Tatted
I love tattoos..always have! Of course, when I wanted a tattoo as a teenager, my mom was like NAH. So, you know what I did? Went to my older brother, who was tattooing out of his apartment, and got a tiny tattoo, lol. SMDH. When I was 18, my family dropped me off at Dillard University, in New Orleans, for my freshman year of college, and what did I do within a matter of days? You guessed correctly, I got a tattoo, lol…but this time at a proper shop, that unfortunately didn’t reopen after Hurricane Katrina. Over the years, I’ve gotten a variety of tattoos, from a number of tattoo artist…some I love, others I plan to coverup, and a few somewhere in between.
Last year, I got a tattoo on my inner wrist, inspired by father who passed away at the end of 2018, and this inspired me to go for the half sleeve that I long wanted. However, I knew that none of the tattoo artists/shops I’d worked with before would suffice, so I did my research to find someone different…enter the super talented Alex Arzu!
Earlier in the year, I decided that I would complete the half-sleeve with Alex for my 35th birthday, but COVID had other plans. Long story short, I went in for my first session with Alex in the beginning of July, and last weekend, I went to get a touch up on the work he’d done in July, as well as to complete the sleeve, and I LOVE IT!
I’m currently at the ugly peeling phase of things, where my arm is itching, but I can’t scratch, lol, but I can’t wait for the peeling to come to an end, so I can enjoy my tattoo in all of it’s glory. I’ve had people reach out with questions, whenever I post about my tattoo(s), so I thought I’d answer the most common question I receive: What do I look for in an artist?
Is he or she Black? At this point in my life, I’m only going to Black tattoo artist.
Does he or she tattoo Black people? I’ve seen some talented tattoo artist on IG, but every person they post is not Black. I even got a tattoo by someone a few years back, who I thought did great work, but only realized after my tattoo was done that there weren’t any Black people in their artwork feed. While my tattoo is cool, it could be better, and I attribute that partially to the fact that the artist doesn’t do many Black people. I also noticed that he would post all of these tattoos, but he never posted mine on his social…that rubbed me wrong.
Is the tattooer artistic? This became really big for me when I got the tattoo on my inner wrist. I saw a lot of the tattooers work on IG, but I was under the impression that she was drawing the artwork she created, but when I went in for my tattoo did a lot of stenciling, and the piece didn’t come out as creative, as I wanted. I LOVE the fact that Alex, my current tattooer is an artist {you can see his work all over Houston}, who also tattoos.
Is he/she good with all black tattoos, especially the shading? As a dark skinned woman, I prefer all black tattoos. I’ve had color used before on a tattoo, and it faded, so anytime I am looking at the work of tattoo artist, I want to see how well their shading is on all black tattoos. Outline is one thing, but shading is where the magic happens.
What do people say about her/him? I won’t say read the reviews here, because what other people consider 5 stars, might be 3 stars to you, and getting a less than stellar tattoo is not the same as eating at a bad restaurant. Look to see what people you trust are saying about a tattoo artist. I have seen Alex’s work on several people I know, who were raving about and showing off his work, which spoke more to me than any reviews could.
Are they sanitary? I’ve never been to get a tattooer who wasn’t sanitary…wearing gloves, using fresh needles, wearing a mask, washing hands, etc., but if you walk into a tattoo shop or studio, and you notice that their sanitation is lacking in anyway, WALK OUT.
I don’t want to hold you too long, but these are the main things that I look for when looking for a tattoo artist. If you have additional tattoo questions, I’d love to answer them! Drop them in the comments, or send me an email.
