Photoshop Masters

[tdhine]

Just saw Paul Booth went off on photoshopped tattoos. People talk about this a lot but never really name names. Was just wondering who you guys think are some of the main culprits? Other than Niki Norberg! I’ll start the ball rolling with Karol Rybakowski...

https://www.instagram.com/karolrybakowski

He visits Hong Kong for the convention every year so I’ve seen his work at the show and also healed. He’s a talented artist, but like DC the work doesn’t hold up as a tattoo. And the photos he posts online, well, he’s definitely up to something on his laptop...

[DGreenwood]

The thing that sucks about photoshop is that it's made me cynical. Any time I see an amazing tattoo by someone I haven't heard of I instantly wonder if it's photoshopped.

One of my tricks to deal with this is to look through a feed for videos instead of just pics. It's much harder to manipulate videos than pictures. So if an artist isn't afraid to mix in some videos I assume they aren't manipulating their pictures too much (everybody plays around with the light and saturation a bit).

[Dominiccjs]

mechmaster mike did the same thing as well

[ThrobbingSausage]

So many of the heavyweights do it too, even though they don't need to.

[rufio]

and what about filters? not a huge fan of those either

[tdhine]

I think it’s certainly an unfair playing field. Say with Arlo, those images where it’s pitch black in the back and the tattoo is illuminated and vibrant AF. They look incredible when they pop up on IG. Then you have someone like Bez666, who will not make any changes to the photo at all. Not even the contrast, or fiddling with the brightness. If one day he decided to start shopping his work it would look crazy online. I think Brando Chiesa has taken it to another level with the image manipulation and he’s blown up huge. In a way you can’t blame them, but the ethics are certainly questionable.

[Mostincrediblyawesome]

Jordan Oterski does a lot of manipulation....makes me cynical about what his work is like in real life

[Dominiccjs]

someone on here also brought up that artist are now buying lenses for their phones on ebay that make a huge difference when taking photos of the tattoos.

[DGreenwood]

Paul Booth responds with the challenge below. I hope it takes off. It's like the ice bucket challenge except the artist posts a bunch of his own healed work and then challenge another artist to do the same. If they take the challenge, they post a bunch of their healed work and then challenge someone else.

From Paul Booth's instagram:

THE TRUE TATTOO CHALLENGE

6 tattoos / 6 months healed / 6 days straight

Intended for Tattoo Artists of any size or shape

Rules are simple: - Minimum age of healed tattoo is 6 months. - Absolutely no photo enhancing tolerated...
There is a fine line between "fixing" exposure for the sake of a proper photo to represent your art... and "over fixing" one to enhance or exaggerate said art. Any seasoned tattooer knows the difference. - Hashtag all 6 posts with #TrueTattooChallenge - Video posts ARE permitted - On Day 6, Challenge a friend

This is NOT intended to be a witchhunt. PLEASE don't start runnin around callin people out... there is no need for all kinds of hate and attacks flying around, just let changes happen organically. Patience.
This IS intended to educate the public with a bit of tattoo reality. We really need to get rid of all this false advertising running around and the best way to do that is to educate the masses.

The majority of the public out there really don't know that they are being fooled. They walk into tattoo shops, even your own for that matter, expecting and even demanding something that no Tattoo Artist in the world could possibly produce... not even yourself. So let's try keepin it real.

IMPORTANT NOTE:
There are many tattoo artists out there that travel extensively making it very difficult to get good pictures of healed work. If clients out there really want to do something nice for their artists, please make the time to send the best healed pics you can take, back to your artist! Most of the tattoos that we do on the road, we never get to actually see all healed up and settled in.

[tdhine]

Originally Posted by Dominiccjs

someone on here also brought up that artist are now buying lenses for their phones on ebay that make a huge difference when taking photos of the tattoos.

I saw that in New Zealand, the filter along with a light box. The photos look great, but with those guys the tattoos are brilliant as well, fresh as well as healed. The healed work I saw in the shop was mind-blowing.