Becoming a tattoo artist is not easy. Not only do you need to refine your skills, which by the way, take immense time and effort, but you also need to come up with a signature style of your own. This signature style will only be discovered when you’re developing your skills, which is why focusing on them is quite important.
But if you’re persistent on becoming a reputed tattoo artist, then you’re in for a treat. We’re listing some tips and insights into how you can improve your tattooing skills, and become renowned in the community. So, let’s get started:
Practice Makes Perfect
Well, of course! Even if you have a naturally gifted talent for tattooing, you won’t be able to get to the top if you don’t practice and hone your skills. For this, you need to focus on drawing since that’s the most important of all steps.
Even if you don’t aim to become a signature tattoo artist, you’ll need a good amount of practice just for becoming a good one though. So, you need to practice drawing especially detailed designs and pictures.
You can enroll in art schools or even get mentorship. If you’re busy with your routine and can’t manage to attend something physically, you can join online tutorials and teaching groups. For that, ensure that you’re streaming in good quality since you want to know the dynamics behind things work.
For that purpose, we recommend using Xfinity Internet since it offers good speed and unlimited data that will give uninterrupted streaming.
Building Your Portfolio
Even if you’re not started as a professional tattoo artist, you can still feature your drawings and create a portfolio of your own. This way you can even generate a reputation as an artist. Moreover, you can create your own brand, or even ask mentors for their insights that will help you improve.
In other words, the appreciation and critical review will surely help you improve your skills and you’ll definitely put more effort into what you do. What’s more important is that this portfolio can be used for illustrating that you have the passion and the potential to become a tattoo artist.
You can illustrate this if enrolling yourself in a course or even under mentorship. If not, then this can still earn you a good reputation online, particularly on social media where you can launch your own page.
Landing Apprenticeship
While practicing is important, you should not rest even if you’re appreciated online or learned from numerous tutorials. Landing apprenticeship is quite important in this field of work and you need to know how professionals work.
However, apprenticeship does come at a cost, which includes long working hours, no, or low pay, and sometimes just sticking to drawings instead of actual work. But if you’re working under a professional, sometime later, you’ll surely be given insights that will help you with how to handle being a tattoo artist.
Moreover, watching how professionals work gives a real-time idea of things especially being patient with your clients and open-minded in your work. Being firm is quite important in your line of work, and that’s something you’ll surely observe and learn from professionals.
Never Stop Learning
Whether it’s an apprenticeship or landing a job in a tattoo parlor, you should never stop learning and maturing in your skills. It’s one of the ways that you’ll be able to improve your skills and develop your signature style.
In doing so, you should study the art that you want to mature in. From black and grey tattoos to realism tattoos, blackwork to portrait tattoos, you can choose your domain and stick with it. Moreover, you should practice the skill whenever you get the chance because only then you’ll be able to understand the dynamics and ensure that your craft achieves perfection in every aspect.
Be Inspired
Perhaps one of the best elements about any artist is the inspiration that motivated him to achieve what he’s today. For a tattoo artist, you should definitely find your inspiration so that you don’t indulge in boring practices and lose your edge.
Finding inspiration can be hard but if you’re keen on looking, you’ll find it often. From observing the work of other artists to observing your surroundings, you can come up with ideas for your next tattoo design.
Who knows if this can become your signature style? Moreover, finding inspiration in different designs will surely broaden your artistic perspective. If you’re giving recommendations, you can illustrate your work and share your ideas with your clients, and maybe they’ll get them tattooed.
If not, you have your portfolio page set up and you can post it online for getting remarks.
Practice Patience & Resilience
Not many people stress this enough but being patient in your job especially if you’re working as a tattoo artist is quite important. Why? Because you won’t always get clients that understand how things work or how you don’t do certain tattoos i.e. with different techniques.
The worst part is to tackle these clients and ensuring not blow off steam towards them. Plus, some clients will be a blank canvas and you’ll have to be patient enough to help them get to the right place and well, the right tattoo.
As for resilience, it’s as important as patience because if you can’t hold your ground, then you won’t be able to get things done. Whether it’s against clients or coworkers, from your learning process to training, apprenticeship, and working full-time, you’ll have to be resilient in your work to be accepted in the community.
Closing Thoughts
Well, there isn’t a guidebook to it, but with the abovementioned ways, you can surely develop a path that will lead you to become a successful tattoo artist. Again, ensure that you know what you’re doing, be clear about your goal, and be resilient and patient in your journey!
https://linework.com/becoming-a-successful-tattoo-artist
https://tattooswizard.com/blog/improving-tattoo-artist-skills
https://tattooing101.com/learn/tips-advice/traits-of-a-successful-tattoo-artist/#t-1630763047977
https://tattooschool.com/top-5-pieces-of-advice-for-aspiring-tattoo-artists/
