You were born an original - stay that way

Originality. It's a funny thing.

A quick google search brings up so many quotations:

"All good things that exist are the fruits of originality"

"Originality is a by-product of sincerity"

"It is better to fail at originality, than to succeed at imitation"

And it's that last one that sticks out to me most.

This blog started out life as a tattoo blog, and tattoos remain to this day, one of my biggest passions. The art as a whole took a bit of a sideline last year due to being pregnant for half the year, and being a new mum for the remainder, but I will be focusing more content to tattooing this year, starting with a bit of a rant. 

I've previously talked about tattoos and originality in this post about copying tattoos back in 2015, but I want to do a little revisit. 

I recently saw yet another tattooist having to call out another on stolen artwork just a day into 2017! To be honest, it makes my blood boil. Imitation is NOT a form of flattery. Whether it's written word, a photograph, an oil painting or a tattoo.

TATTOOS: Why price isn't everything

It can be a bit of a touchy subject in  almost any situation... the question of cost.

And it is especially true when discussing tattoos.

No one wants to be ripped off, especially for something that you are going to have to live with for the rest of your life. And it is so easy to get bogged down by the price of everything in today's society.
But with tattoos, price should not be the determiner.

The saying goes

"Good tattoos aren't cheap and cheap tattoos aren't good"

And to a certain extent this is very true.

Many badly designed or created tattoos are from people or 'scratchers' who have had no training, and bought a tattoo machine from the internet and are 'working' from their kitchen. In this instance, you really are paying for what you get. It will be cheap because the 'work' is likely to be substandard and potentially risky.

TATTOOS: Why you should never visit a scratcher?

It's a subject that causes huge debate within the tattoo industry and makes the news on a near monthly basis. The debate of the scratcher.

A scratcher according to Urban Dictionary is:

"An untalented tattoo artist. A tattoo artist who scratches up your skin rather than applying a clean smooth looking tattoo."