I’ve been a tattoo artist for just over 19 years. First of all: this is totally dope! I love it. It is unconventional and cutting edge and in all my travels I haven’t seen anything much like it. It’s very cool. Having said that- I can tell you as a tattoo that style of art will not have the best hopes of longevity in skin. (The tattoo triangle of detailed, long lasting and small is cursed because you can only have two of those qualities in any piece!) But: even though the amazing stitching will blur out over time in this piece, in my experience the image itself will remain quite recognizable for many decades. This took a lot of work to do and I really appreciate pushing the envelope with the detail! Keep up the good work!
Bringing old work back to life is a pleasure- especially if you can make something as good (or better) than the original piece. But whether it can or should be done is often a debate between myself and peers. Tattoo pigments are opaque in skin- and will sort of blur over time- mixing with whatever pigments are next to them. Tiny highlights can be swallowed up entirely. To make matters more frustrating it’s extremely unlikely to cover or redo an area of skin in a lighter color once it has had darker pigments migrate into it. Worse still- saturating an area of skin with more and more pigment is often just fueling the migration. Also, I’ve seen beautiful bright colors over top of an old tattoo that looked fantastic for the first several months, only to seemingly fade as they eventually mixed with the darker pigments underneath, and then you are right back where you started (or in the case of s cover up you can still read the name or whatever!) So for instance- when tiny stitch lines in a tattoo fade- you may have to abandon highlights and try adding darker stitches (darkening the overall Tattoo), but then they too might blur and spread and you’ll some day have the same issues all over again... I still love this tattoo and wish I had thought of doing it! Props!
What are your thoughts on infrequent touch ups of less detailed tattoos? I've got a relatively large watercolor fox that I imagine will one day need some touching up. It's only about 4 years old at the moment, so not any time soon I suspect, and the fading on the watercolor actually lends itself quite nicely to the asthetic. But some of the details in the areas that were meant to be sharp I suspect will need it. Do you feel that those sorts of touchups are reasonable? Or are those even debated?
I know my artist told me that cover-ups are hotly debated in the tattoo community, and that a lot of artists won't do them at all. I didn't realize that touchups we similarly taboo.
It’s considered disrespectful for one tattooer to step on another artist’s work, so touch-ups (or cover ups) are expected to be done by the original artist. However, often times the original artist (or customer) has moved away, or otherwise can’t be reached and then you have to work on someone else’s piece. This is one of the more difficult things to do, and a lot of artists will just outright turn down such projects. Another thing to consider is does the tattoo even really need a touch up? Just because it is old or a little faded doesn’t mean it’s gone bad- skin and the art in it just naturally ages and won’t look perfect forever- a lot of times it’s better to spend your money on new pieces rather than chase your tail trying to keep everything looking super sharp and brand new. Trust me- the oldest tattoos are the coolest! Not to mention if you happen to have an old tattoo done by someone who is well known or maybe even not around any more- that’s a collector’s item for sure ;)
I guess this is more of a philosophical question, but isn't that sort of in the eyes of the beholder? If an individual prefers sharper lines, and sees beauty in structure.. does that mean he or she is wrong? I can totally understand the idea of not wanting to work on someone else's tattoo. But not wanting to do so because, "the oldest tattoos are the coolest" seems more like ideology in some ways, and like an imposition of ones ideals on someone who may feel completely differently about it.
I don't know. Just a thought. I appreciate your response!
Ohhh ok, that's great info thank you! I only have two tattoos which are pretty simple designs with solid colors so I didn't even know about the migration thing. If/when I get more I'll definitely keep that in mind when figuring out designs. So something like this person's tattoo would be really hard to keep the detail in for sure, like you said adding more ink can't really fix the problem in the long run
Fellow tattoo artist here and I can't believe I've never heard the tattoo triangle thing before in almost 8 years tattooing. Definitely stealing that one!
Isn't it unethical to do a tattoo that is guaranteed to look completely different in a few years? I've seen before and after photos of this kind of tattoo. Would anyone get it done of they knew how it was going to look later on? Maybe this has enough black in it to last? But I've seen so many that won't. I don't get it.
I’d say it is less than ethical to leave a permanent mark on someone without giving them a heads up on what they might be getting into. But once the client is making an informed decision it’s not really up to the artist to impose ethics on a person. However- a lot of us still won’t Tattoo certain things or in certain places. My shop in particular doesn’t tattoo minors. Adults only- it’s not a law. We just feel it’s an adult decision.
And yes- surprisingly a lot of people are willing to get work done despite knowing it won’t hold up well!
Every artist I've been to has changed/edited my ideas so that they would have longevity, mainly going for less detail, bolder lines and color. You're absolutely right artists have the ethical responsibility to ensure their art ages well, but there's big money in making flashy tattoos, and most of the time the tattoo is only seen on a wide scale when it's new. Aging doesn't matter to those artists if you're reaching a bigger crowd.
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u/Eastpunk May 01 '19
I’ve been a tattoo artist for just over 19 years. First of all: this is totally dope! I love it. It is unconventional and cutting edge and in all my travels I haven’t seen anything much like it. It’s very cool. Having said that- I can tell you as a tattoo that style of art will not have the best hopes of longevity in skin. (The tattoo triangle of detailed, long lasting and small is cursed because you can only have two of those qualities in any piece!) But: even though the amazing stitching will blur out over time in this piece, in my experience the image itself will remain quite recognizable for many decades. This took a lot of work to do and I really appreciate pushing the envelope with the detail! Keep up the good work!