Around 45 million people in the USA alone have a tattoo. Despite their popularity, you’ll need to be a competent tattoo artist before anyone lets you near their skin.
So what exactly will you need to do to become a successful tattoo artist? This article lists some valuable tips for your consideration.
Table of Contents
Practice Drawing
While drawing is quite different from tattooing, there are a lot of similarities. It makes a lot of sense to practice drawing as much as you can before you get your tattoo artist license.
Drawing is a great way to sketch out ideas without needing to use expensive materials. Many famous tattoo artists started out with drawing, so you shouldn’t neglect this skill if you want to be a great artist.
Study Great Tattoo Artists
In any kind of artform, you learn by watching the best. If you’re thinking about how to become a tattoo artist, one of the main things you should do is study the work of great artists.
Not only can you check out pictures of great tattoos, but you can also even find videos online that show great artists working on a piece from start to finish. By watching these kinds of videos, you’ll be able to pick up new techniques that you can use in your own work.
Take Art Classes
You might also want to consider taking some kind of art classes. It makes a lot of sense to go to tattoo artist school, but that isn’t always an option. In many locations, that kind of class simply doesn’t exist.
With that said, you can get inspiration and new skills from almost any kind of art class. Check out places like your local community college to see what you can learn.
The best tattoo artists are always learning new things about their art forms. Taking classes and learning should be a continuous process if you want to be the best.
Get Real Practice
Tattoos are an incredibly risky artform. There’s not much room to make mistakes. If you do make a mistake, customers won’t be happy. This means that it’s absolutely essential for you to get some real practice before you start tattooing real people.
Thankfully, there’s a solution. You can use tattoo practice skin to get a feel for how real tattooing feels with none of the risk. You’ll need to make sure you can tattoo practice skin with ease before you graduate to the real thing.
Learn to Communicate
Finally, you’ll need to know how to communicate with your customers. Tattoo art is a collaboration between the artist and the customer. In most situations, you won’t have the option to do totally original designs. Instead, you’ll need to work with the customer to make their vision into reality.
Become a Great Tattoo Artist
As you can see, becoming a successful tattoo artist is a long road. You’ll need to practice a lot before you can even work on your first real human. With that said, tattooing can be an incredibly rewarding career choice.
If you want to learn more about some other art-related topics, check out the rest of our blog posts.
