“[08:23] You have to be specific, because if you just go ‘I wanna do flowers…’ that could mean ANY flower… ‘how about carnations?!’...I fucking hate carnations…So…be specific, have a list, limit it [to] like 20 things that you want to do”
— Teresa Sharpe
You never want to pigeon-hole yourself, it’s a constant struggle for tattoo artists. Some people will see that you posted a few snakes with rose designs and now you have 50 people asking you for the same thing over and over. Make sure you take advantage of the social media platforms ability to be curative.
Be Specific about your goals in tattooing and build your portfolio and social media accounts around not just your best work but the work that you’re interested in doing. Don’t forget that your social media profiles are basically an online portfolio. If you’re good at black and gray realism but you don’t enjoy it as much as Illustrative new school then don’t put them on your website or social media, because it’s likely that you’ll start to attract projects you’re not into.
No matter where you are in your tattooing career the Fireside Tattoo Network provides resources and information that have helped hundreds of tattoo artists.
Are you just starting out in your tattoo journey? Maybe you've been at it for a while and didn't have a traditional tattoo apprenticeship? Fireside has courses and programs for anyone who's hungry for information and wants to level up their tattoo design skills.
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Check out a few of our interviews with tattoo artists and Deep Dive articles:
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