How to determine good line work

♦   What to look for in a portfolio

♦   How to determine good line work

♦   What a solid tattoo looks like

♦   How to see if a tattoo is overworked

If you are going to get a tattoo, you might as well get it done right. From the previous chapters, we learned how to make sure you 

Looking at Portfolios

A portfolio is the professional representation of the tattooist. It portrays the artist’s ability to tattoo and is a sign of how commit­ted she is to the profession. Through looking at the portfolio, you will be able to determine the artist’s style. You can see the level of ability of the artist and determine whether or not your tattoo is a good idea for this particular person to execute.

However, some of the best artists do not care about portfolios. They are usually rather busy and don’t have time to prepare one or keep an existing portfolio updated. The portfolios of these tal­ented artists are walking around on the street, and you are lucky if you get to see one of these amazing pieces. For the beginner, always choose a tattooist with a portfolio. Once you are more familiar with the process or have an ongoing relationship with your tattooist, seeing a portfolio might not be necessary.

Presentation

The first thing you will notice about the portfolio is its appear­ance. There are many different kinds of portfolio cases ranging

from overpriced art store portfolios to family photo binders from the dollar store. Both work just fine and the really important part is the tattoos inside. Regardless, one can get a feeling of what to expect from the kind of portfolio. The large fancy ones are some­times a sign that the tattooist is making up for something. Like when men have to drive large trucks or fancy sports cars. Don’t let the ostentatious facade keep you from seeing what’s on the inside. Having a fancy portfolio case can also be a sign that the tattooist cares for what they are doing. He puts in the extra effort.

Having a cheap or beat up and worn down portfolio can be a sign that the tattooist doesn’t care. If he is not willing to put the effort into the portfolio, will he put the effort into the tattoo? Cheap portfolio cases, on the other hand, are often a response to cus­tomers destroying previous portfolio cases. Many people find it necessary to man-handle the portfolio while looking through it, whipping through the pages like the book was an ex-lover who left with the mailman. Often people will spill drinks on them and not clean them up. Many tattooists tattoo people all day and not one of those people bothered to look at the portfolio. It sounds ridicu­lous but these things happen all the time, so many tattooists will give up on the portfolio case after replacing it so many times.

A portfolio’s appearance will vary from shop to shop and tattooist to tattooist. If it impresses you, then great, go for it. Just remember, the contents are the most important factor for the conclusions you need to make.

All Those Wall Designs

While looking through a portfolio, one of the ways to see if a tat- tooist will be able to tattoo a more specific design or come up with a custom design is to see if most of the designs in the portfolio are designs from the flash on the wall. It’s expected that there will be a few. Some flash designs are really fun to tattoo and look really cool. It’s fun for a tattooist to tattoo designs from other artists.

Many tattooists only tattoo flash designs and are amazing tech­nical tattooists. If what you want is a design from the wall or a specific design that doesn’t need to be customized, you are in

good hands with these individuals. However, too many flash designs in a portfolio are a sign that the tattooist either won’t draw a custom tattoo or just can’t.

Draftsmanship

While looking through the portfolio, you will want to study the tattooist’s ability to draw. If the designs look a little kooky, like

the face on a portrait or a pinup looks like it got kicked by a mule or spawned by Sloth from the movie The Goonies, then you may want to move to the next portfolio. Even with an untrained eye, there is a certain level of poor draftsmanship everyone can see. You will be able to feel if a drawing is really unbalanced or the perspective is wrong.

Blurry Photos

Blurry photographs will make it impossible for you to see if the tattoo is any good or not. You will need to be able to see the tat­too clearly in order to see if you like it. If the portfolio is full of horrible photos, it may be a sign that the tattooist is trying to hide something, like the fact that she is not very accomplished at tattooing.

