From the Studio #002: Custom Tattoo Design — I Was Doing Every Tattoo Three Times
How bringing traditional artists into Hollywood Stars Tattoo changed the way we designed, trained, and created custom tattoos.
When I first opened Hollywood Stars Tattoo, I worked the entire first year mostly by myself.
The truth is, I was scared to hire anybody. I had worked too hard to open the shop, and I didn’t want someone bringing in bad habits, bad energy, or wicked intentions. Trust didn’t come easily, so I carried everything on my own.
I also opened the shop without flash designs covering the walls. That was intentional.
I didn’t want people pointing at a picture and saying, “I want that one.” I wanted to hear their ideas and create something that belonged to them.
I was committed to custom tattooing, which meant I drew practically every tattoo myself.
But after a while, I realized I was doing every tattoo three times.
First, I drew it. Then I made the stencil. Finally, I tattooed it. Customer after customer, I started burning myself out.
A Better Custom Tattoo Design Process
Eventually, I came up with a different approach. I started hiring talented artists who weren’t tattoo artists.
They were illustrators, people who could draw extremely well. I would bring them a customer’s idea and explain what the artwork needed so that I could turn it into a strong tattoo.
The client brought the idea. The illustrator developed the artwork. I made sure the composition, detail, linework, and placement would work on the body and hold up on skin.
It became a real collaboration.
The artists also had to learn that creating for a client is different from creating for yourself. Some became frustrated when a client requested changes.
I would tell them, “You have to really listen to what the client wants. Don’t completely finish the design before they see it. Give them a rough draft, let them approve the direction, make the changes, and then move forward.”
That prevented wasted work and gave clients a voice in something they would wear for life.
A Business Within the Business
What started as a solution to burnout became a small business within Hollywood Stars Tattoo.
Clients came for original designs. I paid the illustrators, the tattooers received artwork they could successfully apply, and clients got work they couldn’t find on a wall.
Three artists I remember clearly were John, who was the first, then LT, and eventually Art, who is still with us today.
Art arrived with a sketchbook full of characters, figures, samurai, skeletons, and complete scenes. At first, he designed tattoos for me and the other tattooers to apply.
Concept sketch by Art of two cockroaches smoking marijuana roaches, a visual pun about roaches.
Examples of Art’s early work. The first drawings came from the sketchbook he brought into the shop, while the later pieces were custom designs he created for clients.
When Art became interested in tattooing, I let him outline pieces before I shaded and finished them. He was used to thick illustration lines. My realism uses minimal lines, so I taught him gray-wash lines, bloodlines, and light outlines I could shade over.
I also taught him to design for the body. Unlike paper, a tattoo must follow the muscles, movement, and natural shape of its placement.
Art Designed It. I Tattooed It.
Our Saint Michael piece is a clear example of the system we created. It was our interpretation of Saint Michael taking down the devil.
Art created the design. I adapted it to the client’s body and tattooed it. We each handled the part that matched our strongest skills while working toward one finished piece.
Raising the Standard of the Shop
Bringing traditional artists into the shop did more than provide us with drawings. It opened the eyes of every tattoo artist working there, including me.
We saw new ways of drawing, composing, and solving visual problems. Their talent pushed all of us to improve and raised the creative standard of the shop.
Art is still the person we turn to when a client wants an imaginative, hand-drawn design. If someone doesn’t want AI involved, he can develop the artwork traditionally from the client’s idea.
My process has evolved too. For realism, I use Photoshop and sometimes selected AI-generated elements. If something looks generic, I replace it and rebuild the composition to fit the client’s idea and body.
The tools have changed, but the standard hasn’t. We use the right combination of human imagination, technology, and tattooing experience to create the strongest design for the client.
The Best Tattoo Matters More Than the Credit
I have always believed the client should receive the best tattoo possible, whether every part comes from me or not. If I couldn’t provide something, I found someone who could. My responsibility wasn’t to prove I could do everything. It was to help the client get the strongest result.
The client receives stronger artwork. The illustrator gets an opportunity. The tattooer gets a design created with the body and the client’s story in mind.
Everybody contributes something, and the finished tattoo becomes better than what any one of us might have created alone.
Custom tattooing means listening, respecting the permanence of the decision, and bringing together whatever talent is needed to create something worthy of being carried for life.
If you have an idea for a custom tattoo but aren’t sure how to bring the pieces together, start by telling us the story behind it. We can help develop the concept, match it with the right artistic strengths, and turn it into a tattoo designed specifically for you.
Hollywood Stars Tattoo
Where your story becomes the artwork.
Comments