So now it is late in 1995 and I'm doing practice tattoos on my friends. Everyone I knew at that time was well aware that I had drawing skills. I was a little nervous in those days doing those first tattoos. I had to get a feel for the machine in my hand and lean on a person to tattoo on.
I first started doing the simple tattoos. line work. any tattoo with lines only. That went on for a few months, you have to wait and see the tattoo once its healed up to see if what you did to it was right. In the meantime, you learn how to keep a shop organized, you learn to answer customer's questions... and they are all asking the same questions. You learn to clean the needles, tubes and related equipment. Order supplies, keep track of inventory and keep a clean shop.
Months later, I started doing shading and coloring in the tattoos. The shading was easy to me, tattooing is very similar and different to drawing.... but the similarities is what helped me. The coloring is a little tedious at times, depending on the size of the area you wish to cover.
and then in early 96 came the big day. I became an official tattoo artist. more on that...