PORTRAIT STYLE ARTWORK

Most of what I get asked to do is portrait style tattooing, or actually tattooing someones face.  Ive grown pretty fond of this style of art, and the human body and face as well.  This type of art has me usually spending about an hour before EVERY tattoo just picking apart and studying every part of the piece to give me a better understanding before I dive right in. 

FREEHANDED TATTOOING

Almost always I am tattooing with what I come up with in my head directly on to the skin with markers.  Ive always found it odd to draw on paper, flat and without shape, and then try to transfer it to curvy, cylindrical skin.  Ive never seen how it would benefit you more that way, so I choose to draw directly on and become a bit more intimate with the flow of the canvas FIRST, then let the piece take its own shapes.