The Tattoo Wars: Miami Ink Vs. La Ink

Kat von D and Ami James never really saw eye to eye in that inking reality TV series Miami Ink. So, it was hardly surprising to audiences when Kat packed up her bags, left Ami’s shop, and moved back to Los Angeles. It was not surprising either when Kat was offered to have her own spinoff of this reality TV show when she opened her own tattoo shop on La Brea Avenue in Los Angeles. That reality TV spinoff is none other than LA Ink.

Similarities between the Two Reality TV Shows

Is LA Ink just a carbon copy of Miami Ink? Do they have the same kind of business going on, just in different locations? LA Ink, being a spinoff of Miami Ink, does have similarities with its parent reality TV program in that it aims to demystify the idea of getting a tattoo and disproving whatever myths and misconceptions the public may have over tattoos. Just like with Miami Ink, viewers of LA Ink get to see Kat and her crew in action, taking in clients, discussing with them the tattoo designs they want and offering suggestions whenever improvements to the original design are needed, and then getting the actual tattoos done on their clients.

Where the Similarities End

But format is where the similarity ends. Many fans of both reality TV shows were quick to note that LA Ink has more to it than what Miami Ink had. For one, the location of Kat’s shop is close to Hollywood, and so it attracts more recognizable celebrity clientele. Of course Miami Ink had its own celebrity clients, but the LA Ink crew’s clients had more star power, simply because they come from Hollywood. Notable guest appearances in LA Ink included Tom Green, Ja Rule, Eve and Jared Leto.

Another notable difference between Miami Ink and LA Ink is Kat von D’s unique touch in tattooing. Perhaps now that Kat no longer had to deal with Ami’s constant scrutiny back when she was still with Miami Ink, she was able to shine on her own. It became more and more obvious to fans of both reality TV shows that the tattoo designs Kat and her crew worked on were more stellar in quality and aesthetics than those made by Ami and his group.

It has been proven that LA Ink is a lot better than Miami Ink anyway. The ratings of LA Ink on its first season premier were the highest that the TLC channel got in all its history for a reality TV series. Also, on December of 2007, LA Ink was pitted against Miami Ink and the other spinoff London Ink as to which show is popular, has the best employees and has the best artwork. Which emerged as the winner? It was none other than LA Ink.

Kat von D made an absolutely right decision to leave the guys at Miami Ink. LA Ink is really a stellar deal.

Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/hardware-articles/the-tattoo-wars-miami-ink-vs-la-ink-363982.html

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'Miami Ink' – Enter the World of Tattooing!

5 friends come together to start a new lease of life by opening up their own tattoo shop in Miami Beach, Florida. Ami James and Chris Nunez plan to start a tattoo shop at a place called LoveHate lounge co-owned by them. So, they come along together with some of their old and skilled tattoo artist friends, Chris Garver, Darren Brass and Yoji Harada, to open up a parlor- Miami Ink.

Miami Ink is a show aired on TLC which portrays the happenings at this shop. It's a great TV series that shows many interesting people walking in to get their tattoos done and the show has also succeeded in capturing the feelings of the customers and the process of the artist in a great way. Season 1 started with a grand opening party in the first episode where the shop is set up and the first customer gets a tattoo of the Hawaiian Islands. Slowly as the episodes go by, it becomes prominent that business picks up and their friend Yoji gets married to his fiancée Bridgette. Season 1 ended with Ami injuring himself.

Season 2 begins with Ami buying his dream car and later Yoji getting the pressure as Ami threatens to release him from apprenticeship, if he doesn't improve his drawing skills. After several interesting episodes where Kat Von D returns and helps out while Ami is out, the season ended with Darren inking a musician while Ami gives a tattoo to a girl helping in memorializing her father. In season 3 Kat leaves 'Miami Ink' and ventures out having an ambition to set up her own shop. Season 4 was all about Kat coming back on a surprise visit and once again tensions growing between Ami and Kat.

After completing 4 full seasons, 5th season was back with Ami and Nunez traveling to Las Vegas while well known tattoo artist Joe Capobianco fills the place of guest artist in the shop. Season 5 ended with Ami and Nunez being judges at a bikini contest and a new customer, Joni getting a tattoo of her own piece of art onto her back.
Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/television-articles/miami-ink-enter-the-world-of-tattooing-745821.html

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Chopper Tattoo Review

Anyone who has ever seriously thought of getting a tattoo knows the amount of thought and anxiety one puts into choosing the right design.
The tattoo after all is for life, and one wouldn't like to make a hasty decision.

