Realistic tattoo

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Realistic Dog Portrait 

Realistic tattoos are definitely one of my favourite subjects to tattoo. Realism came about around the early 2000s with Mike de Vries. As soon as I saw Mike de Vries in the magazines, it made me want to do colour realism, together with Bob Tyrell, doing with black and grey realistic tattoos. So Mike de Vries was my inspiration for colour realism tattoos, and Bob Tyrell was my inspiration for black and grey realistic tattoos. 

I believe that painting realistic tattoos can help a tattoo artist to increase his artistic realism skills, a lot of realism specialists do painting outside of tattooing to study realism. In this blog I would like to share some of the realistic studies, but also I would like to dive into the last experience I had tattooing a realistic dog portrait. 

It was Adam’s first tattoo, he wanted a portrait tattoo of his dog on his chest. Adam was very calm and patient and I knew that everything was going to be ok. Adam was recommended to come to me for a realism tattoo job, so I’m grateful when I get recommended for tattoos. It feels good when people understand what you do as an artist. 

We did finish Adam’s tattoo in the first session. However, I knew we needed to add more details on it, the tattoo looked good on the first session, however, I knew that if we added more details to it we would be able to add more layers on the shading. 

When a tattoo heals it’s like a paint that’s gone dry and it allows you to add more layers to it, and that’s works well with realism, realism is about building layers, and having the opportunity to add layers makes the tattoo more realistic. 

So I was grateful when I met Adam because I knew he would be patient and come back for the add of layers, and allowing me to go back to it, it gave me the opportunity to achieve the best result possible.  

Realistic tattoos require a lot of time  invested in them, in order to reach a full hyper realistic tattoo. That’s why in order to have a really good quality realistic tattoo, you have to be prepared to have multiple sessions, and be patient in order to reach the end result. 

There’s so much the skin can take in one session, that’s why I believe in taking the skin to the limit, but not go too further, make an appointment again, and the skin will be nice and healed for a second pass. 

Thank you for reading 

Meditation Podcast

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Meditation podcast 

Over 10 years ago, I tattooed Daniel in Leeds, in the first studio I opened on Call lane. We had a good connection, and a good experience. He was open minded, but was not yet the Daniel he’s nowadays. 

Fast forward over 10 years, I’m scrolling away on TikTok, and I see a video of a meditation teacher, so in tune with himself and the universe, his voice was so calm that it relaxed me, then I carried on listening to the meditation teacher, I resonated with it, and then, after a quiet while,  I realise it was Daniel, what a surprise, in a good way. The reason why it took me so long to realise who he was, it was because he sounded and felt so different. It was almost like he transformed himself as a person, in a very positive way. His voice was so quiet and calm. 

I was so happy to find him over 10 years later, I was so happy that he was able to change his life in a positive way, in a way that would open the doors for a peaceful  and connected life. 

After recognising that Daniel became a meditation teacher, I was messaging him within minutes, saying hi, and letting him know how happy I was to find out about him. Not long after the conversation, we thought doing a podcast would be the best way to catch up again, and be able to share his wisdom to everyone. 

Of course I wanted to catch up with Daniel after so long. However, one of the reasons why I wanted to do this podcast, was to share the practise of meditation. I believe meditation can help anyone in any job they do, it allows you to concentrate better, it allows you to be a better person for your family, it allows you to make better decisions. It’s extraordinary the benefits you can have of meditation. Meditation is an opportunity to re frame yourself, organise your mind. And when you organise your mind, the doors will open for your path, you will be clear of where you should go,and what you should choose. 

I’m sharing the podcast in this post, I hope you guys like it, I was really happy to do it, I think in tattooing, concentration is the key, and if you practice meditation you will enhance your concentration levels. It’s amazing how meditation can transform your life. 

Daniel came over from Leeds to see me in Manchester, i do get still clients coming over from Leeds, some clients become friends, and its about a connection you build with them. Daniel is online, I will share his details, I hope you guys enjoy the podcast. I haven’t done one for a while, but the wait was worth it, thank you Daniel. 

