Brisbane Tattoo artist blogs// Nerdy, Vegan, Pop Culture tattoos & art, blogging

Hello & Hi there! You've potentially been brought here by my recent post on Insta, showing mainly my copic marker portraits and illustrations from the year 2017 👴 (with some snapshots of me, my lifestyle and tattoo style at the time)

Essentially, to give perspective & lore on it all; from early on in my tattoo apprenticeships to then moving overseas for a brief while, I'd never done anything other than make crafted Art, Tattoo & Flash designs using ink, applied like watercolour on Arches card stock. So I knew no different up until that point

Whether it be the culture shock, language barrier or country specific nuance, I could not for the life of me in the Netherlands find Bleedproof Cardstock. Every time I went to paint the way I'd always done so in the past, all that prep and mental determination, I would go to apply my first strokes with my brush and everything would bleed into everything. There was nothing I could do to control the disperse.

Every art shop I went into in Amsterdam, just ended in frustration, ‘what the hell??’ Is all I could think .. I'd at this point seen what was trending otherwise in my niche on Instagram was a thing called 'Copic Markers', so I knew the copic paper was intentionally bleedproof so I potentially had a form of expression to explore that hadn't shit me to absolute tears yet.

The benefit of applying Ink like Watercolour on Arches Cardstock thus far for me, was that all I needed was the primary colours in Aerosol Ink, white tattoo ink & Sumi ink, and with those I would I basically had the entire colour wheel and every gradiation available at my fingertips. With Copic markers, each gradient and pin of the colour wheel would need it's very own marker ... Lé Sigh

So I thought, I'll just start with black and grey, as Copic Markers were (and still are) kinda expensive. So I got my first fistful of markers and that was me for a couple years there.

If you are brought here from my latest Insta post, you can see that there's evidence I was doing 1 for 1, stylised portraiture work and also freehand, illustrative studies/pieces using Copics.

Fast forward to present day; After all these years I finally got my own art space & living situation in which I can finally lock in again on my passions, use things I'd had minimised in my life over the last few years. Copic markers are amazing for studying & creating flow, re-affirming fundamentals (you can always go darker, but not often with this can you go lighter, so tread patiently and carefully). It's conceptual benefits are something that really click with my Inertia when I get into a flow state & I love it

I won't pull apart each piece, but I will say my first portrait was the Lemmy. I drew it the week he died, it was my catharsis. My first illustrative piece was the Link fighting Shadow Link.

I did my first reference board out of Australia and was super inspired for this one. I still look back on it with, 'Damn, I can't believe I did that, in one day on a flow state'. My only gripe with it is; obviously, Link fights Shadow Link in Ocarina of Time as an adult, not as a kid. I full blown drew it as Kid Link, which isn't lore accurate ... double Le Sigh

For posterity, I threw in some photos of me of the time as well. Honestly this time in my life was fucking nuts, I can't believe it happened .... STILL. to all my friends I still have from those days, I love you guys exponentially, I can't even begin to describe my affinity and bond with you all ❤️‍🔥

In saying, I partied a lot in these days. I was finally free, overseas, making great money from tattooing and having the greatest experiences of my life.

The very few tattoos I included in the referencing latest Insta post is to demonstrate my style at the time, there were these as well as many more on legends I love and the pieces themselves I also still love, but to close with some reflection on these included pieces;

-I wish I still had the non-stitched, original photo of the shark (thank you Ange for getting this piece from me as I'd just arrived in the country)

-Adventure Time was fucking popular at the time, I hadn't and still haven't really watched it 🤷🏻‍♂️ I just knew these concept would provide me visibility in the pop culture niche I was conceptualising at the time

-This is my first proper hand tattoo on one of my first proper dutch-living homie, Tessa. Really appreciate you & support friend 🙌🏻

Thank you to everyone who was a part of my life at this time I've reflected on here & thank you to everyone reading thus far

ILYSM <3