First entry in a long long time here (to be honest, I actually forgot about my blog!)
Anyways, since my last post I have:

- temporarily changed departments at work to give me a break from all the shite going on there and have been MUCH happier both at work and at home
- applied to permanently work in this new area (still waiting to hear the result of my application but the word so far is that I should do ok)
- bought an EIKON green monster shader
- bought a FORGIVEN liner - amazing what a difference good equipment makes
- done some more drawing - now using A3 sized paper instead of A4 with the view to putting all my work into a nice A3 portfolio folder

- tattooed my husband's leg : I did a montage of the southpark characters (Kyle, Cartman, Stan and Kenny) standing around a sign that says 'South Park'. It's on his thigh and probably about 10cm by 10cm big.Probably a bit ambitious doing such a big thing and with lettering to boot for my 1st human tatt I know...but other than a little bit of overworking, and a few minor blowouts, I was happy with the experience I gained. Hubby is happy with the end result too. It did take me a long time to do the initial outline and I had a few issues with the screw holding the contact screw in place continually coming loose due to the vibrations of the machine, which meant the contact screw moved as soon as you tuned the machine and gave a dodgy running speed etc. But we managed to fix that thanks to advice on the forum about cutting up a rubber 'O' ring and shoving it in the problem screw to make it tighter, which worked. I've now done 3 sessions on this piece so far (outline, colour#1, colour#2) and have yet to fill the background of the sign that says 'southpark' but that will have to wait till some time in October (going overseas for a month and also have run out of disposable tubes)

- also tattooed myself! - I did a donald duck face on my thigh as my first self-tattoo. My hand was shaking something shocking at the thought of tattooing myself (did it while I was home alone, haha) but I thought it had turned out ok....that was until it was completely healed and I could see I hadn't gone deep enough in most of the lines - many were grey rather than black and really pale, thin and patchy. So I went over it again (this time using Kuro black ink instead of starbrite's tribal black ink) and conciously made an effort to go deeper. I sculpted quite a few lines and am hoping (fingers crossed!) that this time it will be ok. It's still in the process of scabbing up so I won't know for a few more days yet. I'll wait until after we get back from overseas to colour it I think. I had posted a picture of the original outline under the heading 'an old disney favourite' in the show and tell(?) section of the forum.

My plan for my tattooing ventures for the next few months will be this:
- buy more supplies after paying off a few debts when we get back from overseas
- finish hubby's leg
- finish my leg
- lot's more drawing for folio
- take folio around to more local shops for feedback and try and get my name out there a bit


Peace.
kaost.

Over the past couple of weeks I've upgraded from honeydew melons to pigskin (yay!) and I much prefer the piggies at this stage! With the melons, I found that trying to get a stencil to stay on was next to impossible...with a pig, it's impossible to get the stencil off!

But at least on a pig I can practice stretching skin to get the feel of making a bridge with my hand and plus, when you let go of the skin to adjust your machine or something, the skin doesn't roll away like the melons, lol.

Been back at work for almost a week now after I had a month off and must admit that it hasn't been too bad so far. Today I had a chat with another girl about my dismal attitude towards my job and wanting to quit and she really surprised me by saying that she felt exactly the same way, and so do a lot of other people she knows.

SO anyway, my husband has been begging me to tattoo him for his birthday (in June) and I'm veerrryyyy wary of doing that for a number of reasons:

*I've never tattooed another human before (he is insisting he be my first human which is very sweet of him
* I don't want to make an unsightly permanent mess on his body because I'm so nervous and then have to look at it for the rest of my life
* I'm not very confident about my sterile technique - been using a combination of disposables on fruit/pig and still need a few more pieces of equipment to consider my
workspace safe eg. non pourous surface to work on, baggies for clip-cord and machine, need greensoap too.

He only wants a small Cartman (from Southpark) cartoon on his hip/thigh, but still, I'd rather wait until I'm fully confident in my abilities as opposed to rushing in.

My latest pig skin tattoo was of a clown I named "Fungo." Had a bit of trouble with my shader appearing to lose power/speed and therefore needles getting caught in the skin. I tried mixing some colours (made a purple with red/blue inks) and also made a lighter blue (needed to add HEAPS of white!)

I learnt that when doing a stencil onto a pig, I shouldn't draw in any guidelines to use for where shading is to go (if colours lighter than black are to be used, which let's face it, are all of them haha) because the purple stencil lines just show right on through the shading!

I already have 2 people other than my husband lined up for dolphin tattoos (their choice, not mine when I graduateto the human species

Overall, things are looking good and I'm being more adventurous with the types of needles/tips I use - loving the mags for shading! Ink just goes right on in nice and smooth

Till next time!
Kaost.

G'day and welcome to my blog *waves*

A bit about me:
I live, work and play in Brisbane, Australia
I've been married for almost 18 months
I have 2 cats and a dog
I love cycling, reading, music and TV.
I love tattoos and think that Ink Trails is the best thing I've done/found since I decided to seriously look into a massive career change to hopefully one day become a tattoo artist.


My husband and I each have 3 tattoos and plan to get a whole lot more when money permits (currently saving up for a fantastic holiday in September to Canada/USA).

Now about this career change....why? Because I love art, tattoos, meeting people and am finding my current job less appealing each month.

I spent the past 2 months discussing with my husband the ups and downs of attempting a tattooing career. Everytime we discussed it, it came down to the fact that money was the big obstacle
ie. we couldn't afford our mortgage if I just up and left my current job for an apprenticeship (assuming I could find one). My husband is soooo supportive of me in this endeavour, mainly because he thinks he'll get free tattoos, hahaha.

I've basically lost all motivation at my current job, which I kinda feel guilty about.

I've noticed that most people have one of 3 things in life that they pour their time/passion/resources into:

1) Their job
2) Their kids
3) Their hobby

Seeing as we have no kids (and don't want any) that left me to either be passionate about my job or a hobby. I decided that I'm going to be passionate about my hobby (ie. tattooing), which is fast becomming my life interest, calling, passion, whatever you want to call it! Since I've made this decision, I'm sooo much more settled and happier in my mind and feell like I have a purpose and direction to take my life in.

I'm currently on a month-long holiday from work and have spent the past 3 weeks drawing/sketching etc to add to my folio. I also went to a nearby tattoo shop and showed the artist about 8 pages of flash-type sketches I'd done, and he gave me some good feedback about my artwork which was encouraging.

Now these past 2 weeks have taken me forward in my journey by leaps and bounds because my husband bought me the following:

*Huck Spaulding book and DVD
*Tattoo machines/power pack/inks/tubes/needles etc etc etc
*A light box

And today, I tattooed my first actual picture onto a melon. I had so much fun doing it and totally lost track of time, which indicates to me just how much I enjoyed doing it

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii256/k...hotos/melon.jpg

I tell ya, I've been bitten by the bug and it's infectious! I'm looking forward to torturing more fruit in the weeks to come.


"You're only young once, but you're immature forever!"