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Liverpool Tattoo Convention
Liverpool Tattoo convention promises to be an extraordinary event to go to, with an amazing array of world tattoo artists including; Dan Henk (USA), Darwin Enriquez (Venezuala) and Lawrence Ah Ching (La Segaula Tatua, Samoa) Traditional Samoan tattoo artists. From this selection there is a great array of Portrait and New School artist, which are proving to be the favourite choice these days for tattoo’s.
There is also an amazing collection of UK artists including; Hazel Nicholls (Design 4 Life Tattoo, Liverpool), Paul Humphreys (Evolution Tattoo, Oxford), Doc Fell (Mike’s Tattoo Studio, Carlise) and Karl Fletcher (Fletcky’s Tattoo’s, Golborne). And if there wasn’t enough selection for you, then with these UK artist will certainly satisfy,from Japanese to Contemporary, Portraits to Traditional Tribal.
Although there is not just something for the tattoo enthusiast, there are shows an a battle f the bands which is hoping to be legendary. In any case it is definitely worth a trip to visit this amazing event.
Follow link for more information, and ticket sales http://www.tattooconvention.co.uk/index.html
(Watch out for the article on the 22nd of June).
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Beauty and the Beast
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My sweet angels - Tattoo design
Father and Son portrait
James Hetfield - Metallica
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Ed Hardy, Tattoo mogul http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/13/us/13sftattoo.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss.
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Tubes? What’s yours.
Lots of people have different views, this is probably the same with any decision or argument that you will come across, but when it comes to tattoo gear there is quite a clear cut line between the people who like something and the people who don’t. Grips and tubes is one of those matters. I used to find that when ever I talk to artists they always say that Steel grips and tubes are best, but I am starting to find that more and more are converting to the disposable alternative. So why is this?
I suppose the obvious advantages to disposable tubes are that, one you don’t need to buy a steriliser which saves you a bit of cash, they are easily available with almost every internet shop selling a wide variety of sizes and they are quite comfortable to use, coming from previous experience using them. With that in mind why wouldn’t you use them, seems to be a good argument to do so; well the down side to these tubes are that, even though you save money on the steriliser, they are quite costly in the long run (hence why most shops don’t use them); also when you are setting up your machine, you will have to change the entire tube when changing needle size e.g. when changing shading needles it easy to catch the needle tip on the plastic and chip it causing a rough motion; not nice.
So if there are faults with the disposable tubes why are people changing to them, well it is because they’re just easier; you don’t have to sterilise them which is my biggest incentive, as I don’t have the cash to buy a steriliser and they aren’t expensive to replace like Steel tubes; if you break one, no biggy, just get another one out. Although saying that I think that if you have the cash I would defiantly use Steel. They are a lot more customisable, you can get the perfect size grip for your hand which can make all the difference, they are cheaper in the long run when you add it up and; you don’t have to change the whole tube to change needle size, just the end section.
To be honest I think that when I comes down to it, neither ease, cash or sterilisation will factor in to it, you will choose what suits you, weather it be disposable plastic tubes or steel tubes that you can have one of a kind, it is what you hand wants to use.
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Top 5 Tattoo Design Sites
5. Tattoo-art.com
The great thing with Tattoo-art.com is that they have a great selection of designs and a lot of them. On top of that the designs are super easy to find in the page, due to the great layout of the page. But good designs and layout won’t et you everywhere and that is about as far as it goes for this site; yes the designs are plentiful, but there aren’t many big or realistic/complex designs and they don’t have as big a selection to choose from as other sites. Another disadvantage to the site is that you still have to pay for deigns that you want to download, and sorry to say but I wouldn’t be downloading the designs anytime soon, not at those prices; e.g. $9 for one tribal piece, now that is extortion.
A good site for tribal enthused designs, but that’s about it.
4. Freetattoodesign.org
As expected when you go on to this site, all the designs they have are free; which personally is great because I hate having to pay for some image that I just want to be able to get a better look at. They also have a great lay out to the page and it is simple to find what you are after, it is just a matter of weather they have it or not. Unfortunately the down side to this site is that they have a very limited amount of images and designs to choose from; only 2 if you’re after Japanese dragons.
Although on the upside, the amount of information they have to give you is astonishing. They offer info on not just tattoos them selves but after care, removal, artists and even supplies. When it comes to tattoos they have the history and meanings behind everything and anything for example, the history of tattooing itself or different scale designs for your Koi fish. Overall a great site to visit and get clued up on anything tattoo, and find the odd design.
3. Myttoos.com
I first came across Myttoos.com through their facebook page, but when I then noticed that they also have a website I was eager to check that out as well, and I was surprised to find tonnes of information on tattoos. They have done well to involve you with the site as much as possible, from questionnaires and voting for photos, to helping to moderate images that they get sent in.
The site is run more like a blog than a website, with news updates everyday on the world of tattoos, which is super useful weather you are looking to be a tattoo artist or just trying to find out more on where the best place is to get inked. When it comes to finding designs the website is still very young and doesn’t have much selection at all, but if you venture over to their facebook, where I first found them, you will find a whole array of tattoo designs and images of tats that people have. Not as big as some of them but the range of images is perfect and not having too many means you don’t get lost trying to find something you are after.
2. TattooJohnny.com
Out of al the page I looked at TattooJohnny.com had the single largest assortment of tattoo designs and stencils, ranging from simple star and heart designs, to Japanese dragons. One feature that also stood out to me was the “Celebrity Artist” section where they have one artist a month to submit designs for you to download; personally I think this is fantastic as it means you can have a very high quality design without that high price tag to go along with it.
Due to it being such a large site, with so much to offer, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they also had daily updates on designs, so that there is always new and improved pieces if you don’t find the ne you want straight away. As a slight side track, TattooJohnny.com also offers a large selection of aftercare products and at very reasonable prices too, something that is just as important, if not more than, getting the right design.
Unfortunately on the negative side, this site does charge for the designs that you want to download, given they are of exceptional quality; but a large majority of the tattoos on there are tribal based. So people that are looking for more realistic, complex pieces will have to look elsewhere.
1. Checkoutmyink.com
This is the best page when it comes to looking for a tattoo design; it has tonnes of images free to your finger tips, to copy and easy access to inspire your creative juices. Due to it also being a community of tattoo enthusiasts there are comments to go along with most of the images, so that you can get a perspective from possibly a million other people. As well as these fantastic attributes, the site is extremely easy to use, so that you can find any design you’re after; just type the keyword and there you are, over 1000 images of just one design type.
As a slight tangent, Checkoutmyink.com also has one of the simplest processes to create your own account and upload your own designs, to help all perspective artists to get their own stuff noticed, and commented on by millions; a definite must have for people looking to get noticed, I speak from personal experience, after just one day of uploading my images I had tonnes of comments from people spanning the world.
So when you are looking for a design or just looking to share the ink, your first stop has to be Checkoutmyink.com, all thumbs up for this page; nice work guys.
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The online Facebook gallery and group for all my pieces. →
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What’s the Point of Tribal? Part 1
What’s the Point of Tribal?
As a tattoo collector my self, I have to admit that my first tattoo was a tribal piece that I designed. Saying that, within about the first 6 months of getting the piece I was already bored with it and was eager to start on a Japanese Koi half sleeve.
