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The Perks of Being an Artist

Tag Archives: tattoo apprentice

Crosshatched Fairy

03 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by emilypageart in art, tattooing, Uncategorized

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art nouveau fairy, cross hatch, crosshatch, crosshatch drawing, Emily Page, Emily Page Art, Emily Page artist, Emily Page tattoo, fairy drawing, fairy tattoo, Ratatat Tats, tattoo, tattoo apprentice, tattoo apprenticeship

If you recall had this idea for a tattoo I wanted to attempt, and I posted it on here and on my social media and asked if anyone would let me do it. I had 2 people say yes, so I got one lined up (it’s happening in soon), and then offered a different idea to the other person. Here’s what I sent her:

drawing for Bonnie's fairy.jpg

She requested fairy ears, and we were good to go! Here’s the final product (my 19th tattoo, and the largest I’ve done in the 3 weeks that I’ve been tattooing):

Bonnie's fairy

I did the whole thing with a liner needle to get that crosshatched look. Takes a little longer than a shader, and I was worried it’d end up harsher than shading it in traditionally, but it ended up staying nice and soft. I just sort of grazed the skin to keep it light, so we’ll have to see once it heals how much of the ink disappears and how much stays nice and solid. Experimentation!

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A Painting of a Tattoo of a Painting

30 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by emilypageart in art, painting, tattooing, Uncategorized

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Tags

art nouveau flower, art nouveau tattoo, art nouveau woman, Emily Page, Emily Page artist, Emily Page tattoo, Ratatat Tats, tattoo, tattoo apprentice, tattoo apprenticeship, tattoo studio, tattooing

Here’s a fun little story about a tattoo I did last week. When I created this painting for my tattoo room…

Artist

…one of the flowers I used as inspiration for the bottom of the painting was from an art nouveau painting:

Rylee.png

When I posted my painting online, a friend messaged that she wanted to get an art nouveau flower tattoo and she sent me several images for reference. One of them was this same flower! Fate, people! The universe wanted her to get this tattoo from me, lol.

Here is the tattoo itself, and below it is a pic of her with the tattoo next to the painting. Love!

Rylee flower

Rylee with my painting

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All In

28 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by emilypageart in art, painting, tattooing, Uncategorized

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Tags

Emily Page, Emily Page artist, Emily Page tattoo, feminine tattoo, learning to tattoo, Ratatat Tats, simple tattoo, tattoo, tattoo apprentice, tattoo apprenticeship, tattoo studio, tattooing

I had a customer today who had an old tattoo on her inner arm that was misspelled and she wanted to get something else on the other arm to match it. So she changed the words, but decided to go all in on the misspelling. The first side said “To weird to live, to weird to die.” So I just did a tattoo for her that said “To stubborn to give up, to proud to give in.” I checked and double-checked with her to make sure she understood it was supposed to be “too” and not “to,” and she confirmed and reconfirmed. Hard to argue with her commitment. I did not take a pic because I didn’t really want to show it off as part of my portfolio, but now I’m kind of regretting that because you, lovely readers, would have enjoyed it immensely. Sorry ’bout that. But here are a couple other tattoos I did over the last few days:

raquel-plant.jpg

carrie-symbol.jpg

Kathy sisters heart

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Tattoo Idea

26 Monday Mar 2018

Posted by emilypageart in art, painting, tattooing, Uncategorized

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Tags

art, art nouveau, art nouveau female, art nouveau girl, art nouveau woman, artist, Emily Page Art, Emily Page artist, learning to tattoo, painting, Ratatat Tats, tattoo, tattoo apprentice, tattoo apprenticeship, tattooing

One of the things I’m figuring out as I learn tattooing is to think a little differently in how I create artwork. You don’t approach a tattoo the same way you work with acrylic or oil paints. It’s kind of similar to watercolor and drawing, except not. The order you do everything is different, and like when I was learning how to sculpt out of foam, I struggle to make my brain wrap around something that is totally different from everything I know. It’s different from what I’m used to being good at, so this is kind of a painful process for me. I hate being mediocre. To struggle at art, the one thing I’m actually really confident at doing, is really uncomfortable. But I want to learn, so I’m pushing through the discomfort and trying to grow as I learn this new medium.

In an effort to learn without the pressure of making something perfect that’ll be on someone’s body forever, I’m returning to canvas and paper and trying to create works that would translate well onto skin. I’ve seen some really fantastic tattoos of women, and I’d love to do one soon. So I’m playing around with ideas. If anyone wants to let me tattoo this one on them, lemme know. I know it’s a long shot, but I figure it can’t hurt to ask, right?

art nouveau girl 1

If you’re not up for getting this as a tattoo, but would like a print, t-shirt, tote bag, laptop skin, sticker, shower curtain, or just about anything else, you can get it here and here.

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I’m Workin’

21 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by emilypageart in art, tattooing, Uncategorized

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

constellation tattoo, rent tattoo, tattoo, tattoo apprentice, tattoo apprenticeship, tattoo studio, tattoo touch up, tattooing, watercolor tattoo

I’ve had way more opportunities to practice the noble art of drawing on people with needles than I’d thought possible. I’ve had friends offer to let me play on them, I’ve had strangers take a chance. And some of them have even paid me AND asked to pay me for a second one. I mean, hell yes. So following those first few that I posted the other day, here are some more I’ve gotten to do:

beebutterflyconstellation watercolorno day but todayorigami cranesemicolon

teddy bear touch upcross heart ekg

Here’s what I’m learning: There are a lot of different needles. There are a lot of different skin types. There are a lot of different inks. There are a lot of different tattoo machines. There are a lot of different power sources and cords. And now you know what you need to know to tattoo. You’re welcome.

