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Becoming a Tattoo Artist in Ireland!

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  • 10-07-2008 3:42pm
    #1
    wilmawilma
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19 ✭


    Hey my name's Wilma, I'm only 17 I love tattoos and I really enjoy watching them being done... and a tattoo artist told me I have a very good eye from tattoos and that in a short few years I could become one!

    I'm an okay artist, and I love to draw..and as I'm not finishing school, I need as much Information and how to become a Tattoo artist in Ireland, as possaly...

    I'm not big into pericing but if that helps me get into becoming a tattoo artist than I'll do it...:)

    Thanks you x:)


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    #2
    Will
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19,183 ✭✭✭✭Will


    MAny ways to get into it, the best one seems to be getting an apprenticeship, which is no easy task.

    Get to college, do an art degree, it will improve your artistic skills and thus be a better tattoo artist. This may not be an option since you dont wanna finish school? o.0
    While you are there work on a portfolio to show prospective people who may take you on. Develop your skills as an artist and try have a wide ranging portfolio.
    Then get to know tattoo artists, ask them to take you on. Then learn from there.

    That is the most generic way of getting in but there are numerous avenues to explore. It's by no means an easy path, you'l need to be persistent but without being annoying. Good luck to ya :)


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    #3
    chin_grin
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10,808 ✭✭✭✭chin_grin


    Or become a <_< >_> "scratcher" :D (Joking, I read that term in the latest Skin Deep mag....)


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    #4
    TestTransmission
    Registered Users Posts: 19,106 ✭✭✭✭TestTransmission


    wilmawilma wrote: »
    Hey my name's Wilma, I'm only 17 I love tattoos and I really enjoy watching them being done... and a tattoo artist told me I have a very good eye from tattoos and that in a short few years I could become one!

    I'm an okay artist, and I love to draw..and as I'm not finishing school, I need as much Information and how to become a Tattoo artist in Ireland, as possaly...

    I'm not big into pericing but if that helps me get into becoming a tattoo artist than I'll do it...:)

    Thanks you x:)

    Get one first and c if u still feel the same way.


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    #5
    hot2def
    Closed Accounts Posts: 794 ✭✭✭hot2def


    If you really want to be a tattoo artist, finish school. in fact, educate yourself as much as you can stand. you owe it to the people you might one day tattoo that you be bright enough to understand cross contamination.


    If you don't have the sticking power to finish school - you simply don't have it to finish an apprenticeship, and the following years of improving yourself.


    seriously. "I love tattoos. I'm not finishing school and I'm an ok artist, where do I sign up?"


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    #6
    CianRyan
    Registered Users Posts: 14,721 ✭✭✭✭CianRyan


    wilmawilma wrote: »
    Hey my name's Wilma, I'm only 17 I love tattoos and I really enjoy watching them being done... and a tattoo artist told me I have a very good eye from tattoos and that in a short few years I could become one!

    I'm an okay artist, and I love to draw..and as I'm not finishing school, I need as much Information and how to become a Tattoo artist in Ireland, as possaly...

    I'm not big into pericing but if that helps me get into becoming a tattoo artist than I'll do it...:)

    Thanks you x:)

    Take it from me, I was in the same possision as you half way during the school year last year, i wasnt going to go back into school, fullstop, after the christmas midterm, and persue a carrier in body piercing.

    After alot of thought, i have decided to stay in school, and before i look any further into piercing, i want to do the best i can in my leavingcert, Study philosophy in UCD, hopefully, but at that, i want to work for a year to save up for travelling for a year before i go to collage.
    If you go straight into tattooing, you're going to miss out in travelling, and with out being a student you cant get a J1 visa (as far as i know) and with out your leaving you cant go t collage, or at least not untill you're older, to get in as a mature student.

    I dont know if tose things interest you, but thats a strong point for me anyway.

    And the obvious one, you walk into any tattoo studio in ireland, or worldwide, you ask for them to take you on, and so does a person with their leavingcert, who do you think they are going to take on?

    Basicly, stay in school kids.

    And thats my two cents.


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    #7
    totalwise
    Closed Accounts Posts: 3 ✭totalwise


    Tatoos are great, me and my girlfriend went off and bought a matching tatto, I'd had mine down on my right upper back, and she had hers done on her butt, we even took pics of us back to butt, showing off our tatoos.It's great, I'd recommend anything to get them done.Although unlike most people who get tattoos for the sake of them, make sure it has some meaning to it, and has some sentimental value, we got 2005 on ours, we were both virgins when we started dating, and we lost our cherry togther in jan 2005..too much detail???

    Mod Edit: Dont spam... bould!


