Brisbane Tattoo Artist Blogs // being the best, nerdy, pop culture tattoo artist doing gamer ink in Brisbane

Hey there! Thanks for stopping by to share a little of this cathartic, journal-style blogpost I'm about to lay down on this URL ✨

I recently shared on social media some pencil designs, studies, processes and sketchbook snapshots in my latest posted carousel. I’ll discuss and narrate these sketches on here before I drive my bias and purpose of point eventually via this blogpost, we start off with a focus on this first slide in this said carousel, a Servo skull from Warhammer ✏️

The first two slides of this carousel are actually both Warhammer (IYKYK), while I'd feel overpowered by my imposter syndrome by trying to explain the lore behind these designs, I'd rather share their lore as hand drawn design ideas I've created in my artistic journey & their results.

These are both for my client, Kira, as part of a planned coverup/beginnings of a leg sleeve, I'm very grateful to have the opportunity to colaborate with her in being the artist to bring these ideas to life.

Next up is a lil Resident Evil Heart Key with webs and lil' Spider I'd LOVE to tattoo.

This Resident Evil tattoo design could fit anywhere as a beautiful gap filler, we could tweak the perspective, angle, pose or type of key for any aspect of this design to fit almost any budget, placement and expression we want to achieve.

I hadn't posted it yet so I wanted it included in this carousel

The next few snaps are of my finger wave & Irezumi water studies. I think a sword is only effective when the blade is kept sharp. To bring a blade into battle, and not have it prepared leaves the impact weak

I use this analogy because when I have a client come to me and in our collaboration, we decide to utilise Irezumi elements (which I now always push for along with my illustrative process and aesthetic/style), I do these pencil studies to strengthen my understanding of Irezumi

This means creating the synapsis of flow to the design, the tonality, the saturation variants across each section. These few snaps I've included in my recent carousel (at the time of writing and posting this blogpost) are from my recently filled sketchbook, that are examples of the style I wish to emulate in my execution of Irezumi waves & water

I think for the path I'm on it is beyond important to practice hand crafted study of Irezumi whenever I can to keep the strongest foundations secure in my mind as I always aim for balance by using the rule of thirds every time I design & study for a tattoo session coming up with a client

The next few slides in this said carousel are of epic sci-fi themes (Alien & Dead Space specifically)

Before I get into these snaps of study & design, I wanna clarify something that happens abundantly to me in tattooing

Which is; people hit me up to get tattooed, their excitement drives the inspiration. Their inspiration drives my design, the design is a result of my preparation & execution. My preparation is that of process, which involves study and unpaid hours preparing

Outside of our peripherals, life blindsides the client. The tattoo is no longer exciting, it is a financial burden and an impossible achievement to justify, so they cancel.

From what happens once they cancel, I now have a design catered to someones taste who no longer wishes for that piece. The design goes on to exist only in a void, despite me advertising it as 'available'

*prepare for a sidequest in narrative*

I believe within my first decade of tattooing, I never felt bothered by these instances, as most importantly, I was going to make it as a tattooer, no matter what it took. I was playing 4D chess and ruthless in doing whatever it took to be a full time, successful tattooer.

I sided with narcissists and became one myself at times. Because if they were successful, not necessarily the good guys, that was who I needed to side with. High tide raises all ships, the Marina I chose to metaphorically dock in was that of one filled with career driven 'professionals' that rolled in packs, those packs either saw you as an ally or in the way

My post COVID epiphany that redirected my life (and pulled my away completely from the ones I once sided with) drove me to become what I believe is an actual artist, that ethically drives their artisan craft, despite the sacrifice

My sacrament to become my new goal of what I believe it is to be a man of integrity in the worlds of arts I exist in. Which is to stay on the path I believe is right & genuine, at all costs. It doesn't necessarily keep me in the public eye, or busy in comparison to other full time tattooers, it doesn't keep me as someone that an employer can profit from or as an artist that others necessarily want in their fold ... but it keeps my intention pure, genuine and authentic, which is more valuable to me than the path I was on in my first decade as a full time tattooer

The way in which I used to operate wasn't sustainable, but it was profitable to those around me. I kept a very tunnel vision, 'eyes-on-the-prize' approach, because I had to stay busy in tattooing at all costs, no matter the neglect left in the wake

Which brings me back to the original macguffin of this blogpost and where I left off before I went on this sidequest of a tangent; my snaps of my recently posted carousel on Insta and where were up to on that, which is my sketches and study of Alien & Dead Space

