As tattoos become more popular these days, more and more people are getting tattoos or talking about getting one. This is great for the industry and even better for those who would like to get involved in the tattoo industry. But don’t think that becoming a professional tattoo artist is easy. There really isn’t any such thing as easy money by becoming a tattoo artist.

Many tattoo artist aspirants believe that purchasing a D.I.Y. tattoo kit from the advertisements of tattoo magazines is the starting point towards becoming a successful tattoo artist. Be aware that this equipment is of inferior quality and lacks precision. What next? Find a person to practice. And the result is dozens and dozens of people with awful tattoos and terrible scars and who will put you in their hate list forever. Furthermore, a true artist will be reluctant to take you under his wings because he is going to have a headache trying to guide you back on the right path.

The alternative is to pay a fee to a tattoo artist or shop to teach you the trade. So what is the type of fee to pay? As far as I know there are no reputable artists teaching you all he know for a fee. A true artist is not a true blooded businessman. If an artist is willing to teach you for a small fee, then consider this. Is he willing to part with all he knows for what you are paying? In one Asian country, the majority of tattoo shop websites advertise tattoo courses for a very small fee. But the problem is that after completing the course, you will have to come back for one refresher course then another and another. And I understand that after completion several such courses, you will not be able to tattoo properly. So the chances are you will be paying good money to some businessman who is just trying to make a fast buck.

So then, how to become a successful tattoo artist? For starters, you’ll need talent. You will never make it in the tattoo industry by tracing or stenciling, you will need to be able to draw great designs. To even get considered as a tattoo artist, a portfolio is needed. This will require you to draw lots of great designs to build up a portfolio. Your portfolio is proof that you have the skills that are needed to succeed in the industry. Without a portfolio, don’t even bother. I remember one South American guy asking me to train him to become a tattoo artist. And he said money is no problem. I told him that money is not an issue, just draw me a colored dragon and then a reaper. He came back after one week, and said he couldn’t draw a proper dragon or reaper. So end of story.

Once you have a portfolio to showcase your talents, you will need a mentor, someone who is willing to teach you the trade and share their secrets with you. Now this is the tricky thing, tattoo artists don’t like giving away their secrets. Simple reason is because many of them have been let down by their apprentices. Just take the case of my mentor. He has taken more than 20 people under his wings (all without any fee), but today only 3 of his graduates still “recognise” him as mentor. What happened to the rest? They have their own shops, but tell their customers that they can do the same quality of work as their mentor (also my mentor), but their prices are cheaper. So you know how much it hurts to be treated like my mentor? If you do find someone good, a real professional who is willing to tell you anything at all about the industry, then be grateful.

To train as a tattoo artist, you will need proper, high-quality equipment such as a precision tattoo machine, power supplies, shading equipment, needles, medical equipment and sanitation supplies. You will also need to know about cleanliness and what can and can’t be reused, as well as how to clean and sterilize your equipment. The popular professional tattoo artists are successful for a number of reasons, but mainly because they are clean and very talented.

You can succeed in the tattoo industry, but you will need to be talented, self-driven and dedicated. If you want to make lots of money as a tattoo artist, you are wasting your time. Become a tattoo artist because you love the art and love to create breath-taking pieces of body art. Be prepared to work for free and, most of all, if you get someone to stop and share a secret or two with you, take their advice. You will definitely need it.

What you do is you apprentice and work for a tattoo artist for very little pay. You do this so that he/she can take you under his/her wing and show you how to take your artistic skill and transfer it to the art that is called tattooing. If the master you’re apprenticing for is good, then along the way you’ll also learn about how to run a shop, what it takes to succeed, and what NOT to do…

How long does it take? Well…that depends on how fast you pick it up and how good your master is. It’s not uncommon for tattoo artists to apprentice for more than one artist in their careers…and each apprenticeship can last for several years.

This is not to discourage you…but the guys on Miami Ink didn’t just “decide” to become rock star tattoo artists one day. They scraped just to get by for many years before they became successful…and, chances are, you’ll have to, too.

When you have decided that you really want a tattoo and you know of a tattoo artist you might use then the next step is choosing on a tattoo design you like. From this time on is where the hard work starts. Looking for the tattoo shop is the easy part but deciding on what tattoo you want will take work. There are so many different kinds of tattoos to choose from it makes it pretty hard to find which tattoo design will be best.

It is a lot of fun searching through many different tattoos. The look of tattoo that you decide to go with will be your own personal preference but there are many different tattoos that are common more than others. For instance, a celtic cross tattoo is much more popular with a male than a red rose tattoo that is very popular with females.