Viking Tattoo

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Anton the doctor from  Philippines 

Anton had previously come in to get a tattoo on the back of his neck. He was a walk in, he was very calm and polite, and I resonated with his energy, as soon as he walked in the studio. 

He requested a cover up on the back of his neck which I was happy to work with his cover-up tattoo request. His requested was accepted based on his idea he had to cover his tattoo. He showed me a Viking raven, it was dark and it had detail on it, and I thought it would be the perfect design for his cover up. 

Cover up tattoos are quite challenging, so I need to get my head down and focus on my work, however, me and Anton still managed to have a little chat and have a laugh as well. He was very calm, he sat really well for his cover up tattoo in the back of his neck, as he had to bend his neck down during the tattoo process, I was sure to give him a few brakes, so he could stretch his neck. 

A few months later, Anton messaged me on what’s app, as he had previously been to the studio, he had my what’s app business number, he messaged me and I was happy to hear back from him, positive vibes! 

So this time Anton requested a Viking ship on his forearm, completely different design and different part of the body, that’s one thing I do love about tattooing, is how different everyday is, everyday is a different person, a different design and a different part of body. So I was exited to get Anton back in the chair. 

The design was pretty straight forward, a solid looking, Viking ship. The design had big bold simple lines, which is also very good for longevity. Simple and bold designs age really well, as they are really solid and straight forward. 

Anton is from the Philippines. He became a doctor before coming to work in the UK. He works for the NHS, and he says he lives his job, when he came to get tattooed, he said he was on holiday, well deserved time off, as with his work it must be so demanding. So he was happy to take time off and coming to get tattooed. 

While I was tattooing Anton, he had some special coffees from the house, I always like to treat my clients with good quality coffees straight from the beans. I believe in the comfort and experience of the clients when they come in to get tattooed. Some clients have mentioned that drinking coffee while getting tattooed, has helped them, to last longer in the tattoo sessions. That’s why I make sure I always have the best quality coffee for my clients, and we also offer tea for those for prefer tea instead of coffees. 

Anton was watching a few movies while getting tattooed, that’s one of the other experiences I offer while getting tattooed by me, I care about the client’s experience, even when they are just having a small tattoo, the experience also counts, and while the client has something to watch, I believe they sit better for the tattoo, as their mind is distracted with something else. So, it doesn’t matter witch side of the body my client is sat, they have a to in front of them to watch whatever they want. 

Overall, I was happy to tattoo Anton, definitely a good experience, I liked his energy, and I also look forward to do his touch up session, as we did a cover-up tattoo on his first visit, which it has healed well, however we are doing a second pass to make sure everything is as solid as possible, and as i mentioned previously, with a cover-up Tattoo, a second layer is very important to achieve the cover-up.

Thank you Anton, I really appreciate you getting tattooed by me, and hopefully one day I would love to visit your country, The Philippines, and get to know your culture, as I have always felt the warmth from the people of Philippines. You welcome in the studio anytime you want, even just for a coffee and a quick catch up. 

Until next time 

Customer Experience with Michael Durham

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In this blog I would like to talk about my experience tattooing Michael. He approached me around 10 years ago, it was his first tattoo, so we spoke a lot before we made a choice about going ahead with the tattoo. We connected a lot with a few things, including music and movies. Michael loves the lord of the rings and the Hobbit, so that brought us close together, including that we had the same music taste. He enjoyed to listen to similar bands that I did, so we started to introduce each other to new bands. 

His Request 

I was really happy when he requested a fantasy dragon surrounded by gold, which it really resonated with one of our favourite movies, The hobbit. In our consultations, we looked at my fantasy books, we didn’t at least 3 consultations looking at fantasy books, until we found the right image for him. 

During his consultations we built a connection between tattoo artist and client, and those 3 visits to the studio, enhanced his decision to come and get tattooed by me, as he could feel the relaxed vibe in the studio, and it was a place where he wanted to spend time in. 

Getting the design ready

 I drew everything by hand, as it was a fantasy dragon, he wanted a custom design just for him, and when I drew the design by hand, it came from a genuine place. 

