Tattoo Blog Manchester

Getting Tattooed in Manchester in modern days

The year was 2006, and my journey began in the tattoo world. Even during my apprenticeship I came to the profound realisation that, the most successful Tattoo Artists were the more experienced artists, so I understood that I needed to focus on my art in order to achieve a good Tattoo. 

Fast forward to 2025, it’s almost like anyone with the intention to learn to tattoo, has no interest in learning to be an artist, before attempting to approach someone’s skin, or developing their artistic capabilities. And also, original artists, who worked so hard to develop their own unique style in art to Tattooing, are considering walking away from tattooing. 

In this blog I’m going to dive deep in to the reasons why all this came to reality in the Tattoo industry. How did the Tattoo industry used to reward high quality and original artists, to  reward Tattooists with no artistic capabilities. 

I started in 2006, Tattoo magazines was all you had, no social media and internet was not as advanced as it’s now. Every month “Total Tattoo Magazine” used to come out, and the Tattoo Artists in the cover of the magazine would be the next Tattoo Artist a lot of people would be following to learn, or it would be the Artist who would literally be re-writing the history of Tattooing. 

I will never forget the first time I saw Shige, Mike De Vries and Nikko Hurtado in the magazine. They were doing a style of tattooing I have never seen before, and I could tell their work was creating a new perspective in tattooing and some tattoo artists would be inspired and would be following that, and taking that style onboard. Those were the most successful Tattoo Artists in the early 2000’s, the ones who were re-writing Tattoo history. Opening a Tattoo magazine back in the early 2000’s it was almost like opening a Tattoo bible, where you would get mega inspired by the new artists coming up, with new creative styles, and being updated with what was going on in the Tattoo World. 

Fast Forward to 2025, a lot of young Tattoo Artists hardly know or are interested, in who were those Tattoo Artists who made Tattooing what it’s today, and artists I respected, and used to look up to. The artists who came up with the style they we fell in love with, should be respected by young artists and the ones rewarded in the tattoo industry. 

I believe social media has a big part of the reason why some Tattoo Artist’s are so rewarded for not being artists nowadays. Nowadays, Tattoo Artists get away with not creating art, and being successful in tattooing, and the reason why I believe is that Tattoo Collectors or clients do support Tattoo Artists who do not have an artistic background nor create art in a regular basis out of love.

I do understand that technology has made everything more accessible nowadays, specially in tattooing, for those who can not draw or paint, the IPad Pro is a life saver, as the Procreate app can mix match a lot of images, and cut a lot of corners and do a lot of stuff that only skilful  artists could achieve back in the day. I do use my iPad Pro, but sometimes I do still go back to the traditional sketch pad, as to develop, study and progress as an artists, traditional paint and drawing it’s I believe still the way to 

Nowadays, clients tend to go to a Tattoo Artist in Manchester who does videos and talk on camera, and the reason why, is because the client can resonate with the artists more, even knowing there’s a true artists who studied art all their life, and they just don’t feel confident or does not believe that you have to do a video to be a good Tattoo Artist , but everything chances. That’s why I believe true and original artists are not as successful nowadays in tattooing. Because with the raise of technology, there are some people who are not very good artists, however, very good with social media and technology, and they are the ones succeeding because someone looking for a tattoo, are not longer looking at an important fact about getting a tattoo, which is, is my Tattoo Artist an artist?

Another important aspect about getting tattooed nowadays, that is important mentioning to you guys, that a lot of Artists can do tricks with the camera nowadays, so everything you see online, is not exactly like how it’s on skin, or in real life. So looking at a Tattoo healed in front of you, is the best example to be sure if you resonate, like, or can see how good or the quality of a Tattoo Artists work. So don’t be fooled when a Tattoo looks too good to be true on Instagram or TikTok, usually when they heal, they will look completely different than what it was, when it was first done. 

Let’s not forget that some Tattoo artists do post an image of their healed tattoo online, which is something it should add trust to the viewer, and someone looking to get a Tattoo. A Tattoo Artist who posts and exposes their healed Tattoo, is an artist who have trust and experience in what their work really looks like, to have the confidence to post your healed Tattoo, is to be able to know what the Tattoo will look like when it’s healed, and that takes experience, and years of perfecting the Tattooing craft.