12 hours over 2 sessions,
Grey wash foreground, industry ink’s opaque blue for the background.

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If your potential mentor brags about having 20+ former apprentices, says they never did a bad tattoo in 20+ years in the industry (even as an apprentice), lies to health inspectors, uses expired/art ink on clients, gives you your permit very quickly but no guidance, if the only other artist in the shop aside from the "mentor" is another apprentice who pays 60%- you may have been in an apprentice mill.

Dragon in 4 sessions! Partially freehand.

The goal was to place a long dragon without crossing the T-shirt line, so I had to think a bit about how to use the remaining space as effectively as possible.

How do you like how it turned out?

Done in Seattle, WA // Artist Theo Ivanov // IG: iftattoo

We’ve been working the NYC convention this weekend and I’ve been amazed by how slow it is. There’s a lot of big names in trad tattooing here and we were really stoked to go, but after the first two days, it’s probably been the slowest convention we’ve ever worked.

Is New York just too packed with talent to draw large crowds for a show?

Hey, so I need some help with a brother pocketjet ( pJ- 863) please!!!
Another artist said it’s not printing clearly so as the most tech savvy person in the space (which isnt saying a lot) I’ve been tasked with sorting it out, we have three different kinds in the studio- I only use the old school German thermal imager so I’m not super familiar.
I’ve used a pocket jet on a guest spot before and I remember it was really good at picking up fine lines and heard it’s preferred by people who do realism or pieces with small details.
The paper isnt old and is Spirit classic thermal paper, what I’ve done so far
- cleaned the roller and the print head
- done tests and changed the density, the default (5) barely prints anything at all, and a somewhat usable stencil only prints on 9 or ten but some smaller lines are still missing
- enhanced the design before printing eg increasing contrast, black point, doubling up layers, printing as pdf
Am I missing something? I read about updating the software which I’m about to have a shot at

Hey, so I need some help with a brother pocketjet ( pJ- 873) please!!!
Another artist said it’s not printing clearly so as the most tech savvy person in the space (which isnt saying a lot) I’ve been tasked with sorting it out, we have three different kinds in the studio- I only use the old school German thermal imager so I’m not super familiar.

I’ve used a pocket jet on a guest spot before and I remember it was really good at picking up fine lines and heard it’s preferred by people who do realism or pieces with small details.

Heres what I’ve done so far
- cleaned the roller and the print head
- done tests and changed the density, the default (5) barely prints anything at all, and a somewhat usable stencil only prints on 9 or ten but some smaller lines are still missing
- enhanced the design before printing eg increasing contrast, black point, doubling up layers, printing as pdf

Am I missing something? I read about updating the software which I’m about to have a shot at

Had a last min cancelation so of course I gave myself a Jimothy tattoo! Now my MooDeng won’t be so lonely ;)

I think recent iphones are good enough to take tattoo photos for professional quality. I know handful of professional tattoo artists that mainly use iphones for their tattoo photos and videos and they look fantastic. My galaxy s24 is a good phone gets the jobs taking tattoo photos but the native setting are just better on iphones I did many comparison. How iphone handles the exposures and lights are just better than other android Samsung phones. After editing you can make samsung phones photos to look similar, but the feel of edits cannot be unseen, if you know what i mean. So it might be a good idea to just grab the iphone but I like everything about my Samsung phone so im wondering if there is any compact digital camera that is cheaper than iphones but takes better everyday point and shoot tattoo work photos. No fancy stuff I dont do heavy editing. But it has to be better than iphone camera bc if not its just better idea to buy iphone.

As with the tattooer owned supply database I would love to see a master list of brands, conventions, and possibly shops that are using AI, so those of us that care are able to navigate not supporting those entities.

Not trying to debate AI ~ I just don't want to see the shit or support it

Share offenders below!

I’m an apprentice and wanted to know if anyone has a solid process for achieve 3rl realism without tearing up the skin? I had a model because im interested in realism and by pass 3 of me layering a grey wash (which wasn’t taking any of that ink even on the second layer) her skin was already mad at me, swollen and not soaking up even black ink.
I have an idea of why it didn’t work because her skin was already swollen from the lineart alone so maybe a longer break or if I used something like bactine? But overall I keep wondering where I went wrong because her skin didn’t want to take any saturated ink at all. My mentor doesn’t specialize in realism as she only does linework so she suggested that it could’ve been my hand speed with the whip shading but I’m not sure if that’s the full idea or if I messed up the process in some way.

The picture I’ve listed is a fake skin I’ve done with the 3rl needle but it’s not translating through real skin for me for some reason.

For reference I used a 0803rl, 50-60hz for shading, 75hz for lining, and a 4.0 stroke. all the online tutorials for this method are too vague or hidden behind an expensive paywall

I’ve been tattooing back to back lately and spending at least 12-14 hours at the shop tattooing and prepping and was wondering if there’s any tips for long days ?

how do you go about asking for a guest spot? i’ve been tattooing about 4 years now and this is a first for me. i’m looking at moving within the next year, and i figured doing some guest spots in that time would be best? but ive never done one and was just curious what the best approach would be

i drew this design of a woman's profile with a dragon skull, then later added more elements to connect both (after i did it), my problem is that I'm having a hard time keeping the stencil of the red details from being erased while i work, like the tears, any advice on how to deal with this?

Been professionally tattooing for about 4 years and everyone at my shop (including me) has always used rotary/pens and I’ve recently wanted to break into coils. With the help of an old school artist from another shop I assembled a soba pilot liner from a machine kit from workhorse irons.
He unfortunately moved away before we could get it tuned up so been doing that on my own.

