Let the artist be an artist.

Some things have been coming up around the shop the past couple of months that seem to be circleing around the same thing. In blogs past, I have written an article on tips for getting tattoos, but with this latest flush coming to the surface, I think I shall expand on it. On behalf of all the tattooers and myself out there I am going to write a bit on letting the artist be an artist.


 This may be hard for some clients, that are a bit controlling, or think they have the best ideas for a tattoo,- but clients and artists that specifically do not know what it is like to do a tattoo or draw one should basically leave it up to the tattoo artist. 
There is a lot of things about the skin and body that artists and people that don't tattoo, just don't know about. Not too mention that there is this whole world of needles, pigment, tubes, stretching the skin- all the technical stuff that goes along with tattooing. And here is  the big one for tattoos; What would it look like in 5, 10 or 20 years from now? That's what goes on in our tattooers mind while are constructing a design for a tattoo. All the while, trying to come up with what our client has asked for.
So, as you can imagine, it takes great contemplation and concentration on coming up with a striking tattoo that will knock everyone's socks off.
To be frank, I believe that if my clients tell me what they want in the simplest of words, with perhaps a piece of reference that they are going for, I  can take it from there and design something lovely with the freedom to create it as I please. I have some clients that are exactly like this and the piece ends up having better energy.
Sometimes I have clients that are really picking and I am always up for the challenge, but they do not know what it is like to actually tattoo. They do not know skin tones like I do, and sometimes, I have to tell them I would recommend doing something elce.
Another thing that happens for some clients that are getting a big piece done, and they only come in a couple times a year or even once a month, they will change their mind about coloration or throw in a whole other idea to this mix. This is really tough. It is hard to make it flow in this case, but when it's someones body, you aim to please. So stick to the plan, and don't bring in a new idea or reference material for something completely different. Your piece can look all over the place if that was your approach to the design.  Being concise is key!