THERE ARE GOOD TATTOOS, BAD TATTOOS, AND TERRIBLE TATTOOS
With so many people out there getting tattoos, not everyone gets a good tattoo. Some come out great, some good, some mediocre, some bad, and some are just plain horrible. Sadly, you can get any of the above at an actual tattoo studio. Sadder still, some of these bad artists aren’t even aware of exactly how terrible their work really is.
THE GOOD
Good tattoos come from good artists. How does a person become a good artist? A lot of it comes from training, practice, and study. Some of it comes from innate ability. A person may love to draw, and might spend a good amount of their free time drawing, but they might not be very good regardless of how much work they put into it. It’s unfortunate, but it’s true. Sure, someone without innate skill can learn the fundamentals and be very ‘clinical’ in their approach to art, but it will be bland and soulless.
Much like music, visual arts need to have feeling and emotion built right into it, or else it’s lifeless and sterile. Art, whatever form it comes in, has to have metaphorical blood, sweat, and tears. Otherwise, what’s the point? Art is the earliest method of human expression, since the dawn of upright walking hominids. Cave paintings, even though very crude, are incredibly beautiful to behold because you can see the story and emotion in it’s most basic fashion.
A good artist pours themself into their art. A painter, an illustrator, a musician, a writer, and so on. All of them put a part of themself into everything they create. This is precisely why a client really needs to put trust in their tattoo artist and allow for creative freedom. The finished piece will be substantially better if the artist cares about it.
Another key factor of a good tattoo artist is their ability to maintain safe and sanitary practices. They know how to avoid complications, such as infection and blow-outs. Of course, avoiding infection also has to do with how well the client follows aftercare instructions, but the good artists will be very clear on what should be done and not done. After that, it’s up to the client to follow the guidelines.
THE BAD
The bad and mediocre tattoos come from tattoo ‘artists’ that simply aren’t good at what they do, in regards to creation and execution. They may have the ability to apply a tattoo without causing complications, but they lack the talent to create art. Being able to create something new, interesting, and unique is a major stand out from the good and the bad artists.
A bad tattoo can include uneven lines, double lines, over passing/a line going past where it’s intended, uneven shading/coloring, oblong circles, unfinished lines, crooked lines, and other technical errors. However, the tattoo might be bad simply due to creativeness. If an artist is just slapping on run of the mill flash art on someone, and it’s done in a mediocre way, it can still be considered a ‘bad’ tattoo. Flash is boring and uncreative. Period.
Any scratcher shop can scribble flash on a client. If all you want is a tattoo, and you just don’t care about it being unique and creative, maybe flash is the right thing for you. Do you want the exact same anchor tattoo that thousands of people already have, or would you rather have something created with you in mind and that the artist won’t reuse it on another client? This should be a no-brainer. Don’t be a drone, a sheep, a lemming, what have you. Be unique, and express yourself.
THE FUGLY
It’s sad this even has to be addressed, but there are so many people out there with absolutely terrible tattoos. No just from a design point of view but in it’s execution. A lot of these tattoos were done in someone’s home, at a party, in prison, etc. Sadder still, most people with tattoos either have one or more of these fugly messes, or at least used to have one. Fortunately, most of us learned our harsh lesson in why paying for a good tattoo is important.
A lot of these tattoos were probably done in one of 4 ways. Stick and poke with just a needle, a razor blade, a homemade tattoo machine made out of the motor of a cassette player, or someone bought a $30 tattoo machine off the internet.
Some of the scarier aspects of this is one simple fact. Anybody, literally anybody, can open a tattoo studio without any formal training whatsoever. Then, that person can have a bunch of friends leave fake positive reviews to make them look legitimate. A potential client can then go in and get a tattoo, not really knowing what they’re getting into. There are some serious dangers to this besides getting a horrible tattoo. If an untrained person starts tattooing out of the blue, the client is at risk of serious complications, such as blood borne illness, infection, blow-outs, and so on. It’s a real danger and a real life scenario.
There are, surprisingly, quite a few of these bogus tattoo shops out there all over the world. It may be difficult to distinguish who they are. It would be very easy for them to post ‘examples’ of their completed tattoos, but use pictures of work by other artists. How would you know? One trick that can help is to take a picture of the works in question and do a reverse Google image search, and often it can show you where the image actually originated from.
THE TRUTH
It is 100% in the clients best interest to research a potential tattoo studio/artist to make sure they are legit and good at what they do. It’s worth the money to get a good tattoo. It really is. Far too many of us have tattoos we regret and would like to have covered. It’s definitely better to get it done right the first time.
ARE YOU READY FOR YOUR NEXT TATTOO?
If you’re ready to get your next tattoo done, schedule an appointment with an award-winning tattoo parlor. Here at Lucky Bamboo Tattoo, we have some of the best and most experienced tattoo artists in Utah and the Salt Lake City area. We can tattoo any style you’d like, and our artists can even design your next piece as well.
Come see why we have been voted “The Best Tattoo Studio In Utah” for several years in a row.
Lucky Bamboo Tattoo understands that tattoo collectors searching for the best tattoo shop in Utah comes with a big responsibility and we here at LBT are ready to fulfill your tattoo needs.