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Exit Strategy

Exit Strategy

My career outside of university is tattooing, i've been working in this industry since I was 18. After three years in the industry I have learnt a lot about the physical side of tattooing. However from university I allowed myself to explore about what tattooing is and has been, it's been great to properly research and document the tattoo history that I am so interested in. It's been an exciting journey in this last year.

I have made a name for myself within Norwich as someone who tattoos bold, thick and often just black tattoos. I use a pseudonym and go by the online alias 'skullhed'. This is something that I have used since I started and has become part of my image. I've been working on advertising for my tattooing and how I can go about doing this. I decided that it works with my intentions to produce easily replaceable posters to allow me to change the posters with ease. It will allow me to keep them like an artistic way to advertise.

In tattooing there is huge possibility to be able to travel and to work, there are still lots of 'nomad' tattooers that travel from studio to studio earning money in each city. I would really like to take my tattooing abroad, I have particular interest in Poland, Russia and of course America. I have a friend 'Krzysztof Szeszko' who works at a studio in Poznan, Poland who has invited me to work in the shop for a short period, this is a great way to start off my traveling, it will allow me to make more connections within Poland and specifically the polish tattoo industry. The ability to travel and work is all down to connections, the industry runs on people meeting and becoming friends, it's a very informal industry.

Another avenue I am going to explore is tattoo machine building, the machine is a crucial part of every tattoo artists arsenal and I have been working on being able to fully understand the ins and outs of the machines and how they work is something I have been learning since I begun. There are lots of variables that go into a well built machine, and I have been working on creating a machine that I deem perfect for my ability and my skills. This involves creating a machine that changes the positioning of the weight in the hand, hopefully this machine style and design will perform well and allow me to improve this through updated versions, eventually ending up with a product I can sell to other tattooers.

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Project Summary

Project Summary

The final part of this year has been an interesting time of my life, and no doubt it has taught me a lot of new lessons. University has been a rollercoaster of a time and it has allowed me to fully explore what I want to do and giving me the ability to have the time available to hone my skills in my profession. I have matured a lot and realized what is important to me, and what is key to improving myself as a tattooer and artist. I would like to outline what I think were the key points in my project and how they helped me turn it into what it has become.

One of the key revolutionary moments in my project was when I changed from having multiple paintings to just one. I was thinking and trying to visualize how I could display all paintings on the wall. I was considering putting around 8 paintings onto the wall. I was going to arrange them in a fashion that is similar to a tattoo studio, however in realization I decided that it wouldn't really get my points across. It would just look like a few paintings of scientology put onto the wall. To conquer this I readdressed my idea and decided that putting everything onto one larger painted sheet would allow me to place the paintings exactly where I want on the page. I also think that one large sheet is truer to myself, I am very interested in classic tattoo history and the importance of displaying the tattoo designs inspired me to go over the top page design. I think that making this change to one sheet allows me to give the painting more context in the exhibition.

Another key point that happened within my project is to do with my booklet. This booklet was another turning point in my project that I want to discuss. I was originally just going to some of my paintings on the wall, however after thinking all of that through properly and changing to a single sheet idea I decided that it really needed something to accompany the painting, something that could give my designs context within the degree show. Without a booklet the original idea would have been unreadable, it would have been completely unexplained on the wall, the booklet gives it context and allows me to explain what I have produced. Now the booklet provides the audience examples of these designs painted on the skin and in daily life. I had to make sure the pictures were well constructed and not focusing too much on the design, these pictures aren't about the application and the look of a tattoo on the skin, its about the meaning of the design and it allows me to give the design context, it lets scientology fit in to society.

Another success was when I was taking the photographs for my booklet, because I didn't want the photographs to focus on the designs too much I had to think of how I could present them in the photographs subtly. This was no easy task to do as it involved a lot of planning and preparation. I had to orchestrate my friends and organize when they could come so I could fit them all in. I really didn't want anything to obstruct my photographs, I took a lot that I just didn't use because of the other things in the frame. I didn't want to have any cars, bins, rubbish or other people in the shots as I feel it makes the photograph looks unprofessional.