I can still offer tattoo designs, completely drawn by hand, I think the client get something more personal and genuine, and only you can have the tattoo, that is still possible to get done. 

The Tattoo process 

Tattooing Michael it brought us close together even further, his calmness and patience it allowed me to work in a great frame of mind, I remember tattooing his half sleeve, and it took around 2-3 sessions, then he took a brake from getting tattooed, which I completely understand, I think he became a father, so responsibilities arrived in his life, I was really happy for him, however he let me know that he would be back for more. 

10 years after, Michael got in touch with me, and I moved from Leeds to Manchester. It was a really big move for me to make, and I do still get a lot of my cleaned friends coming over to Manchester to get tattooed by me, I guess when you build a connection with your tattoo artist is not easy to let go. Specially because I really take care of my clients to make sure they are comfortable and enjoy the experience and process, as much as possible. 

I believe to give to my clients more than tattooing, I think when someone chooses to get tattooed by me, I want to repay them with good coffees, good chat and positive experiences. 

So 10 years after tattooing Michael, he still follows me from Leeds to Manchester, and this time I saw him after 10 years, I was looking for someone, who would be good on the camera, and be able to share their experience about getting tattooed by me. 

That’s when, I called my friend Anthony from Manchester to do a video for me. Anthony was great with the video and he captured Michael’s Tattoo experience where you can watch on this you tube video below. 

I hope you enjoy Michael’s client experience video, it was a pleasure working with Michael, and we are going to be doing more work on his fantasy sleeve. 

Keep and eye for more updates. 

Client Experiences

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Life Lessons with Martin Pemberton

I have been tattooing Martin for a few years, since the days I was in Leeds. Martin is an ex football player, he was a defender, here are some of the teams he passed through his career. 

Career highlights

Oldham Athletic (1994–1997)

Doncaster Rovers (1997–1998)

Mansfield Town (2000–2002)

Stockport County (2002–2005)

Farsley Celtic (2005–2007)

He also played for Scunthorpe United, Hartlepool United and Rochdale. 

After his football career, Martin Pemberton, started his new journey with motivational speaking, and coaching footballers. He’s a teacher, and he is a good person to spend time with, his positivity and wisdom makes our tattoo sessions very special. Our conversations are quite deep and inspiring, so that’s why I have chosen to share with everyone our last session we had. 

Martin wisdom about life inspires me. I remember when I first met him, it was in my first studio I had in Leeds. I think we were only doing him a small tattoo, however, when the tattoo was finished I had a feeling that I wanted to see him again, he was very inspirational and motivational. Our conversations can go on for hours, and I feel like I can speak to him about anything, maybe because we are both open minded. The freedom I feel when I speak to him is the reason why our conversations can be interesting, as there’s no limits with what we could talk or discuss. 

We have a very healthy discussion where sometimes, we could have the opposite conclusion to a subject, however, we can consider both sides of what we are trying to discuss about, and have a good lesson with each others point of view. 

I hope you enjoy this video where I’m tattooing Martin, and free handing a tree on his forearm, I’m doing a cover up tattoo for him. He requested to cover up an old symbol he had, and when he requested a tree I was happy to accept his request as trees are really good for cover-ups, based on texture. Any images with texture helps with a cover-up, including dragon scales, snake scales, nature textures, all those ideas are really good for cover up tattoos. 

Thank you Martin, sometimes when you meet some people, you think the universe brought you together for a reason, and if I could pick one reason why I met Martin, it would be based on the wisdom he passes over to me, when I see him, I feel like he’s my old time brother from a past life, who I was waiting to meet in this life.

I’m going to share more clients experiences on this website, i have some amazing experiences with my clients, some of them do become friends, and i almost feel like they crossed my path for a reason. Everyone will cross your path for a reason, and all of them will teach you a lesson.

Enjoy 

Bury Tattoo

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In this blog I would like to guide you on how to find the best tattoo studio in Bury, Greater Manchester. 