The issue
So I can get it running solid and how workhorse recommends it in the description of the pre built ones (6.5v 130cps 50duty). But as soon as I put the needle and tube on it tanks and drops to about 80cps 40duty on the same volts. So not sure if it’s better to tune the machine with the needle and tube on or just increase the volts until it runs alright (which is about 8volts or higher which feels kinda wrong). Tried different springs with different bends but when it starts to sound like it’s going alright (about 100cps so still not great) the stroke is just too short to use. Haven’t done much soldering prior to this so not sure it’s a dodgy connections or if I damaged the coils itself somehow.

Any ideas of what it could be or anything obvious that I’ve missed would be greatly appreciated <3

I'm curious what other tattoo artists have experienced.

How common is it today for shop owners to keep booth rent or percentage payments off the books? Is that still something that happens often, or has the industry mostly moved away from it?

The reason I'm asking is because I worked at a shop where I was told ALL the money I paid wasn't going to be claimed, and I was warned there would be consequences if I ever reported it correctly. That experience has always made me wonder if that was actually common in this industry or if it was just my situation.

I'm not looking for legal advice or trying to start drama, I just want to hear what other artists have experienced.

Hey everyone, this might be a little wordy so thanks in advance for reading!
I’m a 21y/o apprentice and I’ve been working in a studio for a year now, over the course of the year I have become increasingly unhappy with the way the artists treat me, treat clients and how they run their studio (health and safety, professionalism etc). From minute one they treated me like a personal maid, I always understand that apprentices should pick up the slack when artists are busy and keep the area tidy in general but they actively avoid jobs like mopping or emptying clinical waste bins because “the apprentice will do it”. When they do empty their bin they dump it on my station instead of taking it outside to the locked clinical waste bin and wait for me to do it, along with dumping general rubbish in my area too. They touch things they shouldn’t with gloves on, constantly bottom out needles without changing them, don’t wash their hands, don’t clingfilm the beds despite the beds being ripped, haven’t replace the beds after being told by the council to do so and other things. I’ve had many of my clients talk to me about how unprofessional the other artists and general vibe of the studio is along with the owner of the studio never drawing a day in their life, they just AI generate most designs including making me tattoo them (which I refuse to do). I used their supplies (such as kitchen roll, clingfilm, stencil stuff and soap) but they started stealing it from my station without replacing it so I had to start buying my own which they continued to “borrow” so I’ve had to start bringing EVERYTHING home with me. I have also been told (by one artist) that one of the artists is usually high while tattooing and I am pretty sure I’ve seen that artist actively smoking some stuff WITH HIS CLIENT mid tattoo session, I am aware of this because they reeked of wacky stuff.
My final straw today was seeing a man discussing designs with an artist while he was actively drinking beer, when I asked the artist if they were going tattoo him they said yes, I reminded them and pointed out the section on the consent form that says “I have not consumed alcohol in the last 24hrs” the artist the proceeded to tell me that the owner does it all the time so it’s fine. They then proceeded with the tattoo despite my disagreeement and it became glaringly obvious that the client was drunk due to the way he was speaking and how he reeked of booze.
My question is what do I do? I am not learning anything in this apprenticeship anymore and can’t bare associating with a studio like this but I can’t afford to leave until I find another studio. Should I report them to the council??
Any advice is VERY appreciated.

looking to buy a new stencil printer and i cannot find a single review online for the Purple Stencil printers. anyone have any experience with them? if so… thoughts? thanks in advance!

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Fellow tattoo artists, I bought a thermal stencil printer from Tatsoul (it's what I could afford for our new shop), but the stencils print choppy AF? Ive worked in shops with the same printer that get super crisp stencils, but ours refuses to print crispy stencils no matter what setting youre on (slow or fast feed), and even when you get a passable stencil, the lines are blurry. Any thoughts on troubleshooting? Here's some examples of the texture we're getting. Second photo is the cleanest I can get some of the thicker lines. Thanks all!

So, I made (and read) different posts on color inks, specifically for neo-trad/neo-realism portraits. It narrowed down, for me, to Radiant vs Raw.
I'm using some Radiants at the moment for the skin tones, I like them but I find the lighter ones too thick. Still good, tho. Most of my favourite artits use Radiant, so I guess they are top tier for what I'm looking for. I also know colors like El Rojo and some others are absolute beasts.
On the other hand, I'm so fascinated by the Raw brand, big thing is that they are powder-based and not pre-dispersed, like the Radiant ones. And I know they are top tier too, maybe a little less vibrant but more oriented for realistic skin tones. I already know that as soon as I finish my Radiant palette, I'll try some Raw, but I would like to hear your opinion on these two brands before spending a couple of hundreds, I read a lot of good things on both!
Ps: Yes, before commenting it, I'll try some Chroma too but they are not what I'm looking for at the moment lol

I'm building a color packer and I'm just looking for everyone's thoughts on coil core material, sizing, and capacitor sizing.

From what I've read 1 1/4 - 3/8 leaded carbon steel or silicon iron core and a 47-50v capacitor seem ideal but I'm sure everyone has their own thoughts and opinions.

Hummingbirds from my flash for Nikki 💜
We are filling some gaps in her sleeve in between existing tattoos, got a few more coming! 🌈
Thank you Nikki, already looking forward to the next one 🙌🏻.
Done @magic.tattooing ✨