I’m currently building my tattoo portfolio and wanted some advice! Currently these are the pieces I have finished! I’m wondering what to add to it, but still keep it more like myself. I focus a lot on using traditional styles with my own bit of flair to them. I do plan on adding flash sheets to it soon!

Getting into the spirit of Halloween!! I’m not tattooing anyone currently but wanted to make a few spooky designs :3

Not crazyy about the orange pumpkin and feel like the face might get muddied if this were a real tattoo. Maybe the orange color value is too close to black and it gets lost, highly possible I’m overthinking it too but feel like something is off and/or could be improved

Thanks for looking

Tried something a little different with this one, any feedback is appreciated!

Gouache and microns on super thin japanese paper

i have finally landed a tattoo apprenticeship and am so excited! this has been something i have been working towards for years :') here's my first bit of homework, i've been told by my mentor to draw a skull, flames and dagger in 4 different styles. here's the first one in an engraving style!

Hand Painted on 11x14 by @helenthinh Norwalk California 🇻🇳🫶🏻

I’m a complete beginner and still learning art itself.
The shading isn’t quite right. I couldn’t find a procreate brush that I liked for the shading. I’d love recommendations. Also opinions on my first attempt at making a simple flash design.

Hi all! I’m finally getting back into working on my portfolio and this is what i have right now. I’m wondering if anyone has any thoughts on things I could work on, if it’s missing anything (i’m adding another page of traditional!), or the flowers i’m currently working on in the last page!

P.S. this is missing 2 pieces as reddit keeps on taking down my post with them :/

Thanks :)

I decided to be a bit ambitious and sketched a half sleeve with a character and roses. I think the roses look a little too goofy and would love resources to get better :) all of this was freehand and not traced so I might just have to trace a few to get better. (Also I know the hand is not the best so any resources for those would be great too :) )

ive been struggling to get clean linework on arms, especially with bigger liners or round shaders. the arm isn’t flat like a thigh or fake skin and my tattoos definitely suffer because of it. i try to readjust my position, chair height, the stability in my hand and anchors etc, the few inches of height difference between the arm rest and the arm is just so difficult, my main issue is keeping the machine and needles level so when im pulling or pushing they’re not going in at a sideways angle, and it’s not working lol. im talking to my mentor about it and i feel like it’s hard to explain because he has big hands and mine are way smaller (also he is on year 14… im on 6 months 😭) so maybe he doesn’t understand my issue or it’s been so long since it’s been an issue for him??

any advice would be super helpful!! in the meantime im beating up some fake skin on a small, wrapped paper towel roll 🫡

mm for rules: htx, opal lotus, my insta is @ dreampaint333

Tried something a lil different this time with the shading for the panther. I used indian ink, a black polychromo pencil and acrylic inks on 10x14 inch 300 gsm cold press. Really happy with how it came out!

Hellooo

So I am moving to San Diego in a few months after I separate from the Navy and I was wondering how competitive/hard it is to get apprenticeships.

I was also wondering how people balance the high cost of living while doing a full time apprenticeships. Are part time apprenticeships a thing, I know the majority of them are not paid.

Thanks!

So I had people coming in a lil while ago, friends looking to get tattooed as a last minute thing.

I won’t give too much details in case, I don’t want them to feel bad about their experience more than they might already do.

The tattoos were not in my wheelhouse and it was discussed.

They turned out worse than I even thought. They were wanting to be tattooed now and while it wasn’t my style or an easy task I’m getting more confident with my skills so I did it.

Looking back, I should have said no.

They said they liked it, and did look genuine. But everyone has eyes and eventually for sure 100% someone is going to say something.

It’s career ending bad. I love my boss and don’t want to ruin her reputation. If they post it I’m cooked.

I don’t know what I’m looking for here in terms of advice or replies but I’m distraught and I wanted to talk about it.

I’m struggling in my current tattoo apprenticeship and looking for advice from this group on whether I should try to course correct & stick it out or consider leaving.

The main issue is the complete lack of instruction and guidance from my mentor. I’ve been an apprentice for almost 6 months he’s only taught me tattooing skills for maximum 4 hours. 99% of the time when I’m in the shop, he’s not there. When he does come in (only 1 - 3 times a week) he tattoos his client and leaves. I have some tattooing experience from prior to this apprenticeship so I tattoo my own clients out of the studio, but he’s never observed me while I tattoo. Generally he doesn’t seem to have any interest in teaching me the trade, is not friendly or approachable, gives me short & unhelpful answers when I ask questions, and makes promises that he will teach me certain skills but never follows through unless I ask multiple times. My mentor never created any curriculum and the “program” is extremely unstructured.

There are also not many resident artists at the studio, so my opportunities to learn from other artists are limited. The studio mostly hosts guest artists, so I’ve gotten to meet a lot of people in the industry who are truly top-notch artists, which has been great. Most of the time the guest artists are friendly and willing to share their knowledge with me, but it can be challenging to learn from them if they’re only visiting the studio for 2-4 days.