It must be overwhelming to choose the right tattoo studio for you. Tattoo Artist’s nowadays go out of their comfort zone to let you know how good they are rating their own work. Any tattoo artist with any respect for their clients would come to the profound realisation that, the client has the right to choose where they want to go. 

So if you encounter a tattoo studio rating their own work, you know that is a clear red flag. A tattoo artists role in the tattoo industry is to study art, study tattooing, focus on their clients, give the best tattoo they can, post their tattoo online and if someone resonates with it, that’s how you succeed. The client or tattoo fans, are the one’s who rate with their own perception and taste, with tattoos they appreciate it or not. 

The best tattoos I have done it’s been on clients who I have felt most comfortable with, so I do believe that having a good connection with your client helps a lot. I know you mite be thinking, but how do I find out if I have a connection with a tattoo artist or not? Have a consultation with them, even nowadays tattoo artists do a lot of videos speaking online, and you can get the vibe if they are calm, hyper, chilled, talkative. If you find a tattoo artist who does the style you are looking for, and you have a connection with them you will have the best experience ever. 

So it’s possible for you to have the best experience ever with a Tattoo Artist, however there are some tips to be followed, and that’s what I’m going to bring you in this blog with my 20 years experience. 

 I’m sure if you search online for a tattoo artist who specialises at the style you are looking for, you will find a few online, and you will probably resume your search in 3-5 different artists. So that’s when the decision start to arrive, and that’s when people considering getting a tattoo, starts to choose their artist by prices and location. 

And I believe prices and location are the reason why not everyone has got a good tattoo. Because if an artist is the closest to you, it doesn’t mean they are the right artist for you. Considering marking your body for a life time, would it not be better to travel to the artist who fits you best, independent of their location? Travelling for an hour to make sure your tattoo will be the best quality as possible and you will have the best experience as possible, I believe that’s worth the extra mile. 

And prices are another factor that separates, people who invest in their tattoo and body, and people who does not invest in their tattoos and body. And that is one main factor why, there are so many people requesting for their tattoos fixing or covering up. So choosing the right artist for you it is key. 

Good quality tattoo equipment costs a lot of money. So tattoo artists who care for the quality of what they are providing, will invest good money in their tattoo equipment.

I know having a great experience with your tattoo artist and getting a really good quality tattoo, is not easy to achieve. However, if you put aside how much your tattoo will cost, where your tattoo artist is located, and focus more on having a connection with your artist, in this case having a consultation, and travelling to the artist who will deliver the best quality tattoo for you, your chances of having a great experience will increase. 

In our studio at Odin’s Eye Tattoo we can offer a consultation with you, come and have a chill in the reception, we know you are coming when you make a consultation, we will have a chat and let’s see if we get good vibes from each other. We offer a private room for each client which it will increase client privacy and tattoo artists focus. 

We are Tattoo Artists,  we focus on art outside of tattooing to give you the best quality tattoo possible. 

Thank you so much for reading our blog. 

Realistic Tattoo
Realism rose tattoo in Bury
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Clock Tattoo in Manchester
Black and Grey clock tattoo in Bury Manchester
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Realism Portrait Tattoo
Colour realism tattoo in Bury Greater Manchester
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Black and Grey Tattoo

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Black and Grey Tattoo in Bury 

Hey everyone, thanks for looking at my tattoo blog, in this blog I would like to mention about the latest black and grey tattoos I have been up to, and also talk about black and grey tattoos in general, black and grey is a style that has been done a lot lately, it is the preferred style by most of tattoo collectors nowadays. 

I was approached by Mark for a thigh black and grey tattoo. He loves heavy metal, so he wanted the album cover of the Slipknot album “lowa” on the front of his thigh, the lowa album was released in 2001, so the art work of the album is a little dated in my eyes, but I was glad when Mark was open minded to listen to me, and allow me to re-design the Slipknot classic second album. So I designed to album for him, and he was happy with the end result. The front of his leg, the Slipknot part, was done in 2 sessions, working with Mark on the first session I was really happy as he was so patient and chilled, so I knew it was going to be a success. A successful tattoo also comes with a lot of patience and having a good attitude when getting tattooed. 

