The Art of Tattoo: A Tattoo Artist's Inspirations, Designs, and Hard-Won Advice

The Art of Tattoo: A Tattoo Artist's Inspirations, Designs, and Hard-Won Advice

Tattoo artist Megan Massacre presents a beautiful collection of her best work, with instructive how-to and inspiration for both professional tattoo artists as well as tattoo aficionados. With a personal behind-the-scenes peek into the making of a tattoo, from concept to execution, plus fan favorite tattoos and tattoo cover-ups, this approachable, full-color paperback will feature everything Massacre has learned over the years. Part idea sourcebook, part tattoo opus, this is an art book that tattoo fans will be eager to read and display. MEGAN MASSACRE has been tattooing since 2004, has appeared on TLC's America's Worst Tattoos and NY Ink, and is currently filming the second season of Fuse's Bondi Ink. She is a cofounder of New York's Grit N Glory, where she and the all-girl team sell fashion and lifestyle items with a rock n' roll edge, and provide one of the best tattoo services in the city. Massacre, one of the most popular alternative models working today, is the only person in the world to have been featured on the cover of every major tattoo magazine, including Von Guttenberg , Inked Magazine , and Tattoo Life . She is also the author of the adult coloring book Marked in Ink . About This Book In putting together this book, I wanted to create something that shared my hard-won experience and point of view on various aspects of the tattoo industry. While this is a collection of my tattoos and artwork from over the years, I wanted it also to contain information that professional artists, aspiring artists, and collectors could all relate to and pull something from. For the collector, I cover the basics of getting tattooed from the artist’s perspective, and what we as artists need from you to give you the best artwork possible. There’s also a special visual section on the whole tattoo process, step by step, from start to finish. For the aspiring tattoo artist, I include tips on how to get the most out of learning to tattoo. For artists and creatives, I share how I get inspired and how I approach brainstorming, drawing, and developing a style. Of course, this book would not be complete without some advice gleaned from my experience with cover-up tattoos and all the aspects that make them possible or not. Tattooing goes through trends, and that affects both artists and collectors. I want to share with you, all through my eyes, the best advice and experience I can give you. I should mention, this book will not teach you to tattoo. No book can, because nothing beats the experience of working with someone who’s been doing it for years. There are so many things that only someone who is experienced can know and show you. An apprenticeship is the most fruitful way to learn. My Tattoos I got my very first tattoo in 2004, about six months after I started my apprenticeship. Some may find it strange that I didn’t have tattoos prior; the truth is I wanted them, but my mom would never sign off on it. At eighteen, I could finally, legally do it, but I had such a hard time deciding just what to get. To this day I always tell people, your first tattoo is the hardest to choose, but during your first one you’ll already be thinking of the idea for your second, then soon after, your third, and you’re totally hooked. That’s what happened to me! The day I got my first tattoo I hadn’t actually planned on doing it. My boss came into work that day and told me clients were too scared to get tattooed by me because I looked like a little kid. I did probably look about fourteen years old. Also, I had no tattoos. So, by the end of the day I had to pick something and he would tattoo it after work. There were no social media networks to sift through for photos back then, so for ideas I spent all day going through the hundreds of flash pages and dozens of tattoo magazines we had in the shop. At the time, there were sections in the back of some magazines where they would print tattoo flash submitted by artists. In one of those sections I found a colorful anime drawing of a lady cheetah, and something in my head said, “This is it!” Looking back now, I’m like, “What was I thinking?” However, eighteen-year-old me was super into video games and anime and I was stoked on it. That night my boss outlined it, huge, on my right calf. It was quick and easier than I thought. I was instantly hooked. When I got home, my mom flipped on me. Looking back now, I understand why: in the world where we existed at the time, it was a crazy thing to do. Eighteen-year-old girls in small-town Pennsylvania weren’t walking around with huge tattoos. She exclaimed, “How will you ever wear a dress?” I simply thought, “I can still wear it!” She said absolutely no more tattoos. As the weeks progressed, I had the serious itch to get more work. I was looking for ways to get my mom to be okay with me getting more tattoos. First, I thought I’d let her help pick one for me. We looked through some new flash we had at the shop, and we both liked an image of a samura