Many professional tattooists will invest in a good camera. Some studios have a small section in the shop set up as a photo studio with lights and a backdrop. With digital photography improving every year, many tattooists only need a small digital camera to take a decent photo. You don’t need as much light with digital cameras as they are getting better at compensating for amateur photogra­phers. Digital cameras also make it easier to put photos instantly on the Internet. A tattooist is not a professional photographer so don’t expect perfect photos. The photos should at least be in focus so you can see the quality of the tattoo. Polaroids just won’t cut it.

Originality, Not Quantity

It may happen that a tattooist who is not as serious may want to try to fool the customer by having an excessive amount of photos in his portfolio. He thinks that quantity will make up for a lack of quality. Usually with portfolios that consist of mostly flash pieces, there will be the same piece of flash tattooed at a different time on a different person. This is unnecessary and a sign that the tat- tooist didn’t have anything better to display.

In tattooing, it is nice for people to see the different designs that can be tattooed and what they look like in the skin. Lots of clients will choose a tattoo from the portfolio. In this case, the portfolio is like a wall of flash and that works, too. There is no need to put the same design twice on the wall, so there is no need to put a design twice in the portfolio.

There are a few tattooists, like the famous Horiyoshi III of Yokohama, Japan, who will have huge portfolios full of numerous tattoos. He has been tattooing for decades and has completed numerous bodysuits and other large tattoos. The tattoos, due to their size, need to be photographed from many different angles to show all the different aspects. Portfolios like this are more like a museum of mastered tattooing and can take hours to look through to really appreciate the work. In this case, a portfolio becomes a tattooist’s legacy.

When Tattoos Look Worse Than the Originals

While checking out a portfolio, you recognize a piece of flash that has been tattooed and can find the original in the flash. Go ahead and compare the two. If you are just starting to look at tattoos and portfolios and feel a little overwhelmed by the experience, com­paring a tattoo with the original design can be a good way to get your ground.

You will be able to see if the tattooist can reproduce a design on the skin. You will be able to see if mistakes were made or if the shading is off. Keep in mind that some tattooists like to change the design a little while they are tattooing. It can make doing the tattoo more fun for the tattooist, as customers choose many of the same flash designs over and over again. The tattooist may have put a flash tattoo in his portfolio that he purposefully changed to show that a tattoo could be more custom.

Are You Impressed?

The purpose of looking through a portfolio is to find a tattooist who you want to do your tattoo. The portfolio of your tattooist should make you feel comfortable that you are going to get a high- quality tattoo from this person. You need to have confidence in the tattooist’s ability to work. Trusting in your tattooist will help you relax before and during the tattoo. You will sit for the tattoo much better and the process will be easier on the both of you.

Line Work

The very base of every tattoo is the line work. It is the frame of the tattoo. It will guide the placement of the shading and the col­oring. The line work will hold the tattoo together as it ages over the years. It will keep your tattoo legible after 30 years.

Good, clean line work is a sign of years of experience and of confi­dence with the needle. It takes some time for a tattooist to develop clean lines, usually at least five years of experience on average. With good training in the apprenticeship and the occasional “gift from God” of talent, it can take less time to perfect good line work. Really good tattoo machines help, too.

It is nearly impossible for the line of every tattoo a tattooist does to be utterly perfect. Every customer has a tendency to move now and again. Also, some people’s skin is very difficult to tattoo. Certain parts of the body, like the ribs, are just really hard to tattoo. This is why tattooists try to discourage tattooing perfect circles or par­allel lines. It’s not that it isn’t possible, it’s just that the odds are against perfection even from the most experienced tattooist.

Some tattooists develop a style where the line work is done very quickly and the tattooist doesn’t pay too much attention to the quality of the line. This is more relevant in large tattoos such as a back piece. The shading and the coloring will cover much of the lines so you won’t really notice unless you get really close.

While looking at a tattoo, there are a few things to look out for. They are common mistakes that happen to every tattooist now and again. However, an overabundance of them is a sign of someone you don’t want to get tattooed by. Let’s take a look so you will know them when you see them.

