Polly7

Thanks for your help everyone!

Thank you again.. this is exactly the kind of advice I'm looking for :)

Thank you for the wisdom. Yes, I'm in Arizona, where (as you say) most of the focus seems to be on traditional, so it's hard to do research on the style I want. Here's someone else I'm considering, because of the geometric (not sure if that's the right term) style black and grey: https://www.instagram.com/2anthony7/

Thanks for the input. I'm wondering about her because I was recommended this shop, and from the website she seemed like the artist who does work similar to the style I want. I appreciate your help!

This artist is at a highly prestigious shop, but she's only been tattooing for 2 years, which makes me slightly nervous for my first tattoo. I like her work aesthetically, but since I've never been tattooed before I don't know if the work is done with technical quality. I would want something minimalist in black/grey, so I'm especially interested in whether the line work is ok. Thanks so much! https://www.instagram.com/breelintattoo

I understand the importance of researching an artist, but since I'm completely new to getting tattooed I have no idea how to evaluate whether an artist is quality or not. For example, there's a woman whose work I really like aesthetically, but I have no idea if she's actually a good artist with technical skill, and if she produces quality work, etc. I understand that just because something looks pretty, it doesn't mean that it's a quality tattoo, and I don't know how to evaluate technical skill. What's the best way to research an artist when you don't know what you're looking at? Thanks!

Thanks so much, those examples are great. Maybe some shading is the way to go. And I will definitely check out Dore.

Sorry I'm not being clear! I guess I mean, pretending that the two rectangles are my arm, is it possible to have it more like the image on the right than the one on the left? In essence, a solid grey (as opposed to the gradient shading in your above image) in the negative space within the boundaries of the image. BTW I love your dragon!

Thanks for the reply! Not really -- I guess I mean having all the negative space the same color light grey. In other words, if you printed out that image grey scale, cut out the outline, and then put it on your skin, all the negative space would be light grey/white from the piece of paper. So the image as a whole would be distinct from the skin around it. Maybe this is not possible or would look stupid. I obviously am new to all of this!

I'm interested in getting some tattoos based on Medieval/Renaissance woodcuts and engravings. When doing some research, however, I ran into a question about tattoos in this style. Basically, when I see examples of tattoos based on woodcuts/engravings, it always seems like the only thing inked are the actual lines, and that the negative space is just the bare skin. I'm wondering if it would be possible to shade that bare skin light grey, so that the entire image is set off more from the skin? It seems like this would be possible -- but at the same time, since I can't really find any examples of it being done this way, I'm wondering if there's some reason it would be a bad idea. Here's an example of the kind of image I'm interested in: So I'm wondering if it would be possible to shade the negative space grey, rather than just inking the lines? And if so, is there a particular reason why woodcut/engraving tattoos don't usually seem to do this? Here are a few examples of what I'm talking about: I hope my question makes sense. Thanks so much for any advice you can provide!

Those are great!

What's the sleeve theme? I can't quite tell from pics those size. Looks cool, though!

Wow -- I'm surprised they'd even let something that does that on the air.

Welcome!

Looks great! Thank you for your service!