That’s how I found out that I really wanted to be a tattoo artist. In 2011, I bought some cheap equipment, watched a lot of YouTube videos and did my first tattoo on a friend. Vagabond Ink, #01-19, 333 Kreta Ayer was drawing a lot when I was in National Service, and a friend suggested I try out tattooing. On a good day, the waiting list is around two weeks. If it’s a big piece that requires a long session, I just do one a day. If the pieces are smaller, I can do two or three a day. For example, recently I did a roller coaster – I thought that was so crazy and out of the world. I like to draw things that aren’t common. It used to be a flaw but it’s what I’ve been doing, and now I see it as my style. Most of my pieces look like sketches that you can’t put into a frame and actually call it art. I would say that my tattoos are sketch-like with an unfinished look – that’s my most honest description. There isn’t a proper term to describe my style. After I came back, in 2010, I decided to give tattooing a try and did an apprenticeship here at Vagabond Ink with Valerie Yang. Turns out it wasn’t! It’s completely different. He insisted that tattooing was the same as painting. Oracle Tattoo, 19 Jasmine was painting a mural on someone’s wall, back in 2008 when I was in the UK, and he thought that I should tattoo him. My pieces these days take quite a while to prepare, and can range from 6 hours to a few days for a full back or full sleeve. I occasionally get enquiries for smaller pieces but I dedicate more time to the bigger pieces. I only take five or six clients a week, and there’s a waiting list of roughly seven to eight months. I usually work on one piece a day and one client takes up about 6 to 7 hours, including stencilling it on their body and the actual session. While I don’t have to redesign that, I’ll still redraw it in preparation leading up to the session itself. I design every client’s tattoo unless it’s something straightforward like his or her grandmother’s portrait, for example. Strangely, I also get lots of requests for clocks and timepieces – I’m not sure why. I do strictly black and grey realism with barely any colour. Clients come to me with anything from portraits and photographs to skulls and animals. I did it for two to three years. And I’ve been in this fascinating industry that I’m very passionate about for 13 years now. The guy at the shop (which isn’t around anymore) looked at my sketchbook of drawings and offered me an apprenticeship instead. When I was 15, my friends and I had the brilliant idea to go to a tattoo shop to buy equipment. It started off as a tiny tattoo at the side of his shoulder but it expanded into a full back because he trusted me.Ģ Haji started out by chance. I completed a full back piece recently and it’s the first large-scale black and grey realism I’ve done – it means a lot to me. If I’m doing handwritten scripts, I’ll just write two or three options on the spot and the clients will pick from there. I would love to delve more into black and grey realism in future. It works best on very fair or Caucasian skin. Watercolour tends to dull over time, especially on Asian skin because of the yellow undertone, and sometimes people cannot accept that. I love doing watercolour, but I try not to promote it. I can change my handwriting depending on what the client wants – sometimes thicker, more illegible or more carelessly written. He posted it online and people started coming in because they like the simple handwriting that almost looks like a signature. I wrote it, she liked it and Joseph tattooed it. When I was still an apprentice, Joseph asked me to write a few words for a walk-in customer, who didn’t like any Photoshop font. I do a lot of handwritten scripts and that’s what I’m known for right now. I started having my own clients (a couple of) years ago, but I’m still learning new things from seeing Joseph tattoo. In 2011, my friend Joey Ong, who is also a tattoo artist at Visual Orgasm, introduced me to Joseph Siow. I love animals but I wanted to pursue art to express myself. Was helping out at an animal clicnic and performing surgery on animals.
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