Tattoo Designs | Tattoo Ideas

Tattoo Art Gallery 1

Sound advice from Adrian Gallego.

This next tattoo could be the best reader submission I've ever recieved. Veronica's wonderful Marilyn Monroe portrait was done by Stefano Alcantara of Last Rites, NY. Whoah. It puts Megan Fox's arm into context, for sure.

Tattooed Hottie of the Week is a new feature to tattoos.com where each week we showcase a girl that is tattooed and link to her website. It will be a regular feature on our new site for mobile phones at tattoos.com/mobile where we will produce fast loading info and updates for tattoos.com on your mobile browser.

If you are interested in becoming a tattooed hottie and getting traffic for your website, please email us at hotties@tattoos.com and be sure to send us some pics and put tattooed hotty in the subject line.

Well, it would have been a painful experience for the Girl Interrupted to get rid of the Original Sin - as she calls it now. Podgy lipped superstar Angelina Jolie has erased the last memories of her ex-husband Billy Bob Thornton. She got rid of her ex’s name and an oriental dragon on her arm through laser treatment, of course not Gone in Sixty Seconds.

Total of 11 tattoos on her skin reflect her passionate love for the skin art which include a large Asian tiger adoring her back, a black cross gilded on her left hip, and her latest one “Know Your Rights” below her neck.

Angelina wants to show her love towards her two adopted children also by tattooing their names on her back. After all this, Brad Pitt - her latest throb - has also managed to find some place on her skin, glittering with tattoos, in the form of a bunny on her butt.

Movie freaks have found a new way of expressing their love for their favorite stars and this tattoo is a perfect example. A gal by the name of Stephanie got her wrist inked with a signature tattoo of Robert Pattinson, the star of Twilight, The Twilight Saga: New Moon, How To Be, and Little Ashes. With this signature tattoo, she has shown her passion for the actor in a very unique and sentimental way.

Earlier, Rihanna was in the news for her misspelled Sanskrit tattoo and now, ‘Heroes’ star Hayden Panettiere’s tattoo on her rib cage is being reported to have been spelled incorrectly. Her new tattoo reads vivere senza rimipianti (meaning “live without regrets”), but the correct spelling of the verse should be vivere senza rimpianti. Both of them look almost the same, but when you take a close look, Panettiere’s tattoo has an extra “i” in rimpianti. Oh gal! you got it misspelled. Why didn’t you use a dictionary?

Interested in Fairy Tattoo Designs? Ever since the whole lower back tattoo came into fashion and tattoos have gone mainstream a fairy tattoos have become very popular. Just about everybody and their sister wants a fairy tattoo. it is pretty easy to see why also. Fairy tattoos are flexible in their design, the size can easily be adjusted and they can look great on just about any location on the body. Have you really been considering getting such a tattoo. Well here are some things that you should consider first and then also a little gallery and even a super cool video.

 

The first thing you really want to nail down as you start to consider such a tattoo is the location for the design. You don’t want to just slap it on any old place after all you will have this tattoo for the rest of your life. Therefore it can make snese to take some time and carefully consider where you will place the tattoo. Think about where you would like it to go and even what body part you would like to accentuate and show off? For some women it is of course the lower back but other women might prefer a foot location. Yet others still want the fairy design on their chest or the shoulder. There really is no right or wrong just a bunch of different ideas. Most important pick someone that you will be able to show off your tattoo pretty easily and not somewhere you might be embarrassed of.

Think About Mood
The other thing you should consider is the mood and pose of the fairy. Of course a fairy can be done in a cartoon style with a cute cartoon style girl. Or it can be a very realistic looking fairy. What you choose again is up to you but think carefully. The mood of the fairy will convey a lot fo the meaning behind the tattoo. If you just want to get the tattoo to get one then it is better to wait and carefully make your decision.

Thing About Colors
Again the mood of the tattoo will be conveyed through the design. If you want something sexy it is going to look different then something that is cute glittery and pink. If you are a Gothic girl then you might want your fairy don in black.

Well so make some choices before rushing out to your local tattoo shop. First think about the location for your design. Do you want an ankle, shoulder, or hip tattoo? Then think about the pose the fairy will be in and last but not least think about the colors you will use as they also convey a message.

Epic Tattoo, Woodstock, GA

Tattoo artist 'Nearly Painless' James has worked in several studios in the past decade and has also worked with some of the greats in the industry. He is pretty laid back (as most big guys usually are) and even though he looks pretty tough is one of the soundest guys you are likely to meet. In the studio he treats all his customers with the respect they deserve and alongside being a damn good artist is probably one of the reasons he has people coming back for more. In this interview James dishes some home truths and shows us what legends are made of...

