Friday, February 3, 2012

on flash....

it always bums me out when i hear people talk about how they would never get something "off the wall" at  a tattoo shop.... for whatever reason it has fallen out of vogue to pick something at a tattoo shop.......this saddens me.... please allow me to offer these arguments....
a. flash in a reputable tattoo shop is designed for tattoos- many images that the general public find on google are not very tattoo worthy.... sure they can be tattooed but what will they look like in 10 years? small spaces will close subtleties will disappear... to many lines will grow together... since it is a tattoo and it is permanent it is wise to plan for the future... an experience tattooer will not put an image on you they know will look bad down the road... unfortunatly many unexperienced tattooers or fly by nighters dont know or care what will become of your tattoo over the span of your life... and unfortunately google does not have a app for weeding out bad tattoo designs... yet anyway...ha
b. good tattoo designs have stood the test of time- images that have been handed down generation to generation have been added to,changed and made better....  bad designs have been weeded out...many designs in my shop have been drawn and redrawn by many generations of tattooers... they have seen what these tattoos look like with years in the skin, altered what they needed to alter and left what works... when you get a traditional tattoo from good flash you have recieved decades of artists experience in refining those images... not only for aesthetics but also to make them last and look good for that much longer....
c. originality- the same people that say " i could never pick something off the wall because some one already has that design " are the same people that bring me in something off google... i hate to break it to those people but if you found it on google i assure you others did to ... whatever you want to get tattooed  i assure you someone has it  already tattooed on them somewhere...i think its bad to do what others do but i also think its bad to not do what others do....do what YOU want and like... to be burdened by others activities is a life long curse... be your own person make your own desisions ...

lately i have been redrawing some of my favorite tattoo designs.... trying to fill the shop with designs  that have stood the test of time ... keeping tradition but also presenting them how i think they should be presented....and i will be a monkeys uncle if i dont think these arent some of the best tattoo designs you will ever find ...my 16 years experience (which is less than most but more than some ) tells me these designs will last and look awesome for a lifetime... i love these new old sheets and i hope you do to...please consider these thoughts when choosing your next tattoo ... and thank you for taking the time to read this ... a picture is worth a thousand words...

                                                                                                                                            xoxo,matt

1 comment:

  1. I've picked out a few flash sheet tattoos for Friday the 13th, and my best friend and I both picked out the same flash sheet tattoo on a whim, but all my other tattoos were images I had sort of created in my head. I did let the tattooer draw them up though. I hate when people come in with a design and just want it traced onto a piece of stencil paper and tattooed on them exactly.

    I think hairstylists feel the same way when people come in with a photograph of someone else's haircut.

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