I'm so tired...

Got back to York tonight at a good time, normally I don't get home till after 9pm on a Saturday. Last week the exhibition was on and when I wasn't at the shop I was working on stuff for that, this week I've been worried about the tattoos I've had to do and not slept much at all. Even though I have drawing to do I'm taking tonight off, I'll be drawing most of tomorrow on my only day off so I don't suppose one night will matter much.
I did two tattoos last week and two tattoos this week, last week was the twitchy leg tattoo and I did my first tribal piece, this week I worked on Pauline's rose tattoo some more (she now has the outline of a full on gypsy lady face with roses and butterflies) and got to start another larger piece on Dan of an owl. Leaving tattoos as just an outline is really hard because I know my lines aren't good enough, all three tattoos that I've had to leave as an outline have stressed me out no end, I hate the thought of anybody seeing them how they currently look, I can't wait to finish them all! Next week I have three tattoos booked in, I'm hoping to get at least two of them finished, the other is probably going to be too big and will need a second sitting, I'm so slow! I know I'm only going to get faster with practice and I can't be too harsh or impatient with myself, I'm still only at the start of it all.
So it's not even 10.30pm and I'm thinking I'm going to crawl into bed, yep thats what I'm going to do, night all :)

Exhibition this weekend...

Here is a link:
http://against-the-grain-artshow.blogspot.co.uk/
If you're about join us for drinks and arty fun times, this Friday and Saturday in York :D

Today was hard...

First tattoo in two weeks, I was a bit nervous! Happy with the design, excited to tattoo it and Sue (who I was tattooing) loved it too, unfortunately she had a really twitchy leg. I was my first really twitchy tattoo and I found it hard and stressful, I'm just an apprentice after all and I really struggled with my linework. She kept apologising but she didn't need to, obviously these things happen, legs are twitchy, thats part of tattooing, people move and hurt and ache. We didn't get finished so she's back in a few weeks and hopefully I'll be able to sort out some of my lines and finish the colour, today I feel dissapointed in myself for not doing better. It was a good learning experience though and had to happen sooner or later and apart from the twitchy leg Sue was amazing, I'm looking forward to finishing it, I just hope I can do a good job for her.
Should I be so honest about how I'm feeling and what I'm going through while I learn to tattoo?! I don't know but I'm going to do it anyway this is my apprenticeship diary!

It's been a while...

I've not posted in weeks, but since I'm sat at home ill (I was actually sent home because nobody at the shop wanted to catch my horrid cold!) I thought I'd try catch up.
Here are pictures of all the tattoos I've done up til now...

No. 2: Phillis the bee, I found this one so hard, at the time it was too big for my skill level, there were a lot of tears that day!

No 3: On one of my besties, it was her first colour tattoo, there were so many lines and any apprentice will tell you lining is so flippin hard, hahaha :)

No 4: I struggled with the cherries, once again there was tears!

No 5: I feel like the feather was a turning point for me, I'd been so stressed and nervous with all of the other tattoos and with this one I was really excited to do it. I was still stressed and nervous but it all finally started to become fun!

No 6: Morris the Moth, I was excited to tattoo a moth!

No 7: Max Power the stag beetle, I was excited to do this, although its not typical stag beetle colours John helped me pick colours that would make it more interesting.

No 8: This horseshoe and rose took a long time, I was attempting black and grey, trying new needles and new colour combinations, it was a long day but Paul sat like a rock!

No 9: This is Mike the snail, I had a stressful morning because I had some things to sort out with the design but we got there in the end, this was the first day I was mostly on my own and it was terrifying!

No 10: I was so excited to do the crown and Emma loved the drawing.

No 11: Pencil the wasp! This day also started out stressfully but we got there in the end, Mark was a star and it didn't take me forever to finish, maybe I'm finally starting to get a little bit faster.

All I can say is a massive thank you to everyone who has let me tattoo them so far, you've all been amazing! I'm very grateful to everyone that's shared or blogged about my tattoos and I honestly don't know what I'd do without John and Jen looking after me.

At the moment I'm finding it hard to keep up, I'm still an apprentice so looking after the shop, John, Jen and their enquiries comes first, then I can think about drawings for tattoos, tattooing and answering my own enquiries. There have been a lot of early morning starts and late night finishes for me over the last few weeks, which is probably why I'm ill now, I'm completely ran down. I know I'm not the only apprentice going through this right now and I'm not whinging by any means, I love my job! All of this hard work is eventually going to be worth it :)