Tattoo Design Considerations...What makes a good tattoo? Really...

Ultimately it comes down to what you, the client, wants; but... there are some over-riding fundamental design issues that make for areadable, legible, sharp, long-lasting tattoo which contains that magical and artful "WOW" factor.

* Contrast of value (light vs dark)
* Contrast of line (thin vs thick)
* Contrast of color (opposites on color wheel)
* Contrast of Positive/Negative Space
* Contrast of Texture (smooth vs rough)
* Placement and Flow of tattoo on body (fit on body)
* Proportion (size, weight, area, style)
* Lost and Found edges
* Strong negative space
* Technique and/or tattooing experience (time spent tattooing, ability)
* Excellent tools and materials (inks, machines, needles, tubes, power supplies)
* Size of Tattoo (Small Tattoos ain't cute!)

The previous list of design elements does not have to be contained in one tattoo nor is it an exhaustive list. A great tattoo can be created using only one or two of the design principles above. However, a good tattoo will generally contain many, if not most, of the tattoo design principles outlined above...

A good tattoo will be understood, read, and readable across the room, across the street and through time. To achieve that end the tattoo has to be designed such that the tattoo is recognized for what it is at a distance. You know a good tribal design when you see it across the street. Simple bold lines/shapes which fit the area of the body it lives on. (Tattoos are part of a living organism, they are alive and constantly changing just like your body is changing.) You "know" a good dragon design across the street for the same reasons...

A tattoo design that is TOO busy will be unreadable across the room.
(It may be unreadable from two feet for that matter.) Too much detail with too little contrast within any area will read as a crappy tattoo. If you have to stop and ask yourself; "What is that?", you've been informed at a deep deep level just how poorly that particular tattoo was conceived and executed.

A tattoo of small fine lines spaced closely together will eventually become an unrecognizable amorphous blob. Bold lines, bold transitioning areas of dark to light or contrasting areas of dark/light, complimentary colors, complimentary texture, caligraphied lines and negative/positive space will all help to improve the readability of the tattoo design.

A tattoo of muted pastels may look great the day of the tattoo when the color and contrast appear brighter due to skin trauma, plasma and blood mixed with the ink. But... one year later that tattoo will be a mess of unrelated, marginalized and faded areas of zero contrast and be completely unreadable... The simple use of pastels ONLY... lacks enough contrast to read independently from skin tone. The whitest skin is one value brighter than medium grey, therefore MOST skin is nearer the middle of the white-black spectrum. Compare that grey, (yes if you photograph skin in black and white; skin is grey), to a sheet of white paper or canvas. You may be surprised. As tattoo artists we have a shorter value range to work with and therefore greater contrast of all design elements is necessary to execute a good tattoo design in the skin. (If you want to call attention to the tattoo and... while it ain't necessarily ALWAYS about attention, it's generally the point.)

People often deride traditional Flash tattoos as simple when the only thing simple about traditional American Flash is the elegance of design and the ability of that flash to be read as well designed tattoos today, tomorrow and forty years from now. (That said; Not all flash is good flash... Consult with an artist who knows...)

Portraiture: To do ANY illustrative or photo-realistic work on the body generally requires an INCREASE in contrast, (especially most candid photos), and that generally means more and darker black, purple, green, brown and/or blue in strategically placed areas of the design. Not all photos or illustrations are good or great in terms of their execution or design... If you want to know if a design is tattooable,call me, set up an appointment, email me your ideas and come to your consultation with an open mind... Tattooing is an art form. Good tattoo artists recognize good tattoo design principles and can articulate how those principles work in your design... (Or, conversely, a good artist will let you know what design principles are lacking in your design... Ask!)

Balancing elements of a design is a talent for some folks and takes work and experience for others. All of us have something to learn and any design can be improved with enough time and money. Positive and negative space are one of the most interesting challenges in any artwork, especially any work being executed on the body. EQUAL AMOUNTS of positive and negative space, light and dark (which is VERY much different than pos/neg space), line style, color contrast, size of design elements, and texture will create a VERY BORING tattoo. A good design needs an imbalance of pos/neg, light/dark, diffuse/sharp, texture/smooth, line weight and color contrast to generate a confident, readable and well executed tattoo.

Non-Traditional tattoos may not be good tattoos in terms of design, but your tattoo may be about something other than design, readability, sustainability and longevity. You may want your tattoo because it means something special to you. Does that make it a bad tattoo? Well, it makes it your tattoo and that's fine. It may not be a design I want to execute or that I want attributed to me. In that case I'll let you know and... pass you along to someone who will be delighted to render your design. Cause... I believe the customer is always right in their desires, needs and wants; except when it comes to a choice I'm going to pass on, and then: they're still right; they'll just have their tattoo rendered by another artist. Then... we're all happy.

Small intricate tattoos can look stunning beside that dime your artist photographed it next to. Wait till next year and after the ink bleeds it's normal amount of distance through the skin and what you have is...THE BLOB. Congratulations, you've just made the "It ain't cute." tattoo choice of every girl who wants their first tattoo. Notice that wasn't; "Ain't it cute?" There's a reason for that... Trust me, get a BIGGER tattoo; you'll be MUCH happier. Really... Or, I'll be happy to cover that blob you got back in the day, give you something to be proud
to wear.

Ink spreads under the skin. Ink spreads under the skin. ALL ink spreads under the skin. Have I stated that enough? Good. That means ANY line will be wider over time. Fuzzier too. It's inevitable. That's the purpose in bold wide lines in tattooing. They look very much the same after ten, twenty or thirty years... so... your tattoolooks good a generation from now. Make sense? Any questions?

Apprentice tattoos are SHITTY tattoos. (That's WORSE than crappy by the way.) It's the nature of the level of skill and it matters NOT the talent of the artist. The apprentice tattoo will have to be repaired at a later date. If you're lucky your apprentice will inform you of the consequences of apprentice tattooing. See, with minimal skill you get marginal tattoos AT BEST. Let me reiterate that last point: MARGINAL TATTOOS... AT BEST... PERIOD. That stated, a great talent near the END of an apprenticeship under a great teacher MAY be able to
give you something good, BUT... needle in a haystack... I'm just sayin'...

The worst thing about apprentice tattoos is line work, coloring, shading, placement, time management, lack of experience and general attitude that the apprentice can do anything before they're ready and without guidance or instruction. (Basically everything...) On the other hand... you may like shitty tattoos and in that case an apprentice who's in the first year of their apprenticeship would be a perfect choice. Ya gets what ya pays for...

Good ink is an absolute necessity for a good tattoo. Even crappy black ink will produce poor results. When we throw color into the mix it gets even more interesting. So, how do you know your artist is using good ink? You don't. Ask the artist how they arrived at their current choice of inks. How long have they been tattooing? Who trained them as tattoo artists? How rigorous was the training? What do they do as an artist to improve their tattoo technique?

Good equipment will make it easier for a good tattoo artist to do their job of tattooing you. A good artist can use almost any piece of crap tattoo machine and create a great tattoo. It takes more effort, but it can be done. I prefer great equipment, well manufactured, well tuned. I like well made tools and I'm constantly searching for and building better tools/equipment.