Grapefruit Celtic Tattoos

I finished my school work last night, so I downloaded a few guides to tattooing . I got a bunch of e-books and videos with information from how to set up your machine; to hygiene and keeping everything sterile; to pen-work and script lettering; and tips and ideas to practice with. One video suggested practicing on a grapefruit so you get more experience tattooing on rounded contours (like the arms etc). So I initially did some free-hand practice on a lemon, because I generally don't have grapefruits in the fridge.

The lemon was too small to do anything decent, so I eventually went out and bought a few grapefruits to practice on. I decided to copy a few celtic designs, based on a 'Book of Kells' colouring book I bought in Trinity College, Dublin. Celtic designs will be great to practice on because they're full of wonderful outlines that have parallel lines and they weave in and out of eachother. I think If I can develop the control to do celtic work well, outlining anything else will be easy.

I chose the peacock and angel design, as they were well rounded and would make good space of the grapefruit. I sketched it out first, using a biro, and then began tattooing...

 

The outline work at the beginning was a bit shakey, and then it got pretty good - much straighter lines and I just felt like I had more control. But toward the end, I felt like it was getting really sloppy again. I guess I've just got to keep practicing and practicing and one day I'll feel comfortable with the machine in my hands. 

 

 

My next job is to figure out how to use the 'stencil transfer' paper so I don't have to draw things from scratch while I'm practicing. I will just be able to find a design I like, transfer it, and spend more time practicing actually using the machine.