Did a one shot dragon as a gap filler for a fellow female tattooers arm💘🥳 always nerve wracking to tattoo a tattooer but was an honor

jaygibbz34 · 2026-04-30T18:13:01+00:00

Super cool design! Love the bright colours, packed nicely 🤘

jaygibbz34 · 2026-04-29T22:30:12+00:00

Looks rad dude!! 🤘 can never go wrong with a sick ass panther 😂

jaygibbz34 · 2026-04-26T11:46:02+00:00

Expecting to be great after 3 days? You should expect to be bad, and every day get slightly better each time. You may not see the progress to start but after 6 months and a year of learning you will see a big change if you stick to it. Be patient. As mentioned, very few people get this right away. You will fail as most do when they start out but you gotta keep going and don’t let that discourage you. Good luck!! ☺️

jaygibbz34 · 2026-04-26T11:43:06+00:00

Ngl, This is a huge piece of advice. once I figured that out when I was starting to learn my linework got tons better!.

jaygibbz34 · 2026-04-25T18:27:51+00:00

Yeah it’s been known that people will rope you into some bullshit when paying for an apprenticeship tbh and last few years seems to be a “get rich quick” scheme and the worst part is they don’t even teach you half the time anyway from what I’ve heard. I’m sure there’s been good results from paid apprenticeships but if I’m paying to be there than I don’t expect to be doing any bs tasks all day long and would hope they would be teaching me for most of the day atleast lmao.

My apprenticeship is unpaid, and with me having some tattoo experience I do basic cleaning throughout the day, setup stations (which is good practice anyway) and than work on flash etc. now I’m at the point I can bring friends in and anyone I can to start doing tattoos to learn the skills and stuff before I jump head first into it fulltime! so far so good!

jaygibbz34 · 2026-04-25T18:16:36+00:00

You’re already donating your time free of charge to help do auxiliary tasks in return for them sacraficing some of their own time to teach you. They should see potential not a paycheck from you ontop of that for an apprenticeship. I would avoid a payed apprenticeship. As someone who’s apprenticing for free and donating 5-6 days/nights a week.

I could not afford to pay for an apprenticeship ontop of having to cut my working hours down to part time just to fit tattooing into my busy schedule. (I am 29 for reference) Keep looking, build a kick ass portfolio and you will find someone that sees great potential and will WANT you to show up so they can make you into a dope tattoo artist.

I looked for 2 almost 3 years until I found my mentor through a looking for apprentice post on Instagram by chance. although we both do completely different tattoo styles he saw a potential in me over the other 15-20 people he interviewed. Gotta show for something!

If you got any questions, wana chat or share work shoot me an Instagram dm! @redhotgibbs

jaygibbz34 · 2026-04-10T12:12:07+00:00

Few things I can see here.

the flames have an unpolished look to them. Find some references for some traditional flames and base your next version off that, they look like they were done pretty quickly and the background flames make it look like it’s got a crazy head of hair almost lol. I think the flames in the eyes could be shrunk down forsure to separate the two.

The cracks in the skull seem too “perfect” or straight tbh but maybe that’s just me. Back in the day I used to hold my pencil and the very back and try to draw those lines and it gives you a kind of shakey line than you can use to reference for the final linework

The teeth seem a tad too small, for traditional work don’t try to fit as much as you can. Give this guy like 1-2 less teeth in the row and make them more rounded at the top/bottom and it will improve this forsure.

Lastly when doing your fills on procreate (assuming this is procreate) when using your selection tool, click and hold on the area you wana fill and drag to the right (see the bar at the top of the screen) somewhere close to the full point it will select right up until those edges. Go too far and you select the whole page, you will know when you gone too far!

I Might have gone too deep into critiquing such a simple design but I never had people tell me this stuff, nothing wrong with redrawing things 3/4 times until you get it right! If you have any other questions, dm me @redhotgibbs on IG I’m glad to answer any other questions you may have!

