Mike Devries – Get Real Volume 1 Review

Hi there folks, again it’s been a while since I last posted here, I just wanted to make sure that I have tattoo works and images to show you before I write anything here. Anyway, I just recently watched Mike Devries Tattoo tutorial.  As far as I can tell, the work looks good though there are some parts that I can’t understand, like how did he come up with that realistic eye effect. I know it’s all about colour schemes and what’s important is the highlights that makes the tattoo very realistic and glossy. I guess it’s all about on how you apply it.  He did a coloured portrait of himself. I guess the tattoo video is not for beginners you must have a little of experience in order to relate to what he says.  

This video has a lot of fast forwards; unlike his second Tutorial the ‘Animal Style’ is much better than this. But you will also learn just by watching his videos. Also, I think this video is intended for those who don’t have apprenticeship or self-taught tattoo artist out there. Now you don’t have to do it the hard way, this video is sufficient. I’ll give you a few screenshots of the video.

As you can see, this is the part where he makes his stencil.

Machine setup and colour setup.  

Pretty much this are not coil machines, I’m not sure what are the brands of this machine but I think it’s definitely a rotary machine.

The inks that he used are Eternal, Fusion, Intenze (Why no Starbright?) Dunno, ask him.

This is the part he already started doing the tattoo on the client’s leg. As you can see he started doing circular style, but the standard way to start is from bottom to top (Printer style) , He said that also depends on your design, sometimes you have to start on some parts of the top, sometimes right to bottom etc. The part that I don’t like in the video is that his head is always blocking the view.

Mid part of the video, The Needles he used are 17BPmag (Not sure if curved or not) and a 9BPmag.

And the last part of the video is of course, the highlights. Just look at those eyes. Very realistic! Awesome!

Well, you can order one of his videos on his website, just Google Mike Devries and you’ll see his site. 

Minimal Lining - More on Shading

Hi there! It's been a while since i made my last post here, i'm here again to show you my latest tattoo work. We copied the design from google images just to practice tattoo with minimal lining, Please check the image and you will see that the feathers are pure shading. What i did is, I have mixed the black ink in to a solution to make the light shade effect. I know that the picture is in very low quality because i only used my cellphone to take a shot of it, but i will update this once i have taken it into a SLR camera and when it's fully healed.

As you can see, i also used white ink to highlight some parts of the bird.  You will be able to see those on the legs, lower part feathers and eyes and beak. Also, in the feathers effect i just followed the stencil pattern. I also, combined some colors like green and yellow to make the yellow green effect in the leaves. This tattoo ain't done yet, i still have to put some background in it, i also used a 9mag for shading and 5rl for the lining parts. actually it's a whole back tattoo, I'm just excited to show it to you guys on what have i made today.Well like i said earlier, once this whole back tattoo is done. I will take a pictures of it in a high quality camera. For beginners like me, I hope i have shared something to you guys and learned something today. Because unlike other professional tattoo artist out there, they keep their skills secret and doesn't want to share their knowledge.

Tips: Black and Grey Tattoos

Today let us talk about portraits and other tattoos that are black and grey. What is a black and grey tattoo anyway? Well, obviously is only black and grey, no other colours involved. Now that you know what is it let me start explaining on how to do it. 

In this case, let us talk about portrait tattoo, first things first is to apply the stencil that you made, make sure that you do not put lines on the shadow of the image, you can put dotted lines or dashed lines in order for you to know that is a shadow and not a line, the tattoo will look like a cartoon image or a comic character not a realistic portrait if you put lines all over it. Just want you to know that most of the portraits tattoo that was made has no solid line works, for example in the lips nose chin. So you can start shading using a 15 curve magnum so it has smooth edges and follow your stencil to make a base design. 

I usually start shading from bottom all the way to the top so that the stencil won’t be rubbed off or fade away  by my hand or while you’re applying green soap to clean the dirty regions.

With shading shadows, you can use a shading solution to break down the colour of your black ink, from dark grey to light grey and instead of using white ink you can just leave the skin behind. When applying the shading ink you make sure that you make it very light, this to avoid the skin from bleeding and making it kind of reddish looking colour. If the skin bleeds it will just push out the ink and if the skin gets really reddish there are a lot of chances that you might scar the client’s skin or you won’t be able to see the actual shadow that you have applied. 

In short, make it really smooth not too light and not too deep. It’s better to have light shading at first rather than having dark shadows already, because if you have made a little bit of mistake in applying the shadow you can always do a repair unlike when you already applied dark color you won’t be able to use an eraser to fix it. 

Well, I guess that’s it for now, I have to go and I’m really very very busy. I’ll continue again when I have a chance, hope this helps.

Know the Needles First

 It’s good to know what type of tattoo needles you’re going to use before you start your first tattoo work.  Well, you see a tattoo needle consist of several small needles grouped attached to a needle bar.  There are many types of tattoo needles – Group, liner, single, round, flat, magnum, shader. These types of needles have their specific use and depends how the artist use it. Obviously, you can’t use a liner to shade a tattoo or use a shader to create outlines. Basically, their specific use is related to what they are called.

Anyway, let’s go discuss them one by one and get into details.  There are four common types of needle groupings.. Let’s start with 

Rounds aka Loose :

These kinds of tattoo needles can come from single to 14 round.  If you’re going to check the image you will see that the round needle looks like a perfect circle.  These are commonly used for shading tight parts of the tattoo.