After we finished the Slipknot front of his thigh, his second request also brought a smile to my face, which it was, a Five Finger Death Punch album cover or logo, I believe it was a logo more than an album cover. Craig was sure to request that around the skull logo design, he wanted all bio-mechanical, I knew it was gonna be fun, as soon as he mentioned that, as I love to free-hand bio-mechanical on the human body, you can make it look like the client was already born with the tattoo on their body, following the human body shape. 

Studying Victor Portugal’s work, which I’m a fan of his work. I was able to free hand that bio-mechanical around my clients thigh tattoo. Studying textures really help when you are about to tattoo objects that requires texture, and as we know most objects contain textures, we can not see texture in every image we see, or use for tattoos, however, most objects when observed in real life from close they do have texture. So when approaching a black and grey tattoo, it is important to understand texture. 

Me and Mark had a similar music taste, so during our tattoo sessions, we were introducing new bands to each other. That is one thing that is so positive about tattooing someone, is that you always end up learning something with your client, and music ends up being one subject talked about in tattoo sessions, as I’m a big fan of music, when clients requests music related tattoos, the topic of the conversations in the tattoo sessions is music. 

Black and grey tattoos are very peaceful to do, as a Tattoo Artist, it is less stressful than colour tattoos, and it does flow a lot more natural in a tattoo session. So tattooing Mark, he was so calm and the session was very peaceful. Mark’s tattoo healed really well, he had good skin for tattoos, and he followed the aftercare for his tattoo.

Nowadays we see a lot more black and grey artists, and a lot of good ones as well, so many that sometimes I forget about those classic guys who first inspired me, however, as soon as the love for black and grey tattoos does not die out, I will have the passion to learn and study black and grey tattoos, as it’s infinite to enter a journey about shading and to really learn how the shadow falls in the object, it requires a lot of study and interest in the subject, however, only the passionate ones, will sacrifice their free time in order to learn something new, or what they are passionate about. 

I believe black and grey tattoos are always going to be a part of Tattooing, however black and grey tattoos may evolve. And hopefully i will have more amazing client’s like Mark to express my black and grey tattoos.

Fine Line Tattoos

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Fine Line Tattoo

Fine line tattoos, are the new and favourite tattoo style most asked and admired nowadays, therefore, we would need a full blog on that subject, not only to explore about this new tattoo style that has taken the internet by storm, but also find out the truth behind fine line Tattoos. 

The Tattoo world is like a wave it’s always going up and down in styles and what people ask for. Back in the day realism was the style that everyone was asking for, however there was a big debate about longevity in realism, and that is the same discussion that we have with fine line tattoos. 

Fine line tattoos are temporary- A lot of tattoo artists are doing fine line tattoos, and i doubt they will last more than 10 years.

Why will they age not well? They will not be in the skin, as the lines are so thin, it will disappear over the years, in tattooing, contrast is so important, and so is a solid line, strong edges. I know you mite be listening to this and think, but I want a fine line tattoos, I would say, you have the right to have a fine line tattoo, however, you will have a temporary tattoo. 

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why people get fine line tattoos, as it does looks nice, it looks very delicate and subtle. And that’s why so many people get them, because people buy what they see, and with online platforms like TikTok nowadays, it’s so easy to start a TikTok trend, and make tattoos look good online that looks nothing what it looks on skin. 

Is it worth it getting a fine line tattoo? If you really really want it, I would completely understand, however, please consider that in 10 years, the fine line tattoo will fade a lot, so you will have to cover it up with something more solid in the future, re-work the same tattoo with a solid line, or laser the tattoo off which it would be a quiet painful experience best to be avoided. 

We get a lot of requests on fine line tattoos, and we try to guide the client as much as possible, so they are getting a solid tattoo for the future, and not something that will be gone eventually, so we try to be honest with our clients, so they know the truth of what they are considering getting.

If you have any questions about fine line tattoos, we are happy to answer.

Fine line Tattoo

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