For people who are going through the same dilemma right now, your search has ended at Chopper-Tattoo. A database with a collection of thousands of high-quality tattoo designs, and with new ones added every day, you are sure to find just the pattern you were looking for here.

To gain access to Chopper-Tattoo's extensive collection, which is arguably one of the biggest on the Internet, all you need to do is sign up as a member.

At Chopper-Tattoo, you can find interesting designs to get done as arm band tattoos, belly button tattoos, lower back tattoos, cartoon tattoos, fairy tattoos, insect tattoos, Japanese tattoos, animal tattoos, monster tattoos, sun tattoos, Hawaiian tattoos, women tattoos, skull tattoos, tribal tattoos, celeb tattoos and much, much more.You can evenchoose to get your own face or someone else's done as a wonderful tattoo.

So, sitting at your computer in your living room, you can have access to the biggest tattoo collection on the Internet. Figuring in Chopper-tattoo's design catalog are a number of award-winning tattoos that have become a raging hit among tattoos artists around the country.

Chopper-tattoo's website, with a keen eye on the needs of the customer, has organized its website into neat categories, which makes browsing for your favorite tattoo design an enjoyable experience in itself.

After you have chosen your favorite tattoo, all you now need to do is click on the design to enlarge it, and then get this enlarged design printed out. After doing this, you can just head straight off to your nearest local tattoo parlor and get the wonderful design inked on to any part of your body you like.

In case you have trouble finding a tattoo parlor near your place, or are unsure about the credibility of the one you may have found, you can again turn to Chopper-tattoo for help. Their parlor locater will help you find a place that will offer you a tattoo you can be proud of, at a competitive price, with safety assured and excellent hygiene standards.

For those who want to become tattoo artists themselves, Chopper-tattoo.com can again be of help. If you think you are good enough, then you can sign up as a chopper-tattoo artist. This will get you a web page on chopper-tattoo.com for advertising purposes and a 75% cut on all sales made from your page.

This will help you gain exposure and build a reputation over the internet, which will always translate into positive dividends.

So, as you can see, Chopper-tattoo is the one-stop virtual shop for all your tattoo design needs, and a sure-shot solution for all your problems.

The next time you are getting a tattoo, don't forget to visit chopper-tattoo.com first,
and be assured you have gone to the right place. Bonuses: 100% Money Back Guarantee
unlimited tattoo lettering for a small fee
a ton of free music downloads
free magazine

So just visit the site right now

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Tattoo Art For The DIY Crowd

With popular culture's recent interest in tattoo arts, it's no surprise that the web has been inundated with various tattoo related sites. Perform a search in Google, and you'll be amazed by variety of results. Some sites function as an introduction to a tattoo artist or studio, while there are some that gleam the web for pictures and stories surrounding tattoo culture. Other sites are merely portals hoping to make a quick buck off tattoo flash. However in my search, I happened to stumble across a tattoo blog that dares to offer the chronicle of two brothers learning to tattoo themselves. This should be good.

"Ink Trails" is a journal of two brothers, Jason and David who set out to learn how to tattoo while documenting the entire process. The blog starts out with the simple premise that one need not have a desire to tattoo professionally to work within the medium. According to comments posted on the site, a traditional tattoo apprenticeship can be very difficult to find, and can require the student to spend years working as a lackey before ever laying the needle to skin. Tattoo artists tend to be very territorial, as teaching an eager student their hard earned skills can create instant competition and are a liability to their main source of income. There is also those that see tattooing as a trade and therefore expect those interested in learning to be wholly committed to learning the craft as tradition has prescribed. If TLC's Miami Ink is any indication, the job of an apprentice can consist of little more than moping floors and answering phones for years before they are entrusted with the knowledge of the trade.

While the first few posts on the site document the trials of finding out what supplies they will need and how to operate the equipment, it's the posts of their work that provide the most interesting reads. Filled with stories, pictures, and even video clips of each tattoo, Jason (the main author) documents the mistakes made and lessons learned with earnest voice and a remarkable clarity. One of their first tattoos on a friend even shows a video clip of the exact moment when David fudges a line! While I'm glad it wasn't me, it's this kind of unflinching honesty that makes the site stand out from so many other sites trying to capitalize on the upsurge in popularity.

Surprisingly, in a little over three months, the work featured on the site has improved dramatically. Many of the new completed pieces actually have a rough, yet stylized traditional quality to them. Of the most recent, David finished a sailor tattoo based on a traditional flash design that looks authentic. They seem to be getting increasingly more comfortable with the tools and their work speaks to this fact.

