Plain and simple, it hurts in some places on your body more than others. The amount of pain depends on how close the nerve endings are to the surface of your skin. According to expert tattoo artist Shotsie Gorman, the needle only pierces the skin a 32nd of an inch.
Here’s a quick, 40 second ultra slow motion video of a tattoo needle.
This video shows one way a tattoo concept gets worked out. Mainly by pulling artwork from various sources to create one final design.
Luke, the guy getting tattooed in this video changes his mind several times while the design is still on paper. This allows his decision to evolve naturally over time. Time is essential because it can make you change your mind about a design or allow you to feel more solid about your decision.
In the video below is the same tattoo as a final product. Pretty cool result! This is a testimony that it’s good to put thought into your tattoo designs and allow them to take their own shape before a needle actually touches your skin. Let inspiration come from the universe bit by bit and that way you can be happy with what you get!
Here are some good tattoo design resources. These sites are free and worth your time if you’re looking for your next idea or just inspiration. Take a look!
checkoutmyink.com – Upload your tattoo photos and share your new artwork with the community.
dafont.com – Good place to get ideas for Tattoo lettering.
vecteezy.com – Get an idea or two from hundreds of vector artworks.
deviantart.com – In the categories menu tattoo design is under the Design & Interfaces Menu. There’s a lot of cool designs here, especially if you’re browsing and don’t have an exact idea of what you want yet.
vectorportal.com – More cool vector design ideas to download.
vanishingtattoo.com – This is an excellent informative site about all things tattoo. Talks about the various types of tattoos and their meanings, celebrity tattoos, history of tattoos and more.
If you know of any free sites that are not on this list and should be, don’t hesitate, send me an email and let me know!
Several interviews with renowned tattoo artists about what you should know before getting a tattoo.
1) Choose your design wisely!!!
2) Develop a repore with your Tattoo artist and view their portfolio
3) Make sure the studio is clean and uses sterilized equipment
4) Don’t get a name tattoo (many tattoo artists won’t even do them)
5) Don’t use Drugs or alcohol while getting a tattoo
Here’s another vid by a guy who just got his first tattoo… man, that’s a cool first tattoo!
Do a search for “Tattoo Television” on Youtube and you’ll find a number of good videos under their channel. Though they are intended mainly for tattoo artists, they can give you some idea of what you can ask your artist to see if they know what they are doing. For example:
1) The brightness of a tattoo is determined more by it’s color strategy than by the pigments used
2) A design can be made bolder not by using more black, but by using it in just the right places
3) Tattoo artists who work in other artistic mediums are usually better at what they do