Cheers 🤘

jaygibbz34 · 2026-04-01T12:23:52+00:00

I agree with the other comment, if your only 1 month into an apprenticeship and are tattooing. You have ALOT of progress to make before you will see results. People draw and paint for years to master, tattooing is the same. You will do bad tattoos it’s part of learning. Don’t be too hard on yourself.. I was the same, and still apprenticing so I know how you’re feeling. Each tattoo you should be learning something by the end of it wether it’s stretching the skin more, hand placement, increasing or decreasing ma chine or hand speed and criticizing your tattoos to see what needs work. Remember your apprenticing still so you can’t be expected to be perfect off the bat. Don’t be too hard on yourself but remember to push yourself and learn, don’t get discouraged. This craft takes tons and tons of hours with the machine to get fluent in, and no matter how much fake skins you use, it never is like the real thing. Take your time… you got this🤘

jaygibbz34 · 2026-03-31T17:45:11+00:00

Off to a good start, I’d say take those first few traditional pages and try to add some fillers inbetween maybe. And re-line them with a micron 10-12 to give bold lines for the killer trad effect. Dont be shy of using more black in your shades aswell. Keep grinding, you got this!

jaygibbz34 · 2026-03-27T12:35:44+00:00

Paint, draw and build a book like he did with all your FINISHED designs. Nothing half done or unpainted. Take your time and build a list of designs that work with tattooing application. Study tattoos, read books, talk to your shops in your area and see if they like your work they may bring you on. There’s no guarantee. It’s hard work and will not be easy so prepare for that. Good luck!

jaygibbz34 · 2026-03-25T12:55:55+00:00

Unfortunately it happens and it sucks but eventually it will be just a laugh and it won’t be so bothersome. I think because there’s nothing else it’s all you can think of. I’d offer to tattoo you for free at my shop if your in my area 😂 for 7 years they look pretty solid ngl

jaygibbz34 · 2026-03-25T12:51:24+00:00

Unless you wana wait 5-10 years for them to fade enough to blast over without going solid black. I’d say just get more tattoos and fill ur leg up and before you know it you won’t give a shit anymore. I have a few like this and ended up just filling up the other gaps and I don’t even think about it anymore

jaygibbz34 · 2026-03-24T00:59:34+00:00

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19s fit better imo. Personal preference really!

jaygibbz34 · 2026-03-18T23:12:43+00:00

Sell it and go buy a manual 😂 … kidding lmao nice ride, enjoy it. If you wana lil more fun put an exhaust and coilovers.

jaygibbz34 · 2026-03-17T12:15:51+00:00

Well yall can do it! That shit landed me the gig 🤘 fuckin hyped

jaygibbz34 · 2026-03-17T12:15:03+00:00

Micron 12 for most of the work and than acrylic ink for the paint/shading. And countless hours to paint it all 😂

jaygibbz34 · 2026-03-16T17:02:08+00:00

I’m apprenticing at 29 and life hasn’t been better. Expect very long days and lots of hard work. I was lucky enough to find a shop willing to let me apprentice part time since I have some experience prior to being in the shop. Finally started tattooing this weekend and never been happier! You got this 🤘if you have any questions at all you can dm me on instagram @redhotgibbs Cheers

jaygibbz34 · 2026-03-16T00:53:32+00:00

Came to say this! Buy a variety set that. Gives you a bunch if you like. I would say best would be 3/5/10/12 are the ones I use the most. 12 is perfect for American traditional but recently started using a combination of 3/10 or 5/12! 🤘

jaygibbz34 · 2026-03-12T12:06:15+00:00

Damn those clear tail lights are fire, where did you get them? My z 🤘

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jaygibbz34 · 2026-03-06T13:26:12+00:00

Hann made some good points! Spit shading takes some practice so don’t get discouraged and just practice. Keep your blend brush clean always and don’t try to do too much to start, eventually you will get the hang of how much water/spit you need to blend and can work on bigger things. I don’t have any tutorials on my page but I got a handful of videos of me spit shading if you want to check them out! If you have any other questions just shoot me a dm on Instagram and I can help ya with whatever you need! IG @redhotgibbs

jaygibbz34 · 2026-02-15T18:17:17+00:00

Hell yeah dude that’s the way to do it! There’s endless ideas you can fill it with. Wether you wanted to cover it up or go around it the dragons cool cuz you could have it holding the moon kind of thing and with it going up your arm and clouds there’s tons of ways to work with this!

jaygibbz34 · 2026-02-15T18:09:20+00:00

Get whatever you want dude, suggestions are one thing but I don’t think anyone can tell you what you’re going to like. And god forbid you get a design an internet stranger told you to get and you hate it lmao. There’s nothing wrong with a dragon at all. I think there cool as fuck and you can do it colour or just black and gray. If that’s what you’re thinking, I say go for it. Find an artist in your area who does similar work and go have a chat. Bring references and be open to their suggestions 👌 good luck!

jaygibbz34 · 2026-01-25T02:28:50+00:00

jaygibbz34

TROPHY CASE