Take Massive Action If You Wish to Get Good at Tattooing
A week ago, I did close to a hundred conceptual tattoo designs for several clients. I was sick as a dog. Literally, it was all I could do to get out of bed to do the designs. I gave it my best shot and somehow pulled it off.
The next day I went to the doctor. While I was there, I told her I was also having heart pains, so she ordered a cholesterol test. I got the results back Tuesday, and it was 256. And I’m a freaking 31 year old vegetarian!
Coincidentally, three days prior, I was reading an ad by one of the greatest copywriters of all time, Gary Bencivenga. In it, he talked about how a landmark study showed that if you had cholesterol levels below 150, you were virtually heart-attack proof.
So that’s my goal by the next checkup (2 months from now) I WILL have my cholesterol down to that level. Now here’s what’s instructive: when I want something, I do EVERYTHING in my willpower to achieve it. That’s the real secret behind my success with tattooing.
I’m a living, breathing example of massive action. So here’s what I did in this case to achieve my goal. First, I went back to my vegan diet, meaning I cut ALL animal products out of my diet, not just meat.
Second, I researched and found the foods that were considered the best for lowering cholesterol. A lot of sites said that oat bran, almonds, walnuts, blueberries, blackberries and flaxseed are all excellent.
So now for breakfast, here’s what I eat: organic oat bran cereal with ground flaxseed, mixed with almond slices, crushed walnuts, blueberries and blackberries in vanilla soy milk. And for dinner I eat the other major cholesterol reducers such as legumes, garlic, foods fortified with omega 3s and plant sterols/stanols, and black soybeans, etc. In addition, I make sure to get 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
We’re just starting…For a while my exercise routine fell to the wayside as I found myself working day and night producing conceptual designs, guiding several tattoo apprentices, in addition to further improving my own tattooing skills. Not anymore. The first thing I do in the morning when I wake up is exercise for 30 minutes.
And finally, I do a heavy dosage of NLP and hypnosis on myself as well. I do this because the mental mind controls the physical body tons more than most people realize. So I literally visualize my arteries in peak condition and my vital organs working perfectly and so forth.
When I want something, damn it, I don’t do one or two things to try to get it. I do everything in my willpower TO get it. When I talk to some of my tattoo apprentices, they will want something specific in developing their craft. Like, being able to draw beautiful flower tattoo art, for example.
I ask them what they are currently doing to improve their drawing skills. They usually list one or two things. And on expectation, those things are executed very poorly. If I wanted to be good at ,say, drawing delicate dragon tattoos, I would create a dragon design drawing schedule where first thing in the morning, that is what I would go through.
The thorough drawing schedule would take roughly 3-4 hours to execute, and would be 3-4 different tattooing techniques that I would use, and I would max out every different way to use them. That way, even if 90% of them may not be up to scratch, then I wouldn’t care, because the other 10% would be good enough to start with.
ANY improvement is better than no improvement!
When I wanted to learn how to create beautiful nature tattoos consistently, I approached it with the same tenacity. Fantasy style tattoos in 3 hours? Same tenacity. Able to produce quality tattoo shading in several hours or less? Same tenacity. Basically, you need to condition yourself to approach whatever you want in the art of tattooing with the same tenacity.
You know why most aspiring tattoo artists don’t succeed? It’s not because of lack of information. It’s not lack of opportunity. It’s not lack of skill. It’s not lack of time. They just don’t want it bad enough. How bad do you want it?
I remember when I first got bit by the tattooing bug. I was painting houses for $14 an hour and living with my dad in a tiny apartment. When I got exposed to the world of tattooing, here’s what I did. I would wake up two hours before work to devote time, just to learn how to tattoo. Then after painting houses all day, I would come home and work on my tattooing skills until bedtime.
Repeat the process
The next day I went to the doctor. While I was there, I told her I was also having heart pains, so she ordered a cholesterol test. I got the results back Tuesday, and it was 256. And I’m a freaking 31 year old vegetarian!
