He's getting a tattoo, yeah he's getting ink done

[venta]

Today, on the train, I overheard someone else's conversation. Someone was telling their friend how, having worked for years as an illustrator, they were planning to re-train as a tattooist.

At which point I started wondering: how do you learn to be a tattoo artist? Sure, you can practice drawing on paper, but at some point you're going to have to start for the first time on a real person. And let's just say... I wouldn't really want to be that person.

Fortunately, her friend wanted to know that, too. So she explained: you start by practising on sides of bacon.

I've learned something today.

Comments

[quisalan.livejournal.com]

Offspring!

[venta.livejournal.com]

One kudo to you :)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

I thought for a second there you meant: practice on your children!

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

Well, if you're a biologist from Northern Queensland investigating potentially fatal jellyfish stings...

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

http://www.myspace.com/merchmaatten/photos/37851846

[venta.livejournal.com]

Gosh. For some reason I find that strangely unpleasant! Fortunately, I'm not 100% convinced it's real :)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

If it is real, that's certainly a tattoo request rasher than I would contemplate.

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

Aaaaargh! That was a great/horrible pun.
Well done, sir!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I'm on a streaky run of form at the moment :-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Up to your hocks in puns...

[venta.livejournal.com]

He gammoned us proper with that one...

[ringbark.livejournal.com]

and there's no cure for punning

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Smokin'!

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure it's real. Most fakers wouldn't have the professionalism to add the faint red halo from the just-completed tattooing process.

(Also, I think it's pretty cool... although I can't help wondering if the owner will one day regret it!)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Ah! That was the bit I thought looked faked.

My experience of just-completed tattoos is pretty limited, but I thought the halo looked really drawn-on. However, I bow to your considerably superior image-related skills :)

[sea-of-flame.livejournal.com]

Friend of mine used to practice on oranges.

She already had plenty of experience as an illustrator/comic book artist though, so I imagine she was concentrating more on the use of the tattoo gun rather than having to learn how to design the artwork.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Well yes - that was the bit I was confused about, how do you actually learn to drive the tattooing apparatus and get the hang of drawing on something wobbly like skin.

Although overheard-lady did say that tattoo-drawing is a very different style to what she usually does, and that she was also having to learn/practise that.

I'm surprised oranges are sufficiently human-like to be worth it - maybe they're sufficiently cheap that they're a good first pass while you learn the basics of wielding the needle.

[rapperaddict.livejournal.com]

Oranges used to be what they reccommended to medical students to practice suturing (bananas work too. We had a fairly scary fruit bowl at university...) It's the consistency and level of resistance I think

[venta.livejournal.com]

Zombie fruit!

[sammason.livejournal.com]

The bacon thing sounds v sensible. But don't they use fake skin first? My specialist nurse used a slab of fake skin, with all the correct layers of subcutaneous fat, to teach me how to self-inject.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I've no idea - I've never heard of fake skin (though its existence makes sense), and perhaps she hadn't either. I guess it depends if it's cheaper and easier to get hold of bacon!

From this I think we can conclude that overhearing a conversation on a train doesn't constitute proper research :)

[sammason.livejournal.com]

Probably from a supplier like this one http://www.espmodels.co.uk/medical-models-c-15.html

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Seems unlikely it would be cheaper than bacon. And also, you probably wouldn't want to make a sandwich with it afterwards.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Actually, looking at the prices from the supplier linked above, I'm not sure! It depends whether you can tattoo on the sides of cheap back-bacon rashers, or whether you really do ahve to buy a whole side to get the grain going the right way!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I started looking, but my eye was immediately drawn away to Fat Fred / Fat Old Fred, Obese CPR Manikin.

Fat Old Fred / Obese Manikin might just be my next band's name, I think.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I got distracted by everything... it's like a whole new world :)

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

Do they sell the decorated bacon afterwards in arty butchers?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I really hope so! I've no idea whether food colouring would work instead of proper ink, but I bet such a butcher would go down a bomb in somewhere like Hoxton :)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Well presumably the ink is non-toxic already...

[venta.livejournal.com]

I'm not clear whether non-toxic if administered subcutaneously => non-toxic if ingested. It might do, but I'd like to be sure before I consume a really picturesque bacon butty :)

[pseudomonas.livejournal.com]

I'd expect that to be the case, but approved-for-food is another matter, I guess, and you want something that doesn't go funny when cooked.

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

The guy who did my tattoo mostly practiced on himself, which meant his legs were covered with upside-down tattoos, some of which weren't very good.

[venta.livejournal.com]

I did wonder about that!

I don't remember ever seeing your tattoo in the real - it looks fabulous from the userpic. Where is it (if that's not an impertinent question)?

[sushidog.livejournal.com]

It's on my back; the curve sort of follows my left shoulder-blade. So I can show it off when I want to, with a low-cut dress or a strappy top, but it's also easy to hide.

[howlin-wolf-66.livejournal.com]

As have I! :-)

[ao-lai.livejournal.com]

http://notalwaysright.com/now-thats-what-i-call-love/815

[venta.livejournal.com]

I choose to believe that almost everything I read on the internet is made up... otherwise I think I'd have to despair of the world and run away to live in a cave :)

[smiorgan.livejournal.com]

I was wondering this exact same thing recently. Mmm, bacon art.