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Hey, welcome to the Fireside Tattoo podcast! The official - looking down like have to read that-
Welcome to the - Welcome to Fireside podcast. My name is Jake, I'm the host back here in Memphis,
Tennessee. Get some - you alright you? I want to uh, I want to get a little
business out of the way first. Make sure to go to "tattooimprovement.com" see our newly
designed website. It's set up where you can search up in the top and say "I want to see
an episode, or I want to know everything they've ever said about blah de blah,
this person." You search it and pops right up. Like we talked about him in a blog in this thing,
and we interviewed him in this one. You can see all that stuff. You can also sign up for
our newsletter while you're there. Find out where we're going to be. We had every intention of being
at Space City in a couple of weeks, but it looks like we have a conflict of schedule. So we're
not gonna make it down to Huntsville, but we are booked, we're on the roster for Hell City Phoenix,
not Columbus but Phoenix. Excited about that, be tattooing - I will be tattoo in there, alongside
my buddy Todd Pelota. We will be podcasting as well somewhere, somewhere at the event,
I don't know exactly where yet ,and we don't know exactly with who. But we have some months
to figure that out. We also have um, will this be out before the Dan Marshall workshop? I'm gonna
say it anyways, on April - probably the week, the week after this comes out. April the 10th through
12th Dan Marshall, who was - who we interviewed back in last April, in Venice. Will be in Memphis
doing a plain air painting workshop, we still have some spaces available. You should definitely make
your way out to Memphis hangout and paint with me, with Dan, and with some other tattooers, and
some painters. What else, Nick Baxter is coming to do a one day still like painting workshop,
in July - July the 30th, I think. We don't have the sign up on the website just yet on that
one, it is a little bit early, but if you want to email me for details, jake@firesidetats.com,
we haven't changed that over, it's still fireside tats.com, you can - you can email me and I'll let
you know, or put you on the list, so that you have a spot. I don't have a price on it, it's
only one day so I'm sure it's super affordable. Is that it? That all the business, follow us on
Instagram and Facebook. So I spent last week, in Toronto Canada. Was my first trip super cool town,
really tall buildings really friendly people. Only like 48 people were murdered there last
year. Did you hear that Shawn? 48 people there, over five times the size of Memphis.
We lost 48 people since I've been podcasting, in Memphis right, just now 48 people have died. They
lost 48 people in a whole year, it's crazy! It's because they're all so nice. But anyways,
that's not the point of the show. The point of the show is ,I was there I was in a workshop,
with a group of guys and girls, that were really kind of - high level thinkers, obviously if was
I was there. Really kind of high level thinkers, and people that are kind of challenging their own
industries, um you know, challenging their own ideas, challenging each other's ideas,
and really trying to grow - both professionally and personally. And they're all you know, in a
much bigger tax bracket than I am, and working in probably much bigger industries than tattooing.
But I left they're pretty inspired, and thinking a lot about, just about what we, do and things like
that. Particularly expanding tattooing, expanding it from an artistic standpoint, not so much on
the trade side. Thinking about it from different perspectives. I left there the next day, I went to
the Toronto Art Museum, I guess, I forget what it's called, but it's massive, you know? I've
always had the problem when I go in museums, of feeling I like I have to walk up to every painting
or drawing, or whatever, and like analyze it. It's overwhelming I get anxious at museums,
because sometimes I don't have any reaction at all to the paintings, or drawings, but I'm trying
to find something in them. I feel like I need to stop and look at them, like maybe someone's
judging me based on how long I stand in front of the painting. I don't know the - I have no reason
for it. But I took a different approach this time, I walked into a room - I think you should try this
in your local galleries, Museum - I walked into a room, kind of not focused on anything, and I just
waited for something to grab my eye from across the room. You know how we're always talking about,
working from general to specific, or I talk a lot about shapes and values and having a
dynamic composition, and all that. So I was like, well I'm always encouraging people to
approach drawings that way. Shouldn't I look for what draws my attention? So that's what I would
do. I would walk into a room and I would look and if
something grab my attention, I would walk up to it, and I would try to figure out what
about it grab my attention. Like why would I, why did I see that from across the room,
when there were fifteen other paintings, master paintings or drawings in the room with it. And
sometimes it's something as simple as like, scale, you know. Size, whatever. Most often for me it had
a lot to do with strong areas of contrast. I would say it had a lot to do with better draftsmanship,
but I did it in every room, you know museums they break it up into like an abstract area, or you're
early European area, or a masters kind of area. I noticed it even in the abstract areas, which
I you know, typically don't spend a lot of time in. I walked into those rooms and it was typically
strong contrast, and really clear shapes that drew me in, and then as I got closer I would pay
more attention to subtlety. So when I would get closer, if it was just a strong concept contrast
in simple shape I lost interest pretty quickly. But if it used say opaque pigments against like,
really translucent areas. Or if it used really like fuzzy atmospheric perspective that's
something really strong in the foreground, the Masters really did a great job of that.
