The rise of A.I. art reference (as it pertains to tattooing)

I'm going to preface this with the statement that this is absolutely not a gripe about how A.I. came to have the ability to do art. That is another subject for another time. Anyway...

There was a time not so long ago, when a client would come in for a consultation, and if they couldn't find exactly what they were looking for, they'd bring along their own art. Sometimes it was ultra basic circles, arrows and rectangles (basically, I want this in this circle, and this in that rectangle and something sprinkled in where the x's are) and sometimes it was a collage of photos, and sometimes fully completed paintings. At one point we had a shop folder of client drawings and it was the most awesome collection of ideas. Ideas that clients put a lot of thought into but didn't know how to explain. This is the wonder of art. It can be interpreted in so many different ways. It takes all of your inner emotion and puts it on display, even if it's not DaVinci's quality. I loved every minute of it! I still get them, but not as often.

What I get from my clients now is amazing. It's strange and beautiful in it's own way. It's given people who have never had an art class a way to set up an idea and present it to be easily tattooed. But this is the way people think who have never gotten a tattoo or don't know the limitations of the medium. Of course there are those artists who make absolute magic on the skin. There are still limits to what can be done to the scale and detail that are desired... and with that, a lot of very disappointed people due to the unrealistic expectations set by A.I. So keep an open mind as well.

A.I. doesn't know what makes or breaks a good tattoo. It's just making the image to your specifications. Translating that image from the computer to skin as flawless as it looks on your screen isn't always possible and often needs to be adapted to the medium. A.I. doesn't have to know what will make the image work for a tattoo. It doesn't have to concentrate on the flow of the design to compliment the body, but I do! If it gets the point across to me, that's what counts. It's my job to make sure you get a better understanding of how to turn that idea into a better tattoo.

If you can describe it to Chat GPT, you can describe it to me! I can take your idea and tell you what will work, what won't, what needs to be bigger (which is normally the biggest factor), and why. Then I'll make sure that whatever you get is going to look good, age well and flow with your body. That is my job!

Please don't feel like you have to use A.I. to present an idea to me. I was an artist before I ever picked up a tattoo machine. When I'm presented with an idea for a tattoo, my brain begins creating images as the person talks. In some cases, just by sitting and talking, we come up with personal symbolism and meaning that a client hadn't even thought of, creating something even more significant to the client. So the art input and the discussion can play well off of each other in this case.

I'm hesitant to use A.I. as a means to an end. I want to be able to help my clients capture that emotion and personal symbolism. My art is my passion. I love to create and share my art with clients, no matter the reference source. But I'd rather see what's in your head and heart rather than see what an image generator regurgitates. Either way, we'll make it work!