The Shakes

The last thing you want is a shaky tattoo. Shaky line work will ruin your tattoo. Some imperfections in the line can look fine, as tattoos are done by hand, not a computer printer. But too many of them may make you quite unhappy, especially if they are in really

important spots, like the nose of a pinup girl or the mast of a ship. When you look at a portfolio, see if the lines are smooth and con­nect at the right spots.

Blowouts

A blowout occurs when the lining needle goes in the skin at the wrong angle and possibly too deep. It commonly happens on a bony area like the collar bone or the shin. Blowouts look like the line in the skin has “blown out” to the side of the intended line, usually on the outside of a curve. It almost looks like the line has a shadow.

Blowouts can disappear over time. Bad blowouts can make the line look quite wide and can heal into a scar at the point of entry. Usually the tattooist will cover them with some black shading. Blowouts can happen to any tattooist while he or she is tattooing over certain areas of the body, but they are still considered kind of embarrassing. If you see a constant amount of obvious blowouts in a tattooist’s work, you may want to find someone else. One blow­out here or there is forgivable, especially in a large tattoo like a rib panel, but too many means more experience is needed.

Not Deep Enough

An inexperienced tattooist may not have the confidence to really get the line in deep enough to stay. As we have gone over previ­ously, the line work is the frame of the tattoo. If you have a weak outline, you have a weak tattoo.

A weak line will appear faded and scratchy. On close examina­tion, you will be able to see the individual marks from each pin in the tattoo needle. It will look like a bunch of tiny thin lines as opposed to one solid line. On really stretchy parts of the body like the stomach, this is common. An experienced tattooist will either get it done once or just do one more pass to make sure the line is in there.

Too Deep

Getting a tattoo that is too deep can be very painful. Such a tat­too will also cause excessive damage to your skin and cause the entire area to be much more sore than it should be. The next day it will feel like someone hit you with a bat. Also, the ink in the tattoo will either fall out, scar up, or heal in a very blurry way. Usually it’s a combination of all three. The best way to avoid this situation is to choose your tattooist after seeing healed work first hand or photographs of work that has healed properly.

Coloring and Shading

The majority of your tattoo will most likely be made up of color­ing and shading. That is, coloring and shading will take up the most surface area of the tattoo. As we went over in Chapter 5, traditionally the coloring and shading are done with a mag. For your average tattoo, the black and or gray shading will be done first, and then the color will be placed on top of that if the design calls for color.

We know tattooing can be uncomfortable. It’s nice to only have a tattoo done once. Some colors will appear brighter if they are lay­ered or tattooed twice on two separate occasions. It means more

Looking closely at the coloring and shading of a tattoo, you can tell if the tattooist will do a good job. You will see if artistically she can make your tattoo attractive or will leave you with a large, lumpy scab that takes months to heal. The artistic sense of the tattooist can make or break your tattoo.

Solid

To keep from having to go back for a touch-up that isn’t your fault, look to see if the tattoos in the portfolio are solid. Make sure the tattooist has shaded all the way up to the line. You shouldn’t be able to see any patches of skin popping through. All those little nooks and crannies and dips and curves should be filled in accordingly.

Depending on the style of the tattoo, the black shading should appear relatively smooth and even. You don’t want it to look scratchy and careless. Some traditional sailor tattoos are purpose­fully done with rough black shading—you can see the marks of the shader—to make them appear as if they were done by an old- timer, as well as to make them look tough, like it hurt.

Gray shading should be smooth and solid, as well. It shouldn’t appear splotchy or vary too much. Bad shading on a portrait will look horrible. Some tattooists specialize in black and gray realistic tattoos. If you want one of those tattoos, search out an expert.

One of the major points to this book is to keep you from getting a tattoo that is chewed and scarred. It happens all the time. So many tattooists just don’t really know what they are doing, and so many shop owners don’t tattoo so they have no idea that their tattooists are messing people up. To them, it is all about the money. Get them in and get them out before they know what happened.

