Sun and Cross

just finished another tattoo last sunday. i was still nervous but not as nervous as tracie's. i started using the metal grips and tubes. i doubted using these grips at first because it will add more weight to the gun. but these grips are a lot more stable compared to the plastic disposables i was using. the weight of the grip balances the weight of the tattoo gun so i can have a lot of control. the plastic disposables were too light and i had to literally lift the gun while holding the plastic grip so the weight is heavier on top which makes it harder to control

i was also planning to get the 1/2 inch diameter grips but nancy and ariel adviced me to get the larger ones. good thing i followed their advice because the larger ones are heavier and i think this makes my lines more accurate.

thanks again nancy plew and ariel cruz for advicing me to use these grips.

rene is tracie's husband. he liked tracie's tattoo and that's why he had me do his first tat. i was excited that he was letting me do this but i cannot celebrate until i did the actual tat.

i did the tattoo at cruz creations in san jose and i'm happy with the result. the metal grip helped a lot and i think i will not go back to those plastics unless for small works.

i also practiced on pigskin the day before doing the tattoo. i added the outline around the design just to get used to the new grips and i noticed it kind of looked good with the outline but decided not to include it because it might make the the design look cluttered.

i used a five round (nancy's advice) needle for the whole tat including the shading around the cross. the shading might look a little dark because it's still not healed. that area should appear lighter once healed because i used gray wash. here are some pictures...

Tracie's Tattoo

i overcame one obstacle last weekend when i tattooed tracie. oscar p recommended me that i do her tattoo. i was really nervous when she emailed me regarding the tattoo because she's my first ever tattoo client. i've dome 3 tats (whew! that's a lot :-) before her but those 3 people are close friends and i'm happy to say they are still my friends.



i practiced twice on pigskin as i've shown here in my blog. i did good on practice but i know it's still different in actual tattooing and i had doubts when i was about to start doing her tatttoo. the main thing i was concerned about was the scary fact that once i pricked her skin, there's no turning back. i cannot erase it or undo just like in photoshop. second thing was that i had to make my lines straight just like in practice. third thing i was thinking about was the pain that i'm going to inflict on her.

i had to erase all the fears in my mind and get the job done. nancy plew from cruz creations tattoo helped me do the set up but she cannot help me do the actual tat. i had to do it myself. it took about an hour for the set-up because nancy had to guide me step by step because i wanted to learn how to set it up the faster way. some guy in the next booth heard nancy explaining things to me and my wife overheard his reaction... he said wide eyed, is this guy going to tattoo somebody?





all my fears vanished when i finished the outlines. the fear on the guy in the next booth vanished too. i did good on the outlines and i knew coloring was easier. it took us 6 hours to finish the whole tattoo and i was really exhausted and hungry by the time we finished. i know tracie must be tired and hungry too. another lesson learned was that never tattoo on an empty stomach.





tracie just emailed me the picture of the tat after it's healed. it looked great but i missed to black out an accent on one alibata character but this can be fixed easily. tracie's husband will be my next client.

thank you ariel cruz for letting me use your shop. thanks billy truong, kenya and of cource nancy plew and ariel for having the patience to teach me about this artform.