Coincidentally, three days prior, I was reading an ad by one of the greatest copywriters of all time, Gary Bencivenga. In it, he talked about how a landmark study showed that if you had cholesterol levels below 150, you were virtually heart-attack proof.
So that’s my goal by the next checkup (2 months from now) I WILL have my cholesterol down to that level. Now here’s what’s instructive: when I want something, I do EVERYTHING in my willpower to achieve it. That’s the real secret behind my success with tattooing.
I’m a living, breathing example of massive action. So here’s what I did in this case to achieve my goal. First, I went back to my vegan diet, meaning I cut ALL animal products out of my diet, not just meat.
Second, I researched and found the foods that were considered the best for lowering cholesterol. A lot of sites said that oat bran, almonds, walnuts, blueberries, blackberries and flaxseed are all excellent.
So now for breakfast, here’s what I eat: organic oat bran cereal with ground flaxseed, mixed with almond slices, crushed walnuts, blueberries and blackberries in vanilla soy milk. And for dinner I eat the other major cholesterol reducers such as legumes, garlic, foods fortified with omega 3s and plant sterols/stanols, and black soybeans, etc. In addition, I make sure to get 5 servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
We’re just starting…For a while my exercise routine fell to the wayside as I found myself working day and night producing conceptual designs, guiding several tattoo apprentices, in addition to further improving my own tattooing skills. Not anymore. The first thing I do in the morning when I wake up is exercise for 30 minutes.
And finally, I do a heavy dosage of NLP and hypnosis on myself as well. I do this because the mental mind controls the physical body tons more than most people realize. So I literally visualize my arteries in peak condition and my vital organs working perfectly and so forth.
When I want something, damn it, I don’t do one or two things to try to get it. I do everything in my willpower TO get it. When I talk to some of my tattoo apprentices, they will want something specific in developing their craft. Like, being able to draw beautiful flower tattoo art, for example.
I ask them what they are currently doing to improve their drawing skills. They usually list one or two things. And on expectation, those things are executed very poorly. If I wanted to be good at ,say, drawing delicate dragon tattoos, I would create a dragon design drawing schedule where first thing in the morning, that is what I would go through.
The thorough drawing schedule would take roughly 3-4 hours to execute, and would be 3-4 different tattooing techniques that I would use, and I would max out every different way to use them. That way, even if 90% of them may not be up to scratch, then I wouldn’t care, because the other 10% would be good enough to start with.
ANY improvement is better than no improvement!
When I wanted to learn how to create beautiful nature tattoos consistently, I approached it with the same tenacity. Fantasy style tattoos in 3 hours? Same tenacity. Able to produce quality tattoo shading in several hours or less? Same tenacity. Basically, you need to condition yourself to approach whatever you want in the art of tattooing with the same tenacity.
You know why most aspiring tattoo artists don’t succeed? It’s not because of lack of information. It’s not lack of opportunity. It’s not lack of skill. It’s not lack of time. They just don’t want it bad enough. How bad do you want it?
I remember when I first got bit by the tattooing bug. I was painting houses for $14 an hour and living with my dad in a tiny apartment. When I got exposed to the world of tattooing, here’s what I did. I would wake up two hours before work to devote time, just to learn how to tattoo. Then after painting houses all day, I would come home and work on my tattooing skills until bedtime.
Repeat the process
That was less than 24 months ago! And now look where I’m at. And I know you can do the same, if you want it bad enough. So today is the day where you sit down, and write down what tattooing skills or techniques you want more badly than anything, and when you will get it.
Then don’t just do one, two, three or four things to try to achieve those tattooing skills, but do everything in your willpower TO get them! Then after you become real good at those skills, send me a thank you card in the mail for being the person who kicked you in the butt to get you started down the right path to becoming a proper tattoo artist.
Then don’t just do one, two, three or four things to try to achieve those tattooing skills, but do everything in your willpower TO get them! Then after you become real good at those skills, send me a thank you card in the mail for being the person who kicked you in the butt to get you started down the right path to becoming a proper tattoo artist.