Getting a tattoo that is really scarred can happen from the tat- tooist overworking the skin. He spends too much time tattooing one area, so the skin then becomes chewed and will heal into a scar. Many tattooists with years of experience know how to over­work an area of the tattoo without causing too much damage to the skin. This enables them to make smooth color blends, smooth transitions from black to color, and add highlights.

You can tell the skin has been chewed by looking at the texture of it. You should be able to see the skin’s natural texture as if nothing had happened. Your skin should just be bleeding a bit and be a new color. When the skin has been overworked, it will start to look like ground hamburger. It won’t feel good, either, and will probably be bleeding profusely.

Is It Bright or Faded?

we went over the different inks tattooists use. We learned that tattooists use many different brands. Some ink is much better than others. A good ink will heal looking more vibrant than a bad ink, no matter how good the tattooist is. The ink will determine the intensity of your tattoo.

Luckily, if you find a good, experienced tattooist, chances are he will have some of the best ink to use. The best way to tell if the tattooist’s ink is good is by seeing a healed tattoo he has done. It is better to see an older tattoo to really gauge the lasting quality of the ink. For many people, it isn’t possible to see an aged tattoo, so you might just have to settle for the photos in a portfolio.

A recently done tattoo should appear to be very bright. The ink is still close to the surface of the skin, as we learned in Chapter 4. If the color in the tattoo looks really light or faded, the ink may not have gone in deep enough. The black should look black, not gray­ish. Usually if the color is splotchy or faded, you will also notice that the line work is lame as well. Technical problems due to inex­perience or poor ability usually come hand in hand.

Too Light/Too Dark

Making sure that a tattooist is technically capable and confident is the first step to finding your tattooist. If you are just getting something small or you simply want to get a piece of flash from the wall, you are all set. As we have learned, there are many great tattooists who only tattoo flash designs, and they probably do them better than any tattooist who prefers to draw custom tattoos.

Picking out a tattooist to do a custom tattoo when you don’t have a fully rendered design in front of you can be tricky.

For a custom tattoo, you want to make sure the outcome will be well balanced. You have already taken a look at the drawing ability of the tattooist, but now you need to make sure she can choose the right colors. You want to make sure that she will use the right amount of black so the tattoo will be in good balance.

When looking at portfolios, you will want to observe the tattooist’s color work. Make sure the colors she chooses aren’t too gaudy and don’t clash unless that’s what you are looking for. This becomes an issue of personal style. If you like the colors the tattooist uses in her tattoos and how she combines them, you have found yourself a winner.

Tattoos need a certain amount of black to make the colors bright. It’s the contrast that pushes out the color, making it vibrant. If a tattooist doesn’t put enough black in a tattoo, it won’t look as bright. You will see this more as the tattoo ages over the years. Tattoos with only color tend to get very blurry and weak with time. They may look great for a while, but not forever.

A tattoo with too much black will appear too dark and may end up looking like a black blob as the years go by. Some people prefer to have very dark tattoos. Dark tattoos can have an eerie or mys­terious feel. They can also look masculine; so ladies, if you want a feminine feel to your tattoo, don’t let your tattooist overdo it on the black. Let him know in the first place before it’s too late.

Be sure to fully examine the portfolio of the tattooist you are getting your tattoo from. You don’t want to make a mistake by letting yourself get butchered. You will just have to find someone else to fix it and spend more money. Take your time with this process. It will save you a lot of time and money as well as keep you from having a huge headache.

The Least You Need to Know

♦    The best way to find a good tattooist is to look through tat- tooists’ portfolios.

♦    Presentation is not as important as the work itself when eval­uating a portfolio.

♦    High-quality photos, originality, and good line work are the things to look for in a portfolio.

♦    Shaky lines and blowouts are a sign of an inexperienced or poor tattooist.

♦    Shading and strong outlines are important aspects of finished tattoos.