Choosing colors for a tattoo design vary and all depend on what you like. Butterfly tattoo designs don’t necessarily have to be colorful, but can also be purple or brown as there are many different meanings with colors. Styles of the tattoo designs will change also depending on the type of body art.

A skull tattoo will tend to be in larger format with bold dark colors, while a dragon tattoo design will have many pieces and dark colors. A rose tattoo can be any different colors, shape and size.

Choosing a place on your body is part of the entire process. Your tattoo can be put anywhere on your body and some people will go overboard and place a tattoo in odd places such as; the top of the head, under the neck, on fingers, feet and many other places you can think of. What is popular for women might not be as popular for men, such as women love to have tattoos placed on the lower back, upper back or on the ankle, while men tend to have tattoos placed on the upper arm, shoulder or back. It is about style and person preference that matters. You can not go wrong with placing your tattoo, it doesn’t matter where you put it.

As you can see, the choice of tattoos are endless and finding the right tattoo for you may seem like a huge task but of course there are resources that you can use to look for your tattoo.

The internet can be a great place to start your research as there are websites related to tattoos all over the place. There are many galleries and pictures that you can look through to get a better idea of what tattoos are available. Most sites will try to sell you templates of designs, which might be of good to take to your tattoo artist.

If its too hard to find a unique tattoo on the Internet, you can always go to your tattoo artist and ask for a sketch of a tattoo that you may be thinking about. Having your tattoo artist do this will cost more but may be worth it in the long run since when a tattoo is put on it will cost much more to have it removed. Be sure to spend a lot of time looking for your tattoo and search through as many different designs as possible as it will help you make a decision.

I want a badass tattoo that will go on my back. It will be very detailed because my boyfriend is drawing it for me so I need a badass artist to be able to tattoo it on my back. I searched online but it I am trying to get as much info as possible because this is very important to me. Permanent!!

Thank You!

Is it easy to find unique Libra tattoos on the net? The simplest answer to this question is yes. The question is whether you’ve searched for them in the little-known corners of the net or some typical “me too” tattoo websites.

Initially, I thought it would be next to impossible to find a collection of one-of-a-kind tattoos as I would have to trudge through God knows how many websites but to my amazement, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Some words of wisdom from my good buddy Jerry Chuan finally set me on the right path and helped me accomplish my mission with relative ease. Here are some tips that you should do well to remember when looking for unique Libra tattoos:

Don’t be a freebie seeker.

Chuan showed me the error of my ways so to speak, and made me realize that “free” and “unique” do not go hand in hand. Spending a tad amount of cash can really go a long way in helping you secure a design that will be a part of your body for the rest of your life. You wouldn’t want to fork out your hard-earned bucks for a laser surgery or cover-ups, right? Of course not! You’re better off spending the extra dough on a large pizza (sorry, can’t resist the pun) with all the trimmings to celebrate the end of your search for unique Libra tattoos.

Don’t spend too much

While it’s important to spend a little bit of cash in order to get top quality designs, it’s also important that you do not fork out more than what is necessary in light of the abysmal state of the current global economy, and the large number of paid tattoo gallery sites that charge a fee per design. Decent gallery sites always strive to provide value by constantly updating their databases with original creations for a low one-time price. This means that you can print out as many unique Libra tattoo designs as you like and bring them to your favorite tattoo shop or artist for further action. I don’t believe in paying 10 to 20 dollars for a mere design, and you should feel the same way too.

Avoid Google Image Search

Remember, the key word here is: UNIQUE. Refrain from using Google Image Search function unless you love being bombarded with designs that are so devoid of originality.

Reputable Online Galleries and Tattoo Magazines Can Make Things Easy For You

Online galleries like Tattoo Me Now and Chopper Tattoo have done a great job of furnishing tattoo enthusiasts worldwide with thousands of high quality, printable tattoo flashes. The former allows you the option of combining two or more tattoos into one design so you won’t be terribly hard-pressed to come up with some unique Libra tattoos that’ll make heads turn.

My buddy Chuan opined that tattoo magazines are the best for sourcing tattoo ideas. Although I prefer scouring online galleries, I do agree that you can easily find inspiration from looking at photos in tattoo magazines such as Skin and Ink, Tattoo Review, and Inked. These magazines contain a truckload of wild designs to help jump start your creative juice so don’t be surprised if you end up getting flooded with tons of ideas for creating unique Libra tattoos.