www.SharpTattoos.com
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A little
background information about Me... |
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I started
life as Stacey Keys. I was an odd little girl, even though my parents
say otherwise. Maybe it was me, maybe it was other people, maybe it
was 8 years of Catholic schooling... but I never felt as if I was meant
to fit in. So, I drew. |
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Both
of my parents were artists so I started drawing when I was very young.
I drew on everything including furniture, walls, the street, myself
and my friends... (Do you know how many times I got lectured about ink
poisoning?) My mother was a great help in teaching me a lot of the basics
of art while my sisters encouraged me and my fathers constructive criticism
helped me to focus on what I was doing right as well as wrong. |
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When
I got to high school I took a few art classes here and there and then
entered a graphic arts program rather than strictly art classes (which
I could kick myself for now...) but it was fun and I had some great
experiences and cherish most of the memories. :) |
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After
graduation I needed to find something to do with my life... |
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Never
having any formal art training, and not wanting to go into a commercial
art field, I needed to find something to do that would let me reach
a wide audience, and still have personal freedom to do what I wanted.
Tattooing just sort of fell into my lap after I got my first one at
age 19. I was actually approached about tattooing in 1991 when I spent
about 8 months in Topeka Kansas. I don't know why I didn't go for it
then... |
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So,
I've been tattooing since February of '92. The first four years were
trial and error with a lot of common sense. In '96 I finally got a job
in a studio. Since then I've learned something from every artist that
I've worked with. I firmly believe that you never stop learning. There
is always something new that you'll disover each day. I must say that
my route to tattooing was not the best way to learn... nor was it the
easiest. At times, it was downright hell and I feel that I missed out
on a lot because of that. I could have learned much more much faster
had I taken a proper apprenticeship. It seemed like no artists in my
area were willing to put much faith in a female tattoo artist at the
time... |
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I
came to Long Island from the outskirts of Pittsburgh Pa (a little place
called McKeesport) in November of 1997 and since then I have worked
very hard and developed my skills dramatically on and off skin.. I worked
in Bayshore NY for 2 1/2 years before moving to Ink Alternative in Ronkonkoma
in May of 2000. In June of 2009 I moved to InkPulsive
where I am currently. :) |
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I
enjoy working with ink and flesh, but I also enjoy working with colored
pencil and marker and every so often I fiddle with digital/computer
artwork. I make all of the headers and graphics for this site... I'm
now trying to figure out simple animations. Sometimes I have been known
to paint, although not very often... but lately I've been fooling with
watercolors and acrylics just for the hell of it. :) |
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My
favorite subjects to work with are Fantasy and Nature, Faeries, Flowers,
Dragons, Animals and Birds although I do like a wide range of things
and am open to almost anything. I am always up for a challenge. Tattooing
can be stressfull at times, but most of the time it's rather fun and
relaxing for me. I zone out and let my hands go... and things happen.
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In
my spare time, I still draw on paper quite a bit. I'm always coming
up with new ideas and I love to collect images for ideas and inspiration
on the internet. Sometimes its nice to sit down and just create something
for myself. |
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I
am influenced by Artists and Tattoo Artists alike. My favorite tattoo
artists at the moment are Guy Aitchison, Jesse Smith, Kirk Alley, Nikko
Hurtado... and many more. I am heavily influenced by the Artwork of
traditional artists such as Boris Vallejo & Julie Bell, Alphonse
Mucha and Brian Froud. |
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Music
helps me to create and I like to listen to many different types depending
on what I'm working on. Of course, I'm not held in by borders... so
I listen to a fairly wide range of music. What I listen to depends on
what I'm doing at the time. I love everything from new age music to
classic rock, country, blues, jazz... industrial, techno and even some
metal... I'm fairly open. :D |
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This
website was originally created purely as an experiment. A client of
mine was supposed to build a website for me in exchange for work but
the deal fell through. So, I decided to take up this project on my own,
just to see if I could. I started out with a free page from angelfire.com
that lasted from March 21, 2002 to December 31, 2003. I had to learn
basic html and build the site manually. It was fairly confusing, but
it worked. |
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In
November 2003 I finally got my own domain here at SharpTattoos.com.
I used Dreamweaver to build this website, which is sort of cheating,
but hey... I'm not a webwizard... I'm an artist. |
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I
can be found: |
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All
images contained within this website are ©Stacey Sharp & Sharptattoos
2002-2012 Photos, artwork and icons are not to be used without permission. |
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