At home (DIY) tattoo experiment

Following on from my quick research, I decided to do a quick experiment within tattooing. Obviously nothing too drastic or insane as I know myself I am not a professional tattoo artist. However, with further research I came across the technique 'Stick and Poke', which is an at home (Do It Yourself) tattooing technique that can be produced by anyone, all that is needed is a sterilized needle and a pot of ink, the most popular and effective ink that is used is Indian Ink and that's what I therefore used in my experiment. For this short experiment I simply gathered my equipment and gained a volunteer off my friend to give this minor permanent tattoo to, she was a fan of the Beatles particularly Ringo Star, this therefore gave her the idea for me to create a simple outline of a star to represent Ringo. We decided to place the tattoo on her outer wrist, as this part of the body is most common and represents courage and pride due to certain studies I came across.  

In addition, I applied the stick and poke technique onto the skin and created the design. However, I found this technique very challenging as it did require a steady hand and a sharp eye to direct each individual puncture of the needle with the ink. Although, I do believe I created an effective illustration of a star, considering there are no second chances due to the fact you are unable to erase your mark, once the ink is punctured into the skin you are unable to go back and change it. This did obviously apply pressure although the determination to get the design as accurate as possible. Overall, I am happy with the outcome and so is the provider thankfully, however it could be improved and I believe I may have to go over the outline of the star a little bit to fill in the gaps that I can noticeably see if you look closely.

By doing this experiment I felt like I got an idea of the feeling and passion tattoo artists feel when giving tattoos. I felt really inspired and motivated to create more intricate designs and to further develop my knowledge into the tattoo industry.

Quick Research

After deciding my theme of my Personal Investigation of tattoos, I quickly done a brain storm of ideas to do with the theme; different artists/designers I could use as inspiration, different techniques, different styles and medias etc. I therefore developed this mind map of my brainstorm of ideas in my sketchbook as shown here. The purpose of doing a mind map is to help give a more clear view and

idea of what I'm doing/going to do throughout this investigation in the next following pages.

On my mind map I show different ideas of research for example the simple question 'Why?', this simple question gives the idea of wonder and curiosity as to why people get tattoos, what are there purposes? And this I believe could help me with my quick research into the history of tattoos. Tattoos have been around for many centuries and therefore have contributed to many cultures and society acts

for example; Egyptians had the earliest tattoos ever recorded. The tattoos were worn as a cultic symbol dedicating one to a certain god, as a brand symbolizing servitude, as a mark of a certain type of profession (such as prostitution) or to encourage fertility or afford protection. However, in Egyptian times mainly women wore these tattoos for similar reasons. This quick research developed from my mind map already gave me the inspiration of my next page, I decided to do quick research into the cultures of tattoos which was already an idea on my mind map under 'Traditions', so I further developed this onto a page as I was highly interested into the symbolism and meaning of tattoos.

This leads me onto my next page of  'Quick Research'. This quick research was a development and thorough look into the cultures/traditions that tattoos have created. Therefore, I decided to look into the details within 'Tribal' tattoos and 'Henna' tattoos, I did these specific cultures due to the drastic difference between the two, this difference would give me a wider knowledge into the corners of the tattoo industry.

Following on, I began with the quick research on tribal tattoos. I basically explained the reasons as to why these 'prints' when marked on certain members of a tribe. It states how tribal tattoos is were the origin of the word tattoo came from (tatau), which means 'to mark something'. It was fascinating to learn and understand the symbolism of the tattoos and also the fact that tribal tattoos remain among the most popular tattoo to people nowadays. These unique designs included characteristics like

repetitive design (pattern) elements, bold lines with a strong black ink usage, with a mythical or spiritual symbolism. Looking through research images of these designs, I decided that I wasn't fond of the style or design of the tattoos, I believed they were too simplistic and not really creative in my eyes, as they all tend to have the same pattern and they didn't give me an inspiration to create my own designs in this style. However, I was further inspired to create tattoo designs that would represent something really significant and symbolize something deep and meaningful.

This then leads onto the next quick research of henna tattoos. This style I was particularly most looking forward to research on, because I've personally always been fascinated by the style of henna and the culture of India. On my page I researched the basics of how its made/prepared and applied etc. I discovered that henna tattooing was a cultural practice that dated back over 5,000 years, whereas henna today is used as a popular form of expression for luck and happiness, which can obviously be found in many ceremonial practices for example marriages. I again found this idea of symbolism very fascinating and further inspiring for my own work. The deepness and meanings that can be created through specific markings are truly spectacular. I really enjoy the detail and intricacy of the design s, particulary the floral designs.

Overall, this mixture of brainstorms and quick research has widened my ideas further on tattoos. They have also supplied me with knowledge and ideas on specific designs that I may want to create and develop myself. On my next following pages I will be going into deeper research specifically on different tattoos artists that have inspired me.

Personal Investigation (Theme/topic decision) 

Reaching Year 13, our class had to research and decide what we wanted to do for our personal investigations, our personal investigations are a major and significant part of our overall grade in Fine Art. Therefore, we knew a lot of thought and effort was needed for this big project.

To start we were guided to a final decision of our PI by getting asked what medias we enjoyed using and had a great skill in. I decided that I had a great skill in painting and drawing, however I had to keep the idea that I would still have to do a mixture of media development throughout my work. In addition, the main factor of the personal investigation is the theme. The theme is the main aspect of the project that I need to achieve the most. To choose my theme I did a wide research into things that provided the use of creating my own original designs and something that I believed I could go down many routes with and create and come up with many initial ideas to develop into a excellent final outcome.

 

My first initial idea was to do something in relation with racism as I wanted my PI to have a meaning/message that would therefore have an effect on people. Racism has had a deep effect on me and my family and so I have a deep passion to develop something that would make a difference on certain views in society. Although, this first idea wasn't greatly successful due to the fact that I struggled to get a lot of research specifically on art to do with racism and plus because there was a short variety of pieces/artists, I knew it was going to be too much of a challenge to develop a great PI to do with this topic, considering this topic was so broad I expected more. Next, I did further thinking and research and decided I wanted to creating meaning and a deep message within my work, I liked the idea of creating a meaning through art and designs, that's when I came up with the idea of tattoos.

Tattoos are a unique and interesting way to develop meaning and symbolize something significant, just through the idea of pressing coloured inks into the skin lasting a life time. There are many directions I could go with this theme, as there are a wide variety of different styles and designs ranging from minimal to highly detailed designs, that could therefore easily inspired me to create my own. There are many different tattoo artists and designers all over the world which means my research etc. was going to be easy to locate and moreover help me with development and ideas. There is an extreme variety of different styles and designs; minimal, retro, henna etc. and overall I believe I could go far in this investigation. These are the main reasons why I will be pursuing my Personal Investigation in the theme of tattoos, which I have further explained in my sketchbook as shown.