Your relationship with whomever will be affected but know no matter what that it’s so worth it in the end.Īn apprenticeship could take anywhere from a year to two, but what determines that is your drive. Don’t start if your mind is not in the right space whether it be financially or even emotionally. So for those looking to start, understand it is a commitment and an investment. So I can’t speak on it much now but I’m excited to see what the next nine years will bring. The beautiful thing about this career is that there’s always room to grow and learn. The same experience I had when I started nine years ago. I want to create a space that will pull in artists of different backgrounds and styles so that we can learn from each other. I see myself opening a private studio sometime in the future. I really enjoy tattooing details so the more details the more fun the piece gets! I love to shade anything, from portraits to inanimate objects, to florals, etc. So my preference is mostly black and grey.

I enjoy smooth shading and love when I can bring some realism with just one color. Using a pen, pencil or even charcoal is my favorite and has always been. Abstract to renaissance paintings I love to pull inspiration from fine art mostly.Įven though I paint with color I enjoy a monochromatic palette more.

I also love playing with lineweight, so having both bold and fine linework. I love playing with light and shadows, so the contrast level will differ from piece to piece. My style of tattooing is a mix between illustrative and realism. I can’t say the days of the Sailor Jerry flash are dead because hell that will be the day the industry dies, but it’s amazing to see how the newer generation of tattooers are changing the game. There are more styles too, like minimalism, dotwork, blackwork, micro realism etc. When I started, most of the equipment I used was heavy and bulky whereas now I can literally fit my entire set up in a Fanny pack (CRAZY!) So having a wider range of clientele nowadays has evolutionised the art of tattooing. Example, wireless tattooing is now a common thing which was a spoken myth back in the day. From tattooing celebrities to people in blue collar, tattooers are now finding more and more creative ways to tattoo. So this alone has opened up many doors for tattooers. From the techniques and styles to even the public being more accepting of them. This industry is forever changing, and has been since I started about nine years ago. I’ve learnt to develop a language to communicate my art and tattoo what I like to tattoo. I have a better understanding of the industry especially to my clients. I try to live with no regrets since I did bounce back a year later, but I do agree that was time wasted. Unfortunately I allowed nightlife to consume me which became my downfall and had to put a pause in my apprenticeship. I was in between bartending and trying to keep my apprenticeship at Big Bang. I had quite a start, pretty rough cause I was super broke right after college. I never once felt disrespected by any of them, so I know I was super lucky because tattooers, especially females have been treated unfairly. Each studio had tattooers from different ethnicities and had different tattooing skills so it was cool getting to learn something new from them. I worked at about three shops mostly – the first Big Bang Ink in Brooklyn where I apprenticed at, and then Village Tattoo located in St.Marks which was my first shop as a tattooer and finally Red Baron Ink in the Lower East Side. Starting out in a diverse city like NYC I was grateful to have come to work with some real cool people in the industry.

Ciara paint it black interview