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Calf Skin Is the Best

13 Tuesday Mar 2018

Posted by emilypageart in art, humor, tattooing, Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

dandelion seed tattoo, dopy tattoo, elephant blowing on dandelion seed, elephant tattoo, empire state building tattoo, poppy tattoo, tattoo apprentice, tattoo apprenticeship, watercolor flower tattoo, watercolor poppy tattoo, watercolor tattoo

Holy crap, I LOVE calf skin. The skin on the back of your leg, I mean, not the skin of a baby cow. And when I say I love it, I don’t mean, like, for dinner. I love to tattoo it. It is the perfect skin. It’s pre-stretched and firm as though it wants to be tattooed. It’s all, “Hey there, ladycakes, come shove some ink into me.”

So, yesterday I was supposed to do 5 tattoos, but then the weather decided to be an asshole and snow and I only got to do 2. But they were both on people’s calves and OH MY GOD I LOVE CALF SKIN!!!

bonnies-watercolor-poppy.jpgJon's Dopey and Empire State Building

Today, one of Julio’s regulars was in and I showed her pics of what I’d done yesterday and she asked me to give her a tattoo while she was in! So I got to do this little cutiepatootie.

Taylor's elephant and dandelion

And what I learned from her is that back of the neck skin is lovely. Side of the neck skin is a total asshat and is not my friend. But I’m doing my best to win it over.

I’m learning, folks, I’m learning.

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Superhero Underpants Work

02 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by emilypageart in art, humor, tattooing, Uncategorized

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

first tattoo, how not to be 22, moose, Ratatat Tats, sucky tattoos, tattoo, tattoo apprentice, tattoo studio, tattooing

Superhero underpants work, y’all. Seriously. You can’t have a bad day if you’re wearing superhero underpants. If I wear superhero underpants when I have to take a flight somewhere, my flight never gets cancelled. It works every single time. So with that knowledge, I wore them yesterday. And as an added guarantee, I wore superhero socks, too.

Why yesterday? Because yesterday I knew I was going to be giving my VERY FIRST TATTOO. (I mean, unless you count the permanent makeup I’ve already done. But that’s different equipment so I’m not counting it.) My mentor, Julio, has a thigh he reserves as his “practice thigh” for those of us wishing to learn the noble art of shoving needles and ink into skin. So I got into work bright and early (if “bright and early” means “noonish,” which, let’s face it, it does for an artist) and Julio let me dive in. Squeeeeeeee! And eeeeeeeeeeep! For my first time, he just wanted me to  learn a little a line work. So he asked me to design a frame to put around an existing tattoo he has, and this is what I did:

first tattoo ever.jpg

The longer lines are pretty shaky, because, well, I was shaking like a mofo, because, well, I was terrified. But by the end I was feeling more comfortable, and I’m kinda sorta almost proud of it…for my first time.

While I was finishing up, Julio’s next customer, who I’m going to call Moose*, came in and liked it enough to ask me to do a tattoo for him. So on my very first day, I had my very first paying customer. Whaaaaaaaaat?!!! Double squeeeeeeee! And double eeeeeeeeeeep! That just doesn’t happen.

SUPERHERO UNDERPANTS, Y’ALL. I’m telling you.

So anyway, this kid was all of 22 years old, which explains his lack of fear of having a total novice ink something for all eternity into his skin. It will also explain his choice of subject matter, which you’ll see below.

void-beer1.jpg

I’m not sure how one voids a beer, unless maybe he means that he’s voiding his bladder of beer? Whatever, it’s not MY arm.

Since I’ve only learned lining so far (and just barely that), he’ll have to come back once I’ve had a chance to practice a little shading on Julio’s thigh. Then we can add shading and color.tattooing Moose.jpg

I learned a few things in my adventures yesterday: First, skin is bumpy. Like, really bumpy. So getting clean, straightish lines is tough.  Second, the skin on your upper arm is nothing like the skin on your thigh, and the skin on Julio is nothing like the skin on Moose. So even if I get lining down well on one piece of skin, it’s a whole new ballgame on the next piece of skin. Practice will be everything. Third, adreneline makes me shake like crazy. Fourth, I’m glad I’m not 22 anymore.

So, yeah, yesterday was a big day. And I owe it all to superhero underpants.

*If you’re wondering why I’m calling him Moose, it’s because he reminded me very much of this construction worker, Moose, who worked on our house when I was a teenager. Moose was in his early 20’s, and liked to get drunk and do stupid shit. Like, hop onto my horse without permission and get bucked off. One morning, I climbed out of the shower and was dancing around my room while I got dressed for school, and mid-half-naked dance, looked out the window and saw Moose sitting in his car in the driveway watching me. Yup. He was a swell fellow. That weekend, he got drunk and fell out of the back of his friend’s pickup truck and broke his arm.  Luckily, that meant he couldn’t come back and work on our house anymore. What a fuckbucket, guys. Seriously. Maybe someone should have gotten him a pair of superhero underpants.

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Emily Page

Emily Page

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