Something that I feel I could have improved was my lack of experimentation. I feel like I planned a lot and didn't do as much making, I have a lot of sketches and roughs but not many finished products. If I had of experimented more with the iconography within Scientology I think I would have more work to play with. This is primarily down to time management, I work whenever I can as a professional tattooer so a lot of my time is filled up with drawing designs and actually tattooing, however this is no excuse I should have adapted and dedicated more time to my research and initial sketches. Doing so might have produced a different outcome, or more sheets of paintings. I think that more sheets would have been a much nicer degree show, a trio would have been perfect.

Following on from that point I want to continue to talk about time management and how I could have improved it for this project. I feel like I sat on my ideas for a while, especially when I was still solidifying if I wanted to pursue Scientology or not, the time I spent thinking about what the final outcome could be I should have spent jumping in and making some rough works to explore what could have been, I feel like I didn't really get to explore the Church of the Latter Day Saints just because of time, I had a surface level look but decided that my knowledge of Scientology was greater so that was a better avenue.

To bring my university experience to a conclusion is a hard one, it has been a long journey that passed very quickly, it has tested me as an artist and allowed me to properly explore what I want to do in life, and for that I am thankful. It allowed me to continue working as a tattooer and improve my skill and ability in the industry. Speaking for this final project I think it has come to a satisfying end. I have learnt a lot about religion that allowed me to explore some curiosities I had. It allowed me to refine my skill as a painter, before this project I thought I was reasonably good at painting, however having done a lot of painting I feel my skill and stability with a brush has improved tenfold.

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My project proposal.

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Some final pictures of my piece in the studio, it looks great in the space on the wall. The only thing im concerned about is the lack of space for the plinth.

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My final painting. The shield is a sea corporation link, they have a very similar shield on their uniform, i drew influence from this and adapted it to suit me, i experimented with the shield shape, using the sailor folklore within tattooing to help me work through it.

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This is my flyer i’ve been using. I’m a big fan of the zine culture and everything DIY. so my purpose for this flyer is for it to be like a replaceable thing, i put them up with the intention they will get taken down, destroyed, ruined by rain. So i print them for cheap and keep them nice and simple, that way i can change the flyers and keep a theme, but play around with the imagery on the poster. 

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Tattooing - Exit Strategy

I started tattooing during the summer i turned 18, before the year of my foundation diploma. I continued to learn through that year and when i moved to Norwich i changed studio from Leeds and started working at HD13 Custom Tattoo studio in Norwich. I’ve been working at this studio since I moved to university and will continue to work there afterwards.

My instagram is my social media platform of choice, it allows me to connect to people i’ve tattooed and allows me to show my work off to other people, hopefully ones that want to be tattooed by me!

This is a selection of photographs from my instagram that i have tattooed within the last few weeks.

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My final page selections for my booklet. I decided that posting their locations would work much better than doing a quick description of them. I much prefer how they look.

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Here is a selection of pictures that i took and that i decided weren’t appropriate for the booklet. 

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Here is how i put my designs onto the skin, I used my tattoo studio to print out my design onto hectagraph paper, which when combined with a fluid leaves a carbon residue which stains the skin, the purple is the carbon.

I then painted over the designs with an ink brush and used acrylic paint to colour them.

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Further progress in the sheet.

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some close ups of my progress so far on the painting. There are various examples that i will go into their meaning in a later post.

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Here is my design for my final painting, i have already completed the border, which was a task within itself, each square had to be measured to roughly 1.5cm so that it would fit and look good, the amount of tiles on each strip also needs to be an odd number, so that the same two colours wont touch each other.

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Some initial designs for my booklet, with the design lines from photoshop on still. I think i will be making some changes to the final example here, i think i will display the images in the centre, i think it will look smarter.

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A small video of me paintings some borders.

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I am trying to stay consistent with my pictures, i tried to write down possible acts that would look natural and allow me to display the designs in a way that would be subtle but also noticeable once studied.