Flats:

I rarely use this kind of needles when it comes to shading. But, they are good in filling a tight part of the tattoo.  This needle comes from 4 to 15 needles groupings and if you’re going to check the image, the needle grouping are all straight and placed tightly together.

Tights:

This type of needles comes from 3 to 14 needle groupings. Tights are commonly used for outlining. similar to round needles this type of needle has also a circular shape but unlike the rounds tights has needles that are grouped tightly together to make a perfect lining.

 Magnums:

I always use this kind of tattoo needle when it comes to shading. Because this one has two rows and their grouping is widely spread out it can be very good in filling in solid colour. There are two types of Magnum needles, one is regular and the other is double stacked. Double stacked means that the needles are more grouped tightly together compared to a regular Magnum needle.

Curved Magnum:

Similar to a regular Magnum, but this one is much bigger and the tip of the needles has a slight arch to it. I always use this when I’m making Japanese tattoos like Wind bars, clouds etc. This one is also commonly used in filling colors into a portrait tattoo. 

Now you know the types of needles and their uses. Next post will be about types of Inks.  Hope this one helps.

Great Tattoo Artist i Like: Victor Portugal

Victor is one of the most popular tattoo artist now a days. I have checked all over the net to see his biography and I would like to share it to you guys. Anyway, here’s what I have.  

Victor Portugal was born in Uruguay and he lived there for several years before he moved to Krakow Poland to setup his own tattoo shop. He started his tattooing career back in 1998 and until now he is getting better and better specially those biomech / evil designs of his. I think his tattoo work and designs are very unique. Unlike those common tattoo designs out there like, Dragons, Buddha and common Oriental tattoo designs.

Because of his popularity in the world, some of the countries named his designs after him.  I wish someday i could be like him, just a little bit more training and perseverance and i will beat this guy! 

My Partner: Vincent

Hi there guys!  I have been busy again with work that’s why I wasn’t able to write any post these past few weeks. Also, I have not made a new tattoo work yet. Today I’m feeling that I want to write something that is why I decided to Introduce my friend, a tattoo artist who just started tattooing a couple of months ago just like me.

Well, we are planning to get in business together, but I think we need more practice and a lot of experience in tattooing before we go out and expose ourselves in the tattoo world. Also, we don’t have the money to rent a new place and start our tattoo shop. Anyway, I just want to show you the latest tattoo work of my friend. Please check the image below.

This client came by to my friend’s house and she said that she wants to be inked on the rib part of her body. We said that, it will hurt like hell for a lady to be tattooed on that part of the body. She insisted and she really wants that design to be tattooed on her body.  The process took probably 2 hours or less to be completed. He used  5RL liner and 11MAGNUM and 9MAGNUM for shading. As for the colors, he used Starbright ink (red,brown and pink), Intenze Zuper black (Back ink) and Intenze colors again for green and yellow. SPEED stick was used for the stencil stuff and Green soap for cleaning the excess ink on the skin.  I guess that’s all for now and I’ll be writing again soon to share my experience and for those beginners out there like me – I hope this information helps.

Why Get Inked

A lot of people these days don’t care what kind of tattoo they’re getting.  A very popular motto is “Think before you ink.”  That is very important! don’t get very excited, don’t haste, choose your tattoo design very well and make sure you won’t regret it.  Also, I don’t recommend putting your wife’s / girlfriends name on your skin. I think your last name would do.  Also, a lot of people are getting tattooed today when they are drunk, high or even in love! Yayks!. Well, this is based on my experience, I do have a dragon tattoo on my right shoulder and I don’t even know what it means. Obviously, I regret it.

But there are lot of reason to get a tattoo.

1.       Self-Expression:   Well, a tattoo can be considered as a work of art to be used to display your uniqueness as a person.

2.       Spiritual Growth: This can be a good reason to get a tattoo, if you just had survived a great disaster or some event that changed your life for good. Then it’s not so bad to have a tattoo related to that event.

3.       Tribal Identity: This kind of tattoo can be used to identify on what tribe, gang and organization you belong.

4.       For Spiritual Protection: This kind of tattoo can be used as a spiritual protection. Ex. Tattooing the face of Jesus Christ or any Portrait of a saint on your skin to avoid accidents or any unlucky circumstances.

5.       Marking Important Events:  A good example of an important event is a wedding or a divorce.  This will remind you every day on what just happened that day.  

6.       Paying Homage:  A very good example of this is the Portrait of John Lennon, Elvis Presley and many popular celebrities that died.

7.       To Express Commitment: Getting tattooed is no joke; this will be permanent on your skin. Unless you get a laser removal tattoo that will be very expensive.

8.       Totem Symbols and Animals: A lot of people are getting this kind of tattoo; this is to express their connection between their soul and that symbol.

9.       As a memorial: I do have a friend whose sister has died. And her portrait was inked in his left forearm to help him remember a beloved family.

10.   Enhancing Sexuality: There is this theory that getting tattooed on your lower back will help you open up the base chakra and will enhance your life force.  

I hope this helps! Always remember, Think before you ink.”    The images above are from 'google images' I do not owe them and are just used as an example.