While the brothers caution that they are not in the business of teaching anyone the right way to tattoo, they sure offer enough information to get the newcomer started. For any body interested in learning to tattoo, or just understanding more about what goes into the tattooing process, this site is an invaluable resource. Keep up the good work, fellas! I'll definitely be a regular reader.

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How To Be A Professional Tattoo Artist

As tattoos become more popular these days, more and more people are getting tattoos or talking about getting one. This is great for the industry and even better for those who would like to get involved in the tattoo industry. But don’t think that becoming a professional tattoo artist is easy. There really isn’t any such thing as easy money by becoming a tattoo artist.

Many tattoo artist aspirants believe that purchasing a D.I.Y. tattoo kit from the advertisements of tattoo magazines is the starting point towards becoming a successful tattoo artist. Be aware that this equipment is of inferior quality and lacks precision. What next? Find a person to practice. And the result is dozens and dozens of people with awful tattoos and terrible scars and who will put you in their hate list forever. Furthermore, a true artist will be reluctant to take you under his wings because he is going to have a headache trying to guide you back on the right path.

The alternative is to pay a fee to a tattoo artist or shop to teach you the trade. So what is the type of fee to pay? As far as I know there are no reputable artists teaching you all he know for a fee. A true artist is not a true blooded businessman. If an artist is willing to teach you for a small fee, then consider this. Is he willing to part with all he knows for what you are paying? In one Asian country, the majority of tattoo shop websites advertise tattoo courses for a very small fee. But the problem is that after completing the course, you will have to come back for one refresher course then another and another. And I understand that after completion several such courses, you will not be able to tattoo properly. So the chances are you will be paying good money to some businessman who is just trying to make a fast buck.

So then, how to become a successful tattoo artist? For starters, you’ll need talent. You will never make it in the tattoo industry by tracing or stenciling, you will need to be able to draw great designs. To even get considered as a tattoo artist, a portfolio is needed. This will require you to draw lots of great designs to build up a portfolio. Your portfolio is proof that you have the skills that are needed to succeed in the industry. Without a portfolio, don’t even bother. I remember one South American guy asking me to train him to become a tattoo artist. And he said money is no problem. I told him that money is not an issue, just draw me a colored dragon and then a reaper. He came back after one week, and said he couldn’t draw a proper dragon or reaper. So end of story.

Once you have a portfolio to showcase your talents, you will need a mentor, someone who is willing to teach you the trade and share their secrets with you. Now this is the tricky thing, tattoo artists don’t like giving away their secrets. Simple reason is because many of them have been let down by their apprentices. Just take the case of my mentor. He has taken more than 20 people under his wings (all without any fee), but today only 3 of his graduates still "recognise" him as mentor. What happened to the rest? They have their own shops, but tell their customers that they can do the same quality of work as their mentor (also my mentor), but their prices are cheaper. So you know how much it hurts to be treated like my mentor? If you do find someone good, a real professional who is willing to tell you anything at all about the industry, then be grateful.

To train as a tattoo artist, you will need proper, high-quality equipment such as a precision tattoo machine, power supplies, shading equipment, needles, medical equipment and sanitation supplies. You will also need to know about cleanliness and what can and can’t be reused, as well as how to clean and sterilize your equipment. The popular professional tattoo artists are successful for a number of reasons, but mainly because they are clean and very talented.

You can succeed in the tattoo industry, but you will need to be talented, self-driven and dedicated. If you want to make lots of money as a tattoo artist, you are wasting your time. Become a tattoo artist because you love the art and love to create breath-taking pieces of body art. Be prepared to work for free and, most of all, if you get someone to stop and share a secret or two with you, take their advice. You will definitely need it.

What you do is you apprentice and work for a tattoo artist for very little pay. You do this so that he/she can take you under his/her wing and show you how to take your artistic skill and transfer it to the art that is called tattooing. If the master you're apprenticing for is good, then along the way you'll also learn about how to run a shop, what it takes to succeed, and what NOT to do...

How long does it take? Well...that depends on how fast you pick it up and how good your master is. It's not uncommon for tattoo artists to apprentice for more than one artist in their careers...and each apprenticeship can last for several years.

This is not to discourage you...but the guys on Miami Ink didn't just "decide" to become rock star tattoo artists one day. They scraped just to get by for many years before they became successful...and, chances are, you'll have to, too.

Get More information at http://tinyurl.com/mlsx4h

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