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Rite of Passage
Rite of Passage
At Chapter One, the rite of passage to be able to tattoo others is to tattoo yourself. Before I finished tattooing my fake arm, my mentor, Cash, decided it was time for me to learn some new lessons. I painted this design of a sparrow for myself, tattooed it on fake skin, and then with Cash's guidance, tattooed it on myself. Tattooing on real skin is like learning an entirely new medium. There are many more factors to consider when dealing with skin rather than manufactured silicone. During my apprenticeship I had watched 3 apprentices before me have their first tattoo experience, and it's an honor to finally reach a point in my apprenticeship where I can be trusted to learn while still having the client's best interest at heart.
What is pictured here is the second session to this tattoo as I did not finish this design in the first session. My first session on this was 10 hours long, with majority of the tattoo being done in the last 4 hours, while the first 6 was the amount of time it took me to learn that I needed to insert the needle deeper into my skin for the ink to fully be injected. My lessons here were in needle depth, pain management, and how many times I could go over the skin before it became overworked. I believe this tattoo came out as well as a first tattoo could be. While a couple spots were overworked and a bit scarred from the first session, I chose to keep my mistakes visible as a reminder to myself of where I started, as a result these photos are of the tattoo half fresh in some spots and half healed in others.
First Session Fresh Photo
Fake Skin Rendition
Stencil & Tattoo Reference
Painting Reference
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