How I Design a Custom Tattoo: From Your Idea to the Final Design
So you sent in your tattoo request, made the deposit, picked your appointment date, and basically did all the things.
This is where my job starts.
How Do I create a custom Tattoo design?
After our consultation, I usually start working on your custom tattoo design somewhere between about a week and a day or two before your appointment. Depending on the tattoo, I’ll collect references, look at placement, sketch out ideas, and start figuring out how everything will work together.
Every tattoo is a little different. Sometimes I know exactly where I want to take a design. Other times, I have to sit with it for a while and let the idea develop.
And sometimes… I get frustrated.
I love drawing. But every artist runs into creative walls. Maybe the house is too noisy, maybe I’ve been staring at the same sketch for too long, or maybe my daughter has said, “Hey Mom,” for the umpteenth time in five minutes.
Really, take your pick.
But I especially love the moment when a tattoo design finally clicks. When something about it starts to resonate with me. Sometimes it’s because the design reminds me of a memory. Other times, it connects with something I’ve been interested in drawing lately.
A recent custom tattoo request did both.
I was asked to create a hummingbird tattoo.
And this is where I would love to cue some music to denote moving back into a childhood memory…
So hummingbirds are kinda amazing…
When I was a kid and I must have been young, but old enough to read and write with some proficiency, and apparently old enough to have a real need for a run-on sentence that started with “because”—we were asked to research an animal.
It could be any animal at all.
I knew what my choose was going to be:
A hummingbird.
In my young mind, these tiny creatures were the companions of fairies. They were delicate and magical and, to me, represented elegance at the highest possible level.
So I did my research.
I learned a whole bunch about hummingbirds. I learned so much that I don’t remember a single fact now, but at the time, I was absolutely convinced that I knew the ins and outs of hummingbirds. The rate of their flight, the speed of their wing flaps, probably every other hummingbird statistic you could possibly imagine.
Again, all terminology has been made up because I am reaching pretty far back into my memory here.
Eventually, it was time to make my poster.
I had my large poster board ready to go. I wielded my glue stick, stacks of research, and markers like Da Vinci, creating diagrams and laying out all of my very important hummingbird facts.
Then came the part where I needed to actually draw the hummingbird.
I pulled up some reference images. I looked back and forth between them, trying to capture the proportions of the wings and the length of the beak.
And I could feel this growing frustration in my stomach.
No matter how much I sketched or how hard I tried, I wasn’t happy with my hummingbird drawing.
Eventually, with my frustration still simmering, I printed out an image. With a lot of trepidation, I put my own drawing on the poster right alongside it.
I don’t remember many of the hummingbird facts anymore.
I don’t remember what the poster looked like.
But I still remember that feeling.
That burning frustration of knowing exactly what I wanted something to look like in my head, but not yet having the skills to make the thing in front of me match the picture in my mind.
Fast Forward to Becoming a Tattoo Artist
So when a hummingbird tattoo request came through recently, I’ll be honest:
I instantly felt that same little flicker of frustration from when I was a kid.
I was worried I was going to draw another sausage bird with wings.
Because apparently, even after all these years, that particular fear was still hanging around somewhere.
Needless to say, I suppose we don’t completely grow out of the same worries when we become adults.
We just hopefully collect some experience along the way.
This time, I collected quite a few references. I studied the shape and movement of the bird, worked through some different ideas, and eventually the design started to come together.
And honestly?
I really liked it.
Maybe a little too much.
I might have to create a few more hummingbird tattoo designs because, apparently, I still really like hummingbirds.
And they make for some really fun tattoos.
Designing Custom Tattoos in Manchester, CT
This is one of my favorite parts of being a tattoo artist in Manchester, Connecticut. Someone comes to me with an idea, a memory, a favorite animal, a piece of nature they love, or sometimes just something they think would make a cool tattoo.
Then I get to take that idea and figure out how to turn it into a tattoo that works for their body and their vision.
Custom tattoo design isn’t always a perfectly straight line from idea to finished drawing. Sometimes there are a lot of sketches, reference images, and moments of staring at a piece of paper wondering what on earth I’m doing.
But that’s part of the process.
Whether you’re looking for a small animal tattoo, botanical tattoo, nature-inspired tattoo, hummingbird tattoo, or another completely different custom idea, I love working with clients to create something personal and unique to them.
I tattoo at Wildwood Tattoos in Manchester, CT, and work with clients from Manchester and surrounding areas, including Tolland County, Vernon, South Windsor, Glastonbury, East Hartford, and beyond.
If you’ve been thinking about a custom tattoo but aren’t quite sure how to turn the idea in your head into an actual tattoo, that’s okay.
That’s where I come in.