There seems to be a number of traditional artists who feel that if they can create beautiful works on paper or canvas, they should be just as able to create beautiful tattoos. While that may be true for some, there are some major differences between tattooing someone's arm and painting on a canvas. This list of comparisons can help distinguish those differences.
5. The Media Moves
You can have a nice steady hold on a paint brush or charcoal pencil, but a tattoo machine vibrates so fast it can leave the artist's hand numb at the end of the day. A tattoo artist has to know how to create straight, even lines with a miniature jackhammer in their hands. They also have to know how to coordinate the machine with the use of a foot pedal and the dials on the power supply to deliver an even flow of ink. Even minute interruptions in the flow of electricity can throw off a smooth line.4. The "Canvas" Has Opinions
A traditional artist can draw or paint whatever they want, depending on their mood and how inspired they are feeling. If they want to draw a fish with legs eating mushrooms under a tree that grows socks, there's nothing to stop them from indulging their whims. A living canvas, however, gets to choose what the artist does and has an opinion on what they do or don't like. And that means that if the [i]client[/i] wants a fish with legs eating mushrooms under a tree that grows socks - no matter how weird it may be to the artist - that's what the customer gets.3. The "Canvas" Moves
When you paint on a canvas or draw on a piece of paper, there isn't any concern about either of them suddenly jerking or jumping under your hand while you're working. When a tattoo artist is working on a client they might suddenly cough, sneeze, jump in pain, decide to stretch, receive a phone call, or some other thing that makes the area being worked on move by inches. A tattoo artist has to be prepared for these unannounced changes and know how to handle them so that the art isn't ruined.2. Mistakes Aren't Erasable or Easily Covered
If a traditional artist makes a mistake, even if they can't erase it, there is usually some way to build on the mistake and create something over the error that essentially reverses it. A few extra lines here, another dab of color there and the mistake is no more. Not so with tattooing. If a tattoo artist's hand slips and they run a line in the wrong direction or they fill in an area with the wrong color, it can't just be re-worked on the spot. Instead, the tattoo has to have time to completely heal and then they might be able to re-work it a bit or make a significant change that causes the mistake to disappear, but the previous ink often still shows through and the error is sometimes still visible underneath the new layer of color.1. Colors Aren't "WYSIWYG" (What you See is What you Get)
Tattoo pigments - also called inks - look one way in the bottle, another way in the ink cap, another way when applied and then it all changes again once the tattoo is healed. Tattoo artists have to anticipate what the colors will actually look like once several layers of skin have healed over it, and this depends on each individual client's level of pigmentation. Lighter colors like white and yellow are particularly difficult to predict without a lot of prior experience with them and clients with different skin tones.