You said that you got into tattooing after getting your first tattoo and hanging out in the studio for a while before getting a job. Did you previously have any artistic temperament or were you self taught?

As an artist I am self taught, but I learned to tattoo by serving an apprenticeship. I was getting my second tattoo. The shop I was getting tattooed at had just let their counter person and was really busy. All the artists were working on someone and the lobby was crawling with people. When the owner, who was tattooing me, took a cigarette break I stayed inside and wound up helping some folks find their way around the flash and reference.

I didn't know that he was watching me from outside. When he came back in he offered me the counter person spot. I said sure, thinking I would have some fun and get some free ink, but then it became something entirely different. I found that I really enjoyed what I was doing, and I was really good at it if I do say so myself. ;-) Working the counter became an apprenticeship and now over ten years later I am still enjoying what I do and what I am.

Can you tell me a little bit more about who showed you the ropes and how long it took?

I learned from Darrin White at House of Color tattoo in Marietta, Ga. Although, to be fair, I learned a ton from the other two artists there as well, Billie Brown and K.C. Wagner. It was a hard thing to do. Long hours and the normal craziness that comes with an apprenticeship. I ran the front counter, cleaned the shop, scrubbed the tubes for everyone, helped the customers, did the paperwork, collected money, gave aftercare, made stencils, made needles for everyone, set up the owners station, watched him tattoo, mixed pigment, made orders, and anything else that was needed. I was there for almost two years, most of which was spent apprenticing.

One time, Darrin and K.C. were off to Texas for a guest spot and it was about 2 hours before closing when Darrin handed me a list of needles he needed made. This was a serious list. 200 three liners, 100 seven mags and 100 thirteen mags!! There was a list of about 500 different needles and he informed me that they were on a plane the next morning at 7am and he needed them done by then, so I got locked in the shop overnight to make needles all night! Crazy, crazy, crazy...

But you know what? I wouldn't change not one single moment of the entire thing. It did make me the artist I am today and I would do it all again. Any yahoo who tries to step to me with their junk about learning on their own or not wanting to pony up for an apprenticeship to learn this trade, then I have absolutely no time for that. In my opinion, the only way this should be done is by apprenticeship.

There are some amazing artists out there who are basically self-taught, and I don't take anything away from them, but for everyone of them there are 200 wannabes who are hacking folks up and giving my lifestyle a black eye.I do believe the proof is in the pudding and that talent will out itself, but if you spend anytime with those badass cats who are 'self taught' they spent some time around someone else that they learned from. I really do believe that this is not something you need to figure out on your own.

Do you have any advice for aspiring tattoo artists?

Like I said before, find someone whose work you really like and seek out an apprenticeship. Believe what I am saying, this is the ONLY way to do it right. Forget what you think and do it right. Don't take NO for an answer. Let me tell you something, I am not a tattoo celebrity, but I seriously get at least three or four different people a week who watched one of the TV shows and they want to know about tattooing.

On top of that, I get five to ten other folks telling me how they 'have a cousin/brother/friend/ baby daddy who should do this, they can really draw!' I'm a little jaded with folks trying to be me. Truth is, there is a lot of junk that goes with this lifestyle that they don't tell you on the brochure. Yeah, you get to look cool, and be cool, but let me pull the curtain back share a little truth.

Here's the facts about tattooing as they stand.

    * You work long, weird hours. You work nine to twelve hour days and you go to work when most folks are at lunch and you get off work when folks are either in bed or already wherever they are going for the night.
    * You don't make THAT much money. Really, don't buy the hype on TV. I do alright for myself, but I am NOT buying an Escalade, a custom Jeep, or a fully restored hotrod.
    * Your family life is really hard. The hours are hard on a wife and kids.
    * You have no benefits. That's right, no health insurance, novacation days, no sick days, no retirement, no unemployment benefits. You are setting yourself up to work your ass off and to do it until you die, whether you are sick or not.
    * You deal with people all day long. Most folks are great and you appreciate them, but there is a high percentage of people who will walk through that door with a fundamental lack of respect for you and your job.

Now, with all that said, being a tattoo artist, for real, is a lot like being a pirate. You are or you ain't. No real middle ground. Despite all the drawbacks to this, I love being a tattoo artist. It is not just WHAT I do, it is WHO I am. The rant above is not me downing what I am, just an eye-opener because I see so many folks getting blinded by the TV shows and getting a very wrong impression of this lifestyle. Right now, it is very cool to be a tattoo artist. Everybody wants to do it.

