Talented tattoo artist David McKinlay, who runs the Archangel 1608 Tattoo Studio in Glasgow, Scotland, told Bored Panda about how artists improve their skills, why it's essential to constantly try to improve, and just how important your reputation is in the industry (spoiler warning: it's everything). Check out our full interview with David from Archangel 1608 below, Pandas. Especially if you're an artist yourself or have hopes to be one in the future!

David, from the Archangel 1608 Tattoo Studio, explained to us how artists develop the skills and confidence to ink other people.

"So an apprentice tattooist will start tattooing on themselves, then when they have good knowledge, on their friends or regular customers of the studio they work at.

From there, their mentors will decide when they are ready to actually tattoo properly on paying customers," he told Bored Panda.

"You need to be confident in your skills to be a good tattooist, as you can’t half-ass it. Every tattoo needs to be the best you can make it, so you need to be sure you can do that. A sign of a good tattooist though is sometimes passing on a design if you’re not feeling 100% about it," tattoo artist David pointed out that it's fair to understand and acknowledge your limits. Humility and dedication are key character traits to have here.

As in most things in life, it's important to put in consistent effort to get better and better, avoiding stagnation.

"As long as tattoo artists are constantly trying to improve and evolve, they’ll always get better—sometimes it’ll be fast, sometimes slow, but as long as you realize you can always go up a level, you will," David said.

"There are too many people that think once they’ve reached a certain level of success, that they no longer have to work hard or make any effort with their work. Nowadays, a lot of artists are quite open about their techniques and skills and are happy to share them. This is how we all get better—by sharing and learning from each other," the tattoo master told Bored Panda.

David, from the Glasgow-based Archangel 1608 Tattoo Studio, said that reputation is everything in the tattoo world. 

"You’re only as good as the last tattoo you’ve done, and if you’re putting out low-quality work, your business will suffer. If you have been doing poor tattoos, you need to work hard, keep your head down, and only take on tattoos you’re sure you can do well."

The ‘That’s It, I’m Inkshaming’ Facebook group is an online community that unites 283.3k members. Up from 243k members the last time Bored Panda wrote about them, the members of the group have been shaming ‘Actually Bad Tattoos’ since 2017.

Their goal is to make people laugh by showing how ‘truly awful’ some designs are, whether due to a lack of skill on the part of the artist or due to reasons beyond anyone’s understanding.

The team running the group makes it very clear what the community is and isn’t for. “If a tattoo isn't your personal style, you disagree with the placement (like if you say you like tattoos because you're super [effing] hip! But God forbid someone have a face tattoo!), if you're only posting for attention, or if you're trying to get validation for a tattoo on your body that you know is fine... This isn't the place for you,” they write.

“If you're triggered by skin, and think every post should conform to your CW's... This isn't the place for you. This is a place to post truly awful, [crappy] tattoos, and laugh at them together. Any subject matter is welcome, your content warnings are not.” But before you post anything, make sure that you understand the rules that members are asked to abide by.

Tattoo artist David, from the Archangel 1608 Tattoo Studio in Glasgow, Scotland, previously explained to Bored Panda how people can practice their skills in order to get better at inking others.

“Tattooists can practice on any number of things initially, to help them get the mechanics and techniques to tattoo properly,” he told us during an earlier interview. “You can buy synthetic skin, pig skin from a butcher’s, or even use fruit, such as oranges or lemons, bananas.”

Whatever the case might be, the artist noted that there’s really “no substitute for moving, breathing, sweating, bleeding human skin.” Sooner or later, all tattoo artists will have to practice on real people.

“The first 4 or 5 tattoos I ever did were on myself. It was a pretty severe learning curve, but I had to prove that I wanted the apprenticeship, and it let me see how the tattoos would heal up, and what I could do better,” David, from Glasgow, opened up about his own journey in the industry.

“You shouldn’t really be tattooing actual clients for a long time, but if you can persuade friends to let you once you’re ready, that’s great,” he shared his thoughts.

“Tattooing is a craft, a skill, and should be taught directly from one person to another,” David said that it isn’t enough to learn by watching “a YouTube video or [going to] a bs tattoo ‘school’ that only care about your money.”

The customers have to be completely confident about the tattoo they’re getting. A good artist will make sure that they don’t have doubts, big or small, about the design. That way, there are fewer regrets down the line. There’s a constant balance to be maintained between what the customer might want and what an artist can do.

“We’ll try to offer a compromise, but if the client is too rigid, we’ll point them in the direction of another artist. The client is only right in terms of what they like, not how the tattoo can actually be done or will end up looking,” tattoo artist David told Bored Panda.

“We won’t do any hateful tattoos—racist, homophonic, sectarian, etc. Those tattoos are bad news, but unfortunately, there are those that will still do them,” he said that artists should refuse to do tattoos like this.

“Sometimes, a client will sneeze, or move to answer their phone, meaning the tattoo has an extra line or detail,” the artist said that mistakes happen to everyone, sooner or later.

“The important thing is not to panic (and not to panic the client). Take a few minutes and work out how to deal with the mistake—maybe add an extra detail, darken up some shading. Nine times out of ten, you can correct an issue. Stay cool and work it out!”