What I mentioned just prior of circumstances where the enquiry for a tattoo turns from that of excitement & attainment, to that of burden and abandonment, is what happened with this studied for Alien Facehugger & Egg sketches

We were going to do a fucking cool piece on this 'clients' arm of the egg bursting a facehugger. It would have been super complementary to the placement, as well as very dynamic and illustrative in it's design of which I was hoping to half freehand, half stencil, going off of these Copic & pencil sketches of the facehugger & egg shown in this carousel

Alas, it was cancelled and abandoned. Which is also what brings me to highlight another reason why I prepare the way I do

Tattooing is no longer profitable for me, I re invest EVERYTHING made in tattooing, back into my tattooing. I make my money outside of tattooing and keep tattooing pure for what I believe is to have a healthy relationship with my passion of expression that tattooing has become for me

Instead of preparing designs manically from the clients references, I now only take on work that is custom, suited to my style and that of which I will upskill within preparing for the designs

I believe now my relationship with tattooing is healthier than it's ever been. I think there is room in my life to promote myself better as an artist to be busier tattooing, but for now I'm just not there yet

The day may come when I'm editing reels in pursuit of what is trending on algorithms, but for now I'm firmly stuck in developing synapsis and inertia as an artist, so with everything I draw, illustrate and design, I am learning from as I go

This way my expression is always genuine, my result is always authentic, nothing is ever truly abandoned, as it's all for betterment of me as an artist

Which brings us to the end of describing each slide in this recent Insta-posted carousel. The last two are one of me, the other of a Dead Space sketch/concept

I love the idea of differentiation in designs, so this Crawler of Dead Space concept was drawn as a way I believe would work beautifully into someones growing black and grey, tattoo collection with an emphasis on bio-mech, horror aesthetic with foreground to background working element that is super complimentary

The last slide is that of my new 2026 addiction (I’ve truely never had energy drinks before), it seemed important to include as it’s fueled a lot of what you see posted in this spoken of recently posted Insta carousel.

More importanlty though is the second last in this carousel, is a selfie I took after I finished filling my lil sketchbook. After years of mostly drawing digitally, I came to understand I'd damaged my concept of perspective through my work habits

To amend this, I've been on a mission to rewire my synapsis and rebuild my artisan inertia through drawing everything small, in proportion and freehand/from scratch

Holding this completed sketchbook is my first huge win in this journey of upskill in my role as an artist. It is proof I'm not all talk and a man of my word, it is examples of physical achievement and execution, it's a piece of armour that helps me heal from scathing criticisms and banishment from people I once looked up to & worked alongside.

I felt this moment was worth the photo and worth sharing these accompanying sketches, studies and pencil works as testament to the journey so far since I decided this was how I was going to operate

I'm going to share a more full journey through what's actually in the sketchbook, similar to how I did with my Gray's Anatomy sketches, which I'll hopefully have posted on my socials within the next week

For now, thank you for joining me this far, it's massively appreciated

I wanna finish on a highlight of a term which I believe best describes my reasons for working they way I do now    

That is of Shitification

Shitification is a De-evolution of humans. It is a result of what many now normalise, which is to ignore the stigma of stolen valour, take shortcuts wherever and whenever possible without ever actually skill developing

Shitification is our steps back in progress and it is writhe in the field of 'artists'

I think damning AI as a whole is ignorant, but I think mudslinging on AI slop is important and accurate. Too many people wanna be an artist, but don't want to actually do the work themselves, they wanna cash out in any way possible

Accountability seems to be a foreign concept to them and ignorance is their only consistent trait

It's been sick in the head the hours and money I've put into my hobby & passion in music over the passed 4-5 years, but I wouldn't take back a second of it

I've never produced or participated in AI music or avoiding standard. I've nearly broken myself several times just so I could stay in a room of musicians and constantly be honing my craft

It's hard to take pride in this things when you are in it, but all my greatest moments in hindsight are that of earning my accomplishments and upskilling authentically.

I've had a lot of setbacks in music (way more than wins), but recently I had the biggest win I've maybe ever had in my whole life

I'll shed more light on that soon as it's all still new and transpiring, but the happiest moment of my life happened very recently and it didn't happen because of narcissism as an artist or taking shortcuts using AI slop, it happened because I kept concessions with my peers and played the long game

It's been an amazing reminder for me to stay on the right path and that I'm doing good

I can't wait to share more on that, but for now thank you immensely for reading this far

I appreciate you <3

Catch up soon,

-Loughie :)