Do You Need to Have Drawing Skills?

Drawing skills are an advantage for sure when deciding to become a tattoo artist. However, just because you can draw it doesn’t mean that you’ll be great at producing tattoos on people’s bodies. 

There’s a difference between being good at drawing to being passionate about drawing. If you’re passionate about drawing you’ll want to learn and this is what you should do. Make sure that you’re practicing at every opportunity. 

Can I Become a Tattoo Artist if I Can’t Draw?

If you don’t have natural drawing talent but you have dreamt about being a tattoo artist, don’t despair. If you’re serious about doing this as a career you can learn to draw but you need to start simple. You should spend every spare minute you have practicing. 

This will require lots of sketchbooks where you can practice drawing patterns, shapes, and objects, even drawing designs of your own. You may find a niche that you have when practicing and honing your drawing skills.

Many tattoo artists only use stencils to do their tattooing or use other people’s art as inspiration to create a masterpiece. So don’t give up if this is what you want to do.

Start Simple

Even if you’re amazing at drawing it doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to tattoo a design onto a person’s body perfectly. Everyone needs to start somewhere and you should always start simple.

Start by doodling in your sketchbook and learning about drawing techniques. This will give you a better understanding of how designs are developed and how they will be applied to look great on skin. It will also help you to improve your line work and how to work on details of the design.

Practice, Practice, and Practice Again

The key to improving your drawing skills is practice. You should do this at every opportunity and you will start to understand your strengths and weaknesses. 

Exploring drawing techniques and methods will help you to understand how drawings begin and how they are improved upon. This gives you a great sense of where to start and how to develop a simple drawing into a work of art.

Take a look at the different art movements from over the years. This will help you to discover what styles are out there and which of these speak to you, giving you inspiration. It may be that you’re drawn to one style of art more than another, such as abstract art, or realistic drawings. 

One thing that you should do to improve your drawing skills is to check out the work of experienced tattoo artists. There’s nothing better than learning from the best. You could even spend some time with a professional tattoo artist to know where they started and how they improved along the way.

Other Skills Needed

Being a tattoo artist isn’t just about drawing, there are lots of other skills required. You should be creative and imaginative to be able to translate what the client wants into an actual tattoo. 

You also need to be patient and have great interpersonal skills. Your client will be relying on you to calm them and possibly inspire them.

Conclusion

If you decide that you want to be a tattoo artist but don’t have the best drawing skills, don’t worry. These can be easily improved with lots of passion and dedication.

We hope that we’ve answered your question and you’re looking forward to getting your sketchbook out.