Use what you have, Do what you can. Start today is a quote by Arthur Ashe about taking on challenges. But the first time I heard it, it was used in a different context and it was paraphrased ‘Use what you have, Do what you can. Start today.’ Hi again. Paul here with another That Tattoo Show – Show note. This month I want to talk to you about why it’s more important to just start doing it than wait for the perfect moment. Because the perfect moment may never come and if you start now, you’ll have a far better chance of ending up exactly where you need to be. Here’s goes. Once upon a time,&nbs ..read more

Hi again. Paul here with another That Tattoo Show – Show note. The Main Thing. Before I explain why the above quote by author Stephen R Covey bubbled to the top of my conscious mind this month. Let me tell you a little tale from lockdown. The Main Thing I’m sure we’re all still dealing with the various long term effects of the 2020 clusterfuck/lockdowns and I’m no different. Keeping our studios open, heads above the water and not getting eaten by Magna Carta reading, 4th dimensional lizards all seem to be ongoing problems. Side note; I actually read the Magna Carta during lockdown and its v ..read more

I learnt something really important the other day. To overcome artistic failure, it isn’t about how much happiness you want. It’s about how much suffering you’ll take to acquire that happiness. And success – in all our myriad of definitions of it – depends on that. “Who you are is defined by what you’re willing to struggle for.” – Mark Manson To Overcome Artistic failure right now you simply have to understand and accept that failure is inevitable and that your Successes can be a direct result of your failures. While we’re filming That Tattoo Show we accept that failure is a part of ..read more

Selling Art for Money is Not a Service. During Lockdown I’ve been watching some livestream tattoo discussion panels. They are pretty freeform and chat based. Mostly around a chosen central theme. During one of these someone referred to tattooing as a service industry. I thought ‘hang on, no we’re not’. We’re selling art for money and that’s not a service! Yes, we do offer good customer service but that doesn’t mean that we’re a service based industry. In fact I think this misunderstanding is one of the many problems facing tattooists right now. From the beginning of our artistic j ..read more

YOU’RE NOT TALENTED Popular knowledge tells us that genius is born, not made. I’ve lost count of the amount of times that I’ve heard someone say that they could never do tattoos as good as me. ‘I’m not talented’ is usually what they say. Well, guess what, neither am I and neither are you. You’re Not Talented. It’s about Repetition You must put in hours of hard work. It’s the hard work that separates us from everyone else not talent. A recent Scientific study revealed that true expertise is mainly the product of years of intense practice and dedicated coaching ..read more

Is Tattoo Selling Out? Yesterday morning, I woke up with a song playing in my head. I got up feeling so down,I got off being sold out, I’ve kept the movie rolling, But the story’s getting old now, oh yeah. They’re from Outshined from the amazing Badmotorfinger album. I realised that Chris Cornell, lead singer of Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog and Audioslave has been dead for over 5 years. I cannot begin to explain how important Chris’s music was to me and countless others.  Another voice cut short and lost forever… Then I remembered that I wrote a piece in my column ‘The Naughty Step ..read more

Progress is Traditional. Have you ever heard things like this when you hear ‘artists’ or clients discussing tattoos? “But what will it look like in ten years?” “You should stick with the classics they’re proven styles” “The bold will hold” “It’ll never heal” Well, doing the kind of work I do, I hear it a lot. Like a lot… This kind of cheap criticism has long been an ‘easy out’ for ‘artists’ who either don’t want to or have no interest in the progress of tattooing as an art form. It’s easier to plant that kind of doubt in a clients mind in order to talk them into a tired old design that’s ..read more

Tattoo Will Eat Itself? Back in 1986 NME journalist David Quantick, an English freelance writer and critic was interviewing Jamie Wednesday. A Streatham indie band which included the two men who would become Carter USM. In the interview he predicted that cannibalisation would be the downfall of pop music. Due to the endless recycling of old ideas and that eventually, ‘pop will eat itself’. He also theorised that – at some point – the perfect theoretical pop song could be created by combining the best parts of all successful pop songs into one track. At the time of the interview ..read more

Do Tattoos Have To Mean Something? But what does it mean? I get asked that question about my tattoos all the time and I have some ideas about this ‘trend’. But, first I want to tell you a tale… A few years ago I was dragged along to a local theatre to watch an ‘Am-Dram’ rock opera. A friends daughter was playing in it and, as a mate, I felt it was my duty to support her. Needless to say it was dreadful.  She was actually ok – but the play? Oh dear. Your very own Rock Opera, all about you. The biggest problem was the premise of the whole thing. A very grandiose story about the life, love ..read more

Here’s my Brother PJ TATTOO Stencil  – Photoshop Workflow. The Brother PJ Stencil printer range has revolutionised the way digital artists make tattoo stencils. In recent years the tattoo industry has adopted iPad and tablets for creating hand-drawn artwork that can then be printed directly to the PJ, Setting the standard for tattoo stencil creation. I’ve been using my PJ for over a decade now and during that time I’ve learnt a trick or two. I’m going to share some of them here, with you, today. But first, the PJ. IT’S NOT A STENCIL PRINTER Just like just about every technological adva ..read more