New Tattoo

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Sunday January 18th, 2009 @ 12:38 PM

Filed under: Tattoos

Hi, I have read all over askBME and you talk about looking at different artists work before deciding on him/her to be your artist. My question is, what exactly do you look for? I know my shop is clean and safe, I have had work done there before. But there are three different artists and none of them specifically specialize in what I am getting. The tattoo I am going to get is part of a page from an illustrated children’s book from the 70’s. It is a flower and a mouse. But the drawings are faily simple. Most people put their best, most detailed work in their books. I am just not sure what types of things I should look at in their work since obviously they won’t have my exact style. Thanks so much in advance for your help.

Great question.
I mainly get tattooed by a very small group of artists, so it had been some time since I’ve had to sort out finding a new one. But as luck would have it, I recently had to venture out to get tattooed by someone I had only met once.

As you pointed out, the first things you look for should be cleanliness and safety. You’re past that now, so it’s best to move on to other deciding factors.

While looking through their portfolio try to find tattoos that you know came from an outside source. See how they adapted their own style to something recognizable. A superhero, an album cover/movie image, book art, et all.

Did their style overpower it or did they execute and adapt the image and make it look just like the source?

Don’t be afraid of talking to the artist you’re thinking about having do the piece. Tell them your concerns; that you want it to look as close to the source material as possible. Tattooists are commercial artists and should be able to adapt your wishes into the finished piece. If they tell you that they wouldn’t be comfortable adapting the design, thank them kindly and move to the next artist who’s work strikes your fancy. At the end of the day it’s your tattoo and it should live up to all of your expectations.

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