Discover the extreme value of this tattoo supplies kit. If you are a veteran tattoo artist, or just starting out, this is a must-have collection. This essential gear is everything you need, it’ll literally save you hundreds of dollars, and skyrocket your profits. Want a killer advantage? Get your kit here.
Select an awesome tattoo design from
Chopper Tattoos! One of the most popular sources for tattoo artwork. They've got tons of stuff to choose from, which you can download and use in your own tattoo designs. Print out what you like and use it in your own designs, for yourself or for clients!
OR,
Tattoo artists grab the World's Largest Tattoo Collection from
Crazy Tattoo Designs! Over 30,000 designs in 84 .zip files, available for instant download. More kickass stuff in here than you could ever use in a lifetime of tattooing, all for a price that is cheaper than a SINGLE tattoo! At just $29.95, you're going to make your money back on the very first client!
We have been working on a documentary about the tattoo industry for about 6 months, and sadly, it’s been put on the back burner while we work our day jobs. The documentary is going to be aimed at those who want to become a tattoo artist, showing exactly what you need to do to get an apprenticeship, tattooing tips, where to get your supplies, how to choose a location, whether you should start your own tattoo shop, and on and on. Okay, I guess it’s half documentary and half educational. If you are interested in getting notified when it is done, just leave a comment here and we will give you a sneak preview (must use your real email address so that we can reach you).
In the mean time, I found a cool resource for anyone who wants to learn about how to become a tattoo artist. Unfortunately I am not able to GIVE you a free copy of this, but if you are interested in checking it out, just click on the picture below (I will also be adding it to the sidebar eventually, but for now, just click the picture…)
We talked to a couple of tattoo shop owners about body piercing. The surprising “word on the street” is that it is actually difficult to keep a piercer for a long period of time, because of two factors: a) shops usually take a percentage of each piercing, making it difficult for a piercer to make the fat cash, and b) the fact that just about anyone can buy dirt cheap body piercing supplies from catalogs and websites, is making a lot of competition for business in the piercing sector… more people are getting into it, both in shops and in their dirty garages, and some of the up and coming piercers would rather not pay rent for something they can do at home (which happens often in states where piercing isn’t regulated). So we are going to start discussing body piercing supplies on this blog, for your reading pleasure.
For now, let’s discuss whether or not you should buy from a special body piercing supply shop or a general body mod gear house (tattoos too)… The benefits of going to a piercing only supplier is that they are able to buy in bulk, and pass the savings on to you. This is not always the case though, some shops actually charge more for their needles and sterilization gear, when they don’t have other high margin items in their inventory, like tattoo ink. So they HAVE to charge more for what they sell, if they are a smaller outfit, just to stay afloat.
Buying body piercing supplies is easier now than it was twenty, ten, or even five years ago. There are tons of good places to find body jewelry and gear, especially with the advent of the Internet. You can get jewelry for dirt cheap if you buy in bulk, and there are almost as many body piercing supply stores now as tattoo supplies sites. So in 2010 we have decided to add body piercing as a new category on our blog. Feel free to chime in with your favorite sources, but to get you started if you are new to this, here are a few of our top recommended suppliers, and why we like them:
Technical Tattoo Supply: Wide Array Of Body Piercing Tools… their website needs updating, but these guys are really cool and you should definitely check them out. Instead of buying online, give them a call at 631-752-3622
MsPiercing.com: Sterile piercing needles, and other body piercing supplies, jewelry, etc. Shipping is free on orders above $30, too
HollywoodBodyJewelry.com: Worlds largest on-line Wholesale Worldwide Shipping. Minimum order is $100, but you can get barbells and other jewelry for cents on the dollar, by grabbing them in bulk… They have one of the NICEST looking sites, too, by far, out of all the body jewelry suppliers we have seen!
SteelNavel.com: Body jewelry for all piercings. Piercer’s quality body jewelry and body jewelry tools at GREAT PRICES. Plugs – Gauge – Log on – Prince Albert Piercing, etc…they have a lot of really unique jewelry too, not just stainless steel stuff, it’s all really diverse stuff that will make you stand out from other piercers…
Painful Pleasures: body jewelry and body piercing gear, for retail, wholesale, and distributor levels. Great discounts available, especially if you are ordering in bulk…
Got a site you think deserves mentioning here? Just leave a comment!
Tattoo power supplies come in many different sorts. There are digital power supplies, there are ones with analog dials, and of these two main types, there is a wide range of models at different strengths. You will want to talk to some tattoo artists to figure out what power levels would be good to match your skills and comfort level.
