miami ink and get my own tv spot, but thats just it, IM LEARNING. Im all for getting feedback about this or that, but telling me to stop tattooing, even though im in an apprenticeship, and trying hard to learn, if i hadnt gotten that apprentice ship, i would be 2000 dollars richer and could have tried it on my own, and you again would say stop tattooing. So in short Mary, who made you or any of you the high popes of tattooing? I cant get good, or great at tattooing, unless i tattoo? If all you can say is stop tattooing then dont reply mary.

You shouldn't stop tattooing because Mary said so. You should stop because your work SUCKS. That dog was way too ambitious of a piece for you. How will you get better while continuing to tattoo? You should be doing pieces within your scope of capabilities..Kanji and shit like that. Sure it's boring but you can hone your skills and move on slowly when you're ready. The fact that your supposed mentor is letting you do this kind of work tell me he's not a very good mentor. Tell him you're not comfortable tattooing such ambitious pieces yet and you'd rather get the very basics down first.

I don't tell everyone to stop tattooing, and I never claimed to be holier than anyone, but the fact is I do see lots of tattoos on a daily basis and have the opportunity to work with lots of amazing artists so my advice may be worth something. You didn't even listen to the basic advice of stop taking gnarly photos of your tattoos. Even if the tattoo is amazing, if you take the picture with saran wrap falling off in front of dishes in a kitchen it will immediately put clients off. If you don't want basic advice then don't ask for it, and especially don't ask for it if you're not going to listen.

i have seen much worse tattoos than these and dont think they are all that bad.

Ok well here is some more opinions. First off I have learned very quickly in my short amount of time in my apprenticeship that critisicm is something that if you can't handle your in the wrong industry. Mary and Gina are doing nothing more than giving you advice. From what I read of Mary's responses she was not saying to quit tattooing. She was saying to reform you artistic skills. If you can't draw it you can't tattoo in my opinion. Everything you know how to do when drawing can be put into tattooing. I do agree with them. Honestly you know that the quality of shading, detail, color value etc... on the dog piece is crap. Would you have drawn that exact same picture like that on a piece of paper?? If your answer is yes then its time to be extremelly honest with yourself and work on your drawing skills not your tattooing. Being a tattoo artist has one main key word "artist". This part is a must. A tattoo machine is nothing more than a different type of medium such as painting, markers, sculpting etc... but without artistic skill it basically becomes worthless. Only you know where your abilities stand. I myself am personally not happy with my artistic skills and want to constantly become better and learn. Im currently about to take 3 art classes down at the local college to better my artistic skills to in turn better my tattooing. Got to follow the fundamentals and not jump the gun. Good luck to man.

Thank you TD for putting that out there, as it's exactly what I was trying to convey. People tend to have this "how the hell am I supposed to get better if I stop tattooing" and as you said, refining basic art skills is an extremely pertinent step. If you suck at drawing your tattooing will never get "better" even if you line stuff cleanly, and have solid shading, etc if the drawing is crap, it will still be a crap tattoo, regardless of how well it's technically executed. If you translated the tattoos you did into drawings, they wouldn't be good drawings, therefore not good tattoos. It's one thing if you're having a hard time translating good drawings into good tattoos, but if thats the level of your artwork, as I said, you should work more on your artwork. Do you have any examples of drawings, sketches, paintings or any original art to show us?

Actually I do. I need to get them scanned but I will get some up a.s.a.p. I would do it now but im actually on my way to Vegas to hit up the convention down there this weekend. My advice to the O.P. is either do it 200% or dont do it at all. Every chance you get to either go to a convention or just bullshit with another artist do it. If your looking to become better you have to want it first. I dont think you will ever meet a tattoo artist who says they have learned everything there is too learn. Its all about constantly getting better and become smarter in what your doing no matter what it is. You have to respect this art in order to achive great things. If this is nothing more than something you want to do cause it looks cool and you think you'll become rich then your in it for the wrong reasons and to me thats where you see alot of artist fail. Everyone can become better at whatever there doing as long as the drive is there. Go take some art classes and start from the begining. Yeah you may think it sucks but if your in this to be respected by fellow artist and not looked up to as a rock star then it will be well worth the time. Good luck to you again and hopefully some of this helps ya out.

True enough. Unlearning bad habits and trying to fix a bad reputation will take exponentially longer than a few art classes will. Think about the long term affects of what you're doing now!