There were a handful Rembrandt's at this place, that were, I forget. A lot of - there
were a lot of master paintings. So it got me thinking, about what it is that draws me in,
and then what I can do to reproduce those things. Both in painting, drawing, and in tattooing,
particularly in tattooing. And then I think a lot of it goes back to the principles that we
talk about all the time, the principles that we teach in our foundations program. But, for
whatever reason there it's still a little bit of a disconnect, I think, we in tattooing in general,
and this kind of fundamental art approach. I don't have a - I don't have a great explanation as to
why. I'm sure you guys can hear that airplane that just grassed my house. I don't have a great
explanation as to why, other than I feel like a lot of times we get so caught up in the day-to-day
of, going to work in doing tattoos, and drawing for tattoos, and this approach always works,
because I've been doing it all this time. That we, that we neglect to really step back,
look at what we're doing, question why we're doing it. A great example is the Dan
Marshal workshop that's coming up in a couple of weeks. I took it - I took flyers to the local
tattoo shops. We scheduled it to be tattoo friendly, it's on Monday through Wednesday,
so it doesn't affect with people's weekend tattooing. Dan Marshall was a great tattooer,
and he brings a lot of that too a lot of tattoo experience to his
watercolor painting. I could tell - not to talk down about anyone here in Memphis,
anything Memphis tattooers - I could tell when I handed some of the flyers out. That they didn't
even consider it, it wasn't even a question. It was just "oh that's cool. Oh that's awesome,
good for you that you're doing that." Obviously these people could benefit, anyone can benefit
from stepping outside of their safe zone. I've never painted in watercolor, and I'm going to buy
watercolor stuff to do this workshop. Obviously people can benefit from stepping out of their
safe zone, but you get so caught up working in that safe zone, that you rarely step back,
you rarely expand what you're doing, or at least not at the rate that you could. You
might make incremental improvements from time to time. But handling another medium, getting
completely out of your comfort zone, uh escalates that, it really, really speeds that stuff up. So
going back to the museum, I was thinking about, you know, how artists were handling paints how
they were handling using really muted - how their palette was. They also use really muted
tones and really bold and bright high key colors, and things like that. I realized
that none of these things would have stood out to me five years ago, because I was a
tattooer. I was just a tattooer. I didn't go to workshops, I didn't go to drawing groups,
I didn't get in the studio and draw from life. I didn't do any of that stuff, because I had a job,
and it was tattooing, and when I left tattooing the last thing I wanted to do was think about
drawing, again. Because if I was gonna sit down and draw something on my own, it would just
be another stupid tattoo. So it wasn't until I stepped out, and I went to a Casey Ball workshop.
And I learned, how he limits his color palette. I had translated that a dozen times, you guys have
seen it in technique episodes, you've seen it in any -if you've been through find your style.
You've seen his - my interpretation of his color palette, in everything we do. It's something that
spoke to me, that if I hadn't spent the money, gone, and done it. Would have never not only
benefited me, benefited in Fireside Tattooed Network benefited anyone that's watched any of
it. Jeff Hein using really - I went to Jeff Hein workshop - he uses very straight bits of pigment,
rather than mixing a lot on the , on the palette, he mixes a lot directly on the canvas.
He introduced me to the idea that something should look good from three inche,s three
fee,t and thirty feet. You guys have heard me say that a hundred times. So as I'm walking through
this museum, I'm thinking the entire time, like everything that I appreciate now literally from
an artistic standpoint, from a tattoo standpoint, from the things that I'm interpreting and teaching
to you guys, has come from me stepping out of my comfort zone, and putting myself out there.