The stronger your tattoo power supply unit is, the more expensive it is, unfortunately. But you shouldn’t skimp on the price. The more juice you run, sometimes that makes it that much easier to get the job done. If you don’t know where to start, go for something in the middle range, for price and power. You can get good deals at many online tattoo suppliers, but some of our favorites are Kingpin Tattoo Supply, Element, Razorblade, Superior, and Technical Tattoo Supply. Shop around, and call a few companies, because many times you can get better deals over the phone. Just be cool, and don’t be rude.
One shop near my house is run by a husband and wife. They each use different power supplies according to their preference. So if you don’t like the first one, don’t be afraid to try another. Once you find a unit that works well for you, and you get the hang of adjusting the settings, you will be rocking out some gorgeous tats!
If you are looking for more information, check out this awesome eBook about how to set up a tattoo gun:
(click the picture below)
So how could I best absorb and retain the abundance of experience presented in front of me? Honestly, I don’t think it’s possible. I kept going back to my grandpa asking me how I could eat an elephant. Nobody would expect me to eat the whole thing in one sitting; that’s crazy talk. But if I were to pace myself and realize I’m going to be at it for a long time, I could go about my business: one bite at a time.
One of the brightest ideas that we came up with. After realizing Photo shop CS3 Extended has some new 3D capabilities, I wanted to play around.
We use Poser 7 occasionally in my friends shop to find great camera and lighting angles on the human form. Instead of bending around a hardwood manikin to look for figure positions, we’re able to adjust a virtual body joint by joint.
So why not send over that 3D file from Poser and open it up with the new Photo shop. There are other ways to change and edit the textures on three dimensional forms, but what imaging tool is more powerful than Photo shop? If I can mess with the texture – even add some tattoos – and the program with lay it on the surface instantly, it could be a great visual reference tool.
After placing the default Male figure (G2 Simon) within Poser 7, I posed him around in a mid-walking position. I want to place an image on his right arm, so I tried to adjust the lighting accordingly. Once finished, it was a matter of exporting the figure -minus the ground- as a Wavefront.OBJ file (3D vector file) then closing Poser to free up memory.
In Photo shop CS3 Extended, I created a New Document with US Paper settings. (8.5×11, 300dpi) and created a new 3D Layer in it.
Layer > 3D Layers > New Layer from 3D File…
Clicking the drop down box next to “Files of type:”, I selected an Alias|Wavefront (*.OBJ) file. Then, I opened the file Poser exported.
My workstation is an older dual processor Dell Precision with 2.5GB of RAM. I was worried it would take awhile to render, but Rendering all 82,000 polygons took about 45 seconds. It’s way longer than working with a standard image, but still not that bad
The figure is brought in as its own layer with whatever Texture attributes Poser gave to it.
To put a tattoo on the body, I just double clicked on the Body Texture. (In this case, the Simon Body Tex layer) Photo shop opens up the texture as a new image. Any addition or editing is applied onto the three dimensional shape as soon as the texture is saved.
(Poser didn’t send over the texture file in the Export. So I pulled open the SimonG2 texture and resized Photoshop’s to fit.)
Time to bring out the tattoo idea. I made a detailed ink sketch of part elbow joint and part arm anatomy. I combined the two where I thought they’d fit and messed around with it.
Then I pulled that sketch into the texture file. It took some resizing, rotating, and tweaking. Finally, I set the Blending Mode to Multiply so the skin would be revealed and saved the texture file.
About 2 minutes layer Photo shop was done rendering. Then, it took a few tries get the sizing and placement close. Simply adjusting the sketch layer over the skin texture gave plenty of options to get it right.
You can’t move any part of the guy around (that’s what we used Poser for), but you can move the camera to your liking. Double clicking on the tiny cube icon (in the Layers palette) gives me 3D controls. Which give me the ability to move and rotate to find a better view.
Here’s three views, saved and pieced together.
In Poser, we can alter the shape and size of whatever body part we want – you know, to match the size of our lovely tattoo collector. I think this would be quicker and more powerful if I had a 3D form of individual body parts to work with, instead of the entire human form. I’m sure somebody has some good Lightwave or Maya figures out there…
Again, rendering is a different ballgame when it comes to time spent working. I’m not used to waiting, so the hurry up and wait take some patience. But if I get the process down and get to the point where I can save my own templates, I’m sure this will get some use. Now if I have a big project that I am working on this will help with all types of muscle tone and body features.
Posted by: admin : Category: 