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    #8
    wilmawilma
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19 ✭wilmawilma


    I'd like to thank everyone for their advise and help... I'm staying in school an extra year getting the first part of my LCA anyway if I stay on after that all well and good...! as I did really well in my JC :D...! I would like to go to college and study Psychology but I'm just not the kind of person to go to college...!

    I'm still looking for someone to teach me about piercing in the Mayo/Galway area! might try my luck and ask Luke form Metal works to teach me...


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    #9
    Gauge
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,818 ✭✭✭Gauge


    ... do you want to be a piercer, or a tattoo artist? They're both different...


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    #10
    wilmawilma
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19 ✭wilmawilma


    I know...! I want to do piercings for awhile untill I get better at art and finish my LCA...!


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    #11
    Zion Star
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10 ✭Zion Star


    Hey wilmawilma,

    I just wanted to tell you that if you think that this is really what you want to do, go for it!

    Do try to finish school first though.

    I have been fascinated by tattoos for as long as I can remember. I was very, very lucky - I managed to get into the first shop that I applied to even though I didn't even have any work to show them! It hasn't been an easy ride though. I started off as a receptionist with a view to becoming an apprentice.

    It took time for me to prove myself to the owner of the shop although it didn't take me as long as it takes most people - that's what he told me anyway!

    My advice to you is that you should draw as much as possile, practice your colouring and shading - although I have found that it is much easier to shade with the tattoo machine lol!

    And don't give up on your dreams! ;)


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    #12
    wilmawilma
    Closed Accounts Posts: 19 ✭wilmawilma


    Thank you Zion Star you've been a lot more help than everyone else:p...
    I love them, I even love the smell of a Tattoo Parlor! but I pretty sure that's the smell of disinfecting stuff :D! and I miss the smell if I don't return to a Tattoo Parlor for a few days let alone weeks!

    I'm going to keep drawing and get as good as I can...! anyway Thank you:)


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    #13
    Zion Star
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10 ✭Zion Star


    No problem!

    Just remember, Its not going to be easy.

    You will be treated like a slave and be expected to do a lot of crappy stuff that you might not like doing, so you will be pushed to your limit and I guess that this is when you will discover weather or not this is the career for you.

    And remember, sterilization is soooooooo important.

    Anyways, thats all I wanted to say so good luck :)


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    #14
    Gauge
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,818 ✭✭✭Gauge


    Piercing isn't exactly a 'temporary' career- it can require just as much skill and technical ability as tattooing. It's also a very different kind of skill and is just as difficult to get into, and also requires an apprenticeship. It's not really something you can do as a 'for the time being' job.


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    #15
    JaneyP
    Closed Accounts Posts: 81 ✭✭JaneyP


    This is something I would be very interested in as well! I have just 2 tatoos myself. Excuse my ignorance, and im sorry if this is a stupid question. But is there a difference between drawing on skin and drawing on paper. Like, If someone is a good "traditional" artist. Is it easy to cross over to tattoos?


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    #16
    Raze_them_all
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,477 ✭✭✭✭Raze_them_all


    JaneyP wrote: »
    This is something I would be very interested in as well! I have just 2 tatoos myself. Excuse my ignorance, and im sorry if this is a stupid question. But is there a difference between drawing on skin and drawing on paper. Like, If someone is a good "traditional" artist. Is it easy to cross over to tattoos?
    massive.


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    #17
    Zion Star
    Closed Accounts Posts: 10 ✭Zion Star


    Hey JaneyP,

    In response to your question:

    In order to become a good tattoo artist it is true that you need to be able to draw and do everything else that comes with that, but, you also need to have the technical skill to be able to use the tattoo machine.

    The comparison between drawing on skin and drawing on paper is very different - in my opinion anyway.

    They are two completely different mediums. You have to keep a lot of different things in mind when working on skin.

    When it comes to tattooing, you can be the best artist in the world but if you don't have the technical skill aswell, tattooing's not for you.

    In my opinion, you can learn to draw but you either have the technical skill or you don't. I don't think that it is something that you can learn. You either have it or you don't.

    Hope this helps. :)


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    #18
    hot2def
    Closed Accounts Posts: 794 ✭✭✭hot2def


    Zion Star wrote: »

    They are two completely different mediums.



    MEDIA


    Mediums are a group of people who channel the dead *or* a bunch of t-shirts that aren't really big.


    sorry to correct you, but it was my only route to avoiding a massive aneurysm. :)


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    #19
    AARRRGH
    Closed Accounts Posts: 12,382 ✭✭✭✭AARRRGH


    Gauge wrote: »
    Piercing isn't exactly a 'temporary' career- it can require just as much skill and technical ability as tattooing. It's also a very different kind of skill and is just as difficult to get into, and also requires an apprenticeship. It's not really something you can do as a 'for the time being' job.

    Tell that to the stalls in George's Arcade and the tacky jewellery shops with their piercing guns! :(


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