Seeing what - seeing what stuck. I listen to a ton of stuff, 10% of it's stuck and I've found a way
to interpret it, I'm continuing to find a way to interpret it, and reintroduce it in my own way.
Reintroduce it in my own work, through technique videos and anything else. So, and I know the same
things going to happen in this Marshall workshop. Whenever I've finished a three-day workshop with
Dan, I have no doubt that something from that will end up in some of our programs. Not that
I'm stealing people's information, you just can't invent new stuff by doing the same thing all the
time. You have to get fresh input and it's frustrating to me, I guess - that you know,
that we bring something like a workshop like Dan's here, and I hand fliers out to people that I know
can benefit from it ,no doubt can benefit from it. All that I'm asking is they invest a little
bit in themselves, very small amount of money, and three days out of their week, to really do
something that will step up their level of work for the rest of their lives. It may not be direct
but the income that they generate from the ideas they get at workshops like these, will pay itself
back countless times over a where this workshop is two or three hundred bucks. So, I just hate to see
people that I care about, and people that I know can do more, just keep going through the grind
every single day, and not - and they neglect to invest in themselves. It doesn't just end with
that, you know. We've been putting our foundations course, where we're running
Facebook Ads for trying to get people to think about tattooing from a real kind of draftsmen
perspective. From a perspective of simplifying shapes making sense out of those shapes,
solving all the problems on the front end so your tattoos don't end up all jumbled. Well,
the immediate kickback response from seasoned tattooers, is great now everyone would walk up
to my shop is going to think there a tattooer. Now everyone's going to try to get in on this.
Like it's this protectionist kind of attitude. It's not like I'm trying to teach people how to
set up their machines, and do tattoos. We're trying to teach people how to be responsible
artists. This thing has elevated, tattooing is elevated. It's not just a trade anymore,
you can't get away with not being able to draw. You're doing yourself
a disservice, and you're doing your clientele disservice, and you're doing the whole industry
a disservice, so you know. I know a lot of people internet, "internet trolls" and I want to get too
far into that, we talked about it a little bit a few episodes ago. I have made a point,
whenever I see some of these really kind of blow it off comments, like oh you don't need to be
teaching drawing to tattooers. Or you don't need to be teaching tattooing. I have scoped them out,
gone and looked on their profiles, and without fail. Not one single time has anyone made that
comment that they draw. Not once. Everyone that's making these comments, I go to their
page and they lack fundamental drawing skills. Not a single exception. It's crazy, it's frustrating
because they need it. It's this protectionist attitude of like, let's shut this thing back down,
because it's getting too competitive for me, and I'm afraid to work. I'm afraid to put in
the work. I'm afraid to put myself out there. I want to keep doing what I've always done,
and I can get away with it. I don't want anyone coming in and challenging me because they can
draw better than me. It's what - like we were just saying- it's what cab companies are doing Uber,
it's what the Hilton does to Airbnb. It's what everyone does that is in an old guard,
that is intimidated, or threatened by bigger and better ideas being introduced into their industry.
And in the problem with it is, in this industry, is that it's not an option to shrink it down.
This industry is too big now. I mean it's getting bigger by the day. I mean in the future tattooing
will it shrink back in on itself at some point? Probably so, but the growth that comes from it,
the artistic growth in particular that comes from it, will not go away. We've set a bar in
the quality of tattoos, that whenever tattooing and its popularity dies back down, if it ever
does. That bar doesn't drop. You drop, because you didn't put in work to get up to the bar.
I didn't mean for this to turn into anything negative, that was that, wasn't really my point.
My point was, it was just to encourage you, to do something different. To step away from the
tattoo machine, put that [ __ ] tattoo machine down. Take a week of,f take a painting workshop,
go to - if you can't afford it, go to a free drawing group. You know, I understand a lot of
us are struggling being full-time artist. But you know, the full-time artist that put the work in,
that and reinvest in themselves, that take that time to get away, and introduce a new idea - or
find new ideas to introduce to themselves. They don't end up broke for very long,
because they grow, and their clientele recognizes it. And they demand a premium for what they do,
because they've invested in themselves. It all comes back, it all comes back around. So,
I think I'm going to leave it at that. If I offended anyone,
Ahh, I don't care anymore. It doesn't matter. Thank you guys! And we will see you next time.