I had this one kid come into the shop asking about an apprenticeship. He kept going on and on about how much he loved tattooing and how much he felt the drive to be a tattoo artist. After listening to him gush for a few minutes, I ask him how old he was. Nineteen came the response. So I ask to see his tattoos. He got this horrified look on his face and was like...Oh no, I don't have any. Look Pal, get out of the shop and quit wasting my time! If you have been of age for a full year and you know you want to be a tattoo artist more than anything and you don't even one tattoo, then you need to get out.

So sum up, aspiring tattoo artist, don't bother. Be a customer for a long while. It's OK to just love tattoos and collect them.

Tell me a little about the studio you work for, what is a typical day there like?

Typical day, there is no such thing in a shop! Pretty much though, it's usually me and Chris who arrive first. We have been lately opening the shop to a rousing pirate drinking song at full blast. Then as the crew shows up things change. Customers come in, I tattoo some folks, draw some drawings, pierce some folks. I generally annoy my coworkers with my music. I rarely listen to metal or hardcore. Normally it's country, 80's cock rock, or blues, but I do spice it up with some gospel, show tunes, and assorted weirdness.

If it's slow we cause all kinds of mayhem amongst ourselves. Pits in the lobby, BB gun shooting contests, and marker wars! With customers we pretty much just yell at each other and pick on each other. It's good for keeping the customers entertained.

As for artists I work with. First off, there's 'Badass' Chris Collett. Let me tell you, this kid is going places. He's one of the best tattoo artists you never heard of. Trust me, that's going to change in the near future, I'll see to it.

I work with Kenny 'The Koi Whisperer' Holland, who does a real nice American traditional / Japanese thang, Paul Hanley whoopin ass on the stone tribal thang and black and gray in general, Riff with a fine line fantasy flair, and Mike Lemay a Biomech wiz.

You seem to have very definite ideas on getting tattooed, can you tell me a little bit more about that?

I think that people should get the tattoo they want. I think they should be given every ounce of respect that they walk in the door with and they should be treated fairly. The tattoo industry and tattoo artists in general get looked down on as being low class and you know what? Unfortunately there are too many shops who deserve all that bad reputation because they do not conduct themselves as professionals.

Understand, professionalism is not trying to act like a doctor. It is simply maintaining a level of respect for your customer. I try to make all my customers realize that I do appreciate them. I am not a rock star and I do not treat them rudely or as if they were stupid. I also try to keep them entertained. I talk to my customers. If they are not talkative, then I will give Chris a hard time over the station wall just for their amusement. People like getting tattooed by me, that's why they keep coming back.

Is there any particular style of tattooing you favor?

I love big, bold line cartoon styles tattoos. Cartoon pinups, kids with big heads and knives behind their backs, big-eyed girls. Stuff like that...

How has your style of tattooing developed over the years and who are your main influences?

For a while I tried and tried to be New Traditional James because I love that stuff, I really do. I think it is amazing, but all my drawings came out too cartoony. I could never get that stark old school feel in my stuff. Then I sat back in frustration and listened to some advice from a friend of mine who told me to stop fighting my style. So now, I don't fight it. I draw stuff cartoony.

So I guess it would be new school, but not all weird. Cartoon girls and stuff. Now that I am not fighting my style, I am seeing progress in it. Very comic book styled, with some Saturday morning cartoon, and some lowbrow hotrod stuff. Lots of cartoon girls and right now I am on a huge pirate kick. So I am drawing lots of piratey goodness. YAARGH!

My influences would be Jim'e Litwalk, Joe Capobianco, Tony Ciavarro, Cleen Rock One, Gunnar, folks like that...

Do you have any tattoo conventions or guest appearances planned?

I will be at Vitality Tattoo in Asheville NC Jan. 21st-Jan 24th 2007

Vitality Tattoo
1240 Brevard Rd Suite 1
Asheville, North Carolina, 28806
United States
828 667 4344
http://www.vitalitytattoo.com

You should all check out Shannon Schober at Vitality, The man definitely has a style unseen in the industry so far and he is one of the nicest folks I have ever met. You need to get a tattoo from him before he gets too big and his schedule fills up. Mark my words, you heard it here first.

I am scheduled for the Jacksonville FL Convention in October 2007. I will have a split set of flash with Shannon Schober of Vitality Tattoo so all you artists look for that, and hopefully my second sketchbook will be started and done by the first quarter of the year. Check the website below for details.

http://www.nearlypainless.com

Any parting shots, words of wisdom or unusual stories?

Nahhh, I think I have said enough. Thank you to my wife and kids, and thank you so much to my Loyals and True Believers, they are the reason I work so hard. Thank you. Cap'n Nearly Painless James has left the building...

By Jim'e Litwalk