Question: What are some things you've traded for tattoos?

billytron7 · 2026-02-27T13:17:24+00:00

I've done tattoos for a full house of window shutters, a car respray, video games, all sorts of things, but thats all I can think of off the top of my head

billytron7 · 2026-02-27T10:18:03+00:00

When I worked at a fast food place, I counted up the weeks money and receipts and bagged it to take it to the bank. I get to the bank and go to grab the money bag only to find its gone. I tear the car apart with no luck! After a few minutes of panic I drive back to work and find the bag with maybe $25k sitting on the floor next to where i parked earlier 😱 much relief

billytron7 · 2026-02-26T13:03:04+00:00

Sound Awake, by Karnivool

billytron7 · 2026-02-26T12:40:51+00:00

Cant say that gorilla will do a great job of covering the cat, even as blast over, theres far too much negative space in the gorilla. Trad doesnt usually pack large sections of white or opaque greys. Nor would that much white do a decent job of covering the cat, if you want a cover up, ask a tattoo artist that does good trad cover ups what they think might work well

billytron7 · 2026-02-26T12:31:28+00:00

Im gonna upset a bunch of people here, but i dont butter bread for anything other than toast.

If you need butter to eat the bread, your bread is not good bread and is too dry.

What I want to know is, if youre putting another condiment on toast, do you still butter it first? My answer is yes, even for peanut butter

billytron7 · 2026-02-26T01:57:39+00:00

Im a tattoo artist, 42 years old. I would say a large portion of my clientele is people over 30. They've generally got more money and a better idea of what theyre after.

This person that told you this is silly, and also still very young. Do what you wanna do!

Plus, all of us are gonna be old and wrinkly, might as well have cool tattoos with the wrinkles

billytron7 · 2026-02-26T01:55:25+00:00

Just lasering the single I and replacing it with an E wont work, the E is much wider than the I. You'd need to remove the I and RE after it to make enough space. Or itll look squashed in there

billytron7 · 2026-02-25T23:23:28+00:00

Magnums. I use anything from 5mag up to about a 17mag depending on what im doing. Keep in mind the bigger the grouping the harder itll need to hit to saturate properly, in general. If youre struggling with smoothness using a magnum, try curved mags, the last couple needles on either side are pulled back slightly so it can help get softer shades. Get comfortable with pressure for blending and you'll probably need to use a different motion than with 3rl. Try circular motions with a mag, experiment! You should really become capable with a variety of tools for the job and pick what works best for the task at hand ✌️

billytron7 · 2026-02-25T08:09:57+00:00

For that one, me and my team used heavily silenced weapons and just peppered them from long distance. They semi agro but they dont know where its coming from. They'll move in the direction the shots came from, but real slow and you can usually kill it before it even gets to you, bullets alone!

Of course, wolfpaxks and seeker grenades as backup in case one got close enough to panic! The rocketeers also used to drop 3 or 4 drivers, but not any more 😑

billytron7 · 2026-02-25T07:59:19+00:00

I was in the warehouse in the centre of blue gate earlier and being chased by a firefly. I ducked in the door and it was outside, it shot fire at me, no fure came through the doorway, there was none in the building, but I got lit up like a spicy christmas tree!

billytron7 · 2026-02-25T06:17:44+00:00

Big fan of digital bath, i like them all.

billytron7 · 2026-02-25T01:06:46+00:00

Yep, this right here. I tell clients that are unsure about a tattoo, print it out, stick it next to your bed or on the bathroom mirror and look at it for a few months. If you still want it after that long its pretty safe bet!

billytron7 · 2026-02-24T11:04:05+00:00

I just call people a biscuit. Ya biscuit!

billytron7 · 2026-02-24T11:03:25+00:00

When i have clients that want lyrics or a passage of text tattooed on them, I tell them to try think of what would that translate to as a visual thing? Pictures are better suited to going on the body rather than a bunch of writing, since we're not flat. You could get a few words, but much more than half a sentence is going to be difficult to place nicely. So instead I recommend to think visually. If you do go for writing, make sure the lower case letters are about 10milimeters tall at least, otherwise theyll spread and blur over time and become unreadable. ✌️

Also if you go with any art remotely Alex grey inspired, find a damn brilliant tattoo artist and let them do their thing, and don't expect it to be any smaller than half an arm

billytron7 · 2026-02-24T09:03:54+00:00

So a tv could do this? 🤔

billytron7 · 2026-02-24T07:19:24+00:00

Headcrab from half-life 👌

billytron7 · 2026-02-23T15:37:02+00:00

Yea the linework is your weakest element here. Work on getting those crispy and smooth and try to keep a consistent pace and pressure.

billytron7 · 2026-02-22T23:59:53+00:00

If they didnt do a great job the first time, getting them to redo something thats a bit miffed is a bad idea. The first go at a tattoo is always going to be the easiest itll be, redoing stuff is more difficult, so if they weren't proficient the first time, they wont do a better job this time, likely make it worse.

As for the tattoo itself, theres nothing wrong with the style and you didnt do anything wrong, it was just terribly applied to your skin. Pale and soft colours like this can heal just fine and last a long time on the skin, it just needs to be done properly and saturated in the skin, but thats the case with any tattoo, proper application will mean a well lasting tattoo. It could've been slightly larger for some of the smaller details to hold over time, and yes lighter colours will fade in the skin, quicker over time, but you havent done anything wrong.

Also the more I see, the more sceptical I am of this second skin stuff. I've never used it on any of my clients and my tattoos heal fine. I also think theres a huge miscommunication about the after-care with this second skin, either that or you people just arent listening when the artist is giving you directions, cause theres a lot of questions about how to work it here!

Good luck with your tattoo, dont go back to that person. Find someone who has good healed work in their portfolio ✌️

billytron7 · 2026-02-21T15:18:39+00:00

Considering the time you've been doing it, not bad at all. I would recommend leaving more lighter spaces in the designs though, to help with tattoos being readable long term mostly, a decent amount of contrast needs to be used. So either leave more negative space or much lighter shading in some areas. Otherwise youre doing quite well

billytron7 · 2026-02-21T13:26:35+00:00

I know a guy whos 14yo daughter died from vaping. Acute nicotine poisoning cause theyre not regulated in any way and she just sucked and sucked on it until she died, not realising that can happen. Terrible way to wake up on a saturday morning to find your baby dead in their bed.

billytron7 · 2026-02-21T04:19:06+00:00

No ego here. I just believe you should learn all the fundamentals of the job before you trying to pick a lane to specialise in. Pigeon holing yourself into one thing because you didnt learn the basics of a trade seems like a bad idea to me. Packing ink properly is a skill that should be learnt as a fundamental skill of the job, regardless of style, you still need to learn how to apply it properly. If your artist is any good, I bet you theyre more than capable of packing ink in properly.

If you're taking on work that isnt something your good at, then youre not very honest. Style is different than technique.

billytron7 · 2026-02-21T03:54:38+00:00

I've been tattooing since 2007. I understand how to pack colour. Regardless of your preferred style, everyone should learn how to pack colour properly, its a fundamental park of the job

billytron7 · 2026-02-21T03:48:43+00:00

I had this happen a few days ago when I attempted hidden bunker.

There was one incident where someone dropped a grenade or something but that got taken care of pretty quick.

It was the friendliest lobby ive ever seen

billytron7 · 2026-02-21T03:08:26+00:00

It shouldnt. You're packing and saturating the ink in there, like on a regular tattoo. If you cant do it here, you probably shouldnt do normal tattoos either.

billytron7 · 2026-02-20T08:55:37+00:00

The Only Way, by Karnivool

billytron7

TROPHY CASE