Most of the time I’m in the studio alone so when I have questions, there is nobody to ask. Most of the time I’m just doing chores or working on fake skins. I don’t mind doing chores if I’m learning things in exchange, but things have felt unequal for a long time. For context I work around 20 hrs a week at the shop unpaid, on top of my other job so I can make ends meet. I also ran the shop on my own for a month and a half while my mentor was on vacation. He promised to teach me more when he returned from vacation, but really hasn’t followed through.

There are some pros to the apprenticeship that I’m trying to weigh against the cons:
- meeting the guest artists has expanded my network, exposed me to different tattoo styles and ways of working, etc.
- My shop fees are low in exchange for the work that I do at the shop
- The studio has really nice equipment (probably the nicest studio I’ve been in as a tattooer and as a client)
- Occasionally the studio reposts my flash & tattoos on the shop page

I do feel like my skills have improved since starting the apprenticeship but it’s largely thanks to the resident artists/guest artists, and to my own dedication. Most of the time when I’m learning a new skill I just learn from YouTube because there is nobody around to teach me. While there are some pros, a large part of me just feels like my mentor is exploiting me for my labor. Sometimes I genuinely feel like I would improve my skills more if I spent the time I currently use for cleaning the shop to just teaching myself and taking drawing classes to improve my skills. Other times I’m afraid I’ll regret walking away from the apprenticeship since I’ve met so many amazing artists through it.

Thank you for reading, if you have any advice or if you have been in a similar situation, I’d appreciate your thoughts and perspective.

I’ve been an apprentice for over a year now, and my works gotten more consistent, to where I feel comfortable to charge more. The opportunity came up to do a flash event at a music festival, so me and my co worker took it. My mentor warned me that it was a lot of working under pressure, and that I could only learn from it by doing it, so I did. I tattooed around 10 people within the span of 9 hours. The whole thing was a lot of scrambling, as I had to run back to the shop a lot for stencils/replenishing supplies after we had run out, also I was basically chainsmoking because I was so stressed. We were definitely prepared but I definitely learned a thing or two for the next time I do another flash event. Overall the event went well, I made a good chunk of change, but I wish my tattoos turned out better. When in tattooing out of the shop, they turn out way cleaner. Most of the flash I did was $50-90 and $100-$180 for bigger things. I was just looking back at photos and I just feel really bad because I know I could normally do way better, but I suck at working under tones of pressure.

Title says it all, just starting to roll out pieces that I'd really like to add to my portfolio. I'm just looking for some solid CC to help me as I keep truckin on 🐊

Hey all I think this is my second post. Basically I would like some friendly advice, help, and tips to hopefully use to progress my drawings above of the Hannya mask as I am aware they are messy and not that good yet.

Essentially what can I do/not do next time and what can be improved? You can be friendly or as brutally honest as you like anything to help.

Note:

I'm really wanting to learn Japanese Traditional art style first as I love the stories and culture of it.

But eventually be good at most art styles and one day hopefully be good enough to build a portfolio to get an apprenticeship.

Hello!

I was wondering if anyone has any experience or advice with tattoo schools in Portland, Oregon? In Oregon to get a tattoo license you have to attend an accredited school, and because I don't plan to leave oregon it seems to be the only way to go. I've heard some are very scammy (captain jacks) and have heard many don't teach much- has anyone had success attending one of these schools? Does anyone know of ones that will actually educate their students? Any advice would help!

I tried applying the advice I got after my last post of learning face anatomy and working on general structure more. Still feel like my style needs a lot of work but following that advice gave me a big improvement.

Timelapse in comments.

Starting up a social media as I begin my portfolio and curious to see what people here think of where I am at currently. Any feedback on my process or the final sheet? Also what do we think about this style of video

This was my first time with the speedball b5 so any tips on getting the lines cleaner would be great. I also know i need more black.

Account is @luckytom.art for anyone interested. Thanks for looking!

I know the sacred heart’s thorns could use some help but I’m a little stuck on how to do that. Three of these designs I made myself (the nun in the rose, the angel, and the Jesus cross). I copied but did not trace the praying hands, I looked at a reference online and freehanded it.

I'm 25F and have recently decided to actually pursue tattooing as its been an interest of mine since I was a little kid. I will be making a portfolio soon and the advices here have been really helpful but I wanna hear about peoples experience actually trying to ask for an apprenticeship.

I heard a story about a guy who went around with his portfolio asking for an apprenticeship but he got turned down because it was considered rude and was told its better to get a couple tattoos and get to know the artist.

Is this something I would need to do as well?

Cause if so, I'd have to save up a lot of money for it and at the moment, money is pretty tight.

I've got a butchered back tattoo that I would like to get fixed up but truth be told, the design was AI (common greek mythology character) and that's probably not a good conversation starter. I'm not proud of it either. I do want to get more tattoo's that I want to design myself.

Is it still okay to ask around in person with a portfolio or do I have to prepare to get tats at the shops?

Thanks in advance for the response!