Ask your artist, not AI, to design your tattoo

With AI at just a prompt and a click away, it's becoming more and more common for people to use it for all kind of tasks, including creating a tattoo design. If you're thinking of getting a first tattoo or adding to an existing collection, you may want to think twice before putting the effort, energy and sometimes even money into an AI design that is not suited to becoming a quality tattoo. A tattoo design is more than joining two images.

As an artist with over a decade of experience in tattooing and many more years in design and drawing, being asked to tattoo an AI-generated project is no fun. I'll tell you why.

1. We've made it so far without AI

   As mentioned, my experience in design goes back many years. Like all other tattoo artists who've made it so far, before AI, we used to draw, and we used Photoshop for our projects. We've grown our portfolios without AI and we sometimes designed projects based on only a few descriptive words from clients. I am not saying AI is not useful; it's definitely contributing to our lives. But when it comes to designing projects that are meant for transferring onto real skin, it still lacks many capabilities. Next time you're approaching a tattoo artist with a request to tattoo an AI-generated image, think about how many skills they've developed without AI and trust their ability to understand your idea without necessarily showing it in this way.

2. Tattoo designs generated with AI have many technical errors

   When an artist designs their project, they need to make many decisions. They take into consideration the body placement, your skin tone, the size of each element, the complexity of the final piece, and the possibility of transferring a certain image or element onto the skin. They design based on their style, skills and the level of detail they personally can achieve in tattooing. AI takes your prompt and transforms it into a dull image, sometimes too dense, sometimes unrealistically complex, adding information that is either unnecessary, impossible to capture in a tattoo, or even impossible to maintain on skin over time. A well-designed tattoo doesn't only look great; it needs to meet some technical requirements to make it stand out, heal well, and preserve its quality over time. AI fails at that and, for this reason, keep in mind that what you receive from a robot is not what you can get from a tattoo artist.

3. Managing unrealistic expectations

   When you attempt to design your own tattoo with AI, you're probably more likely to get stuck with a visual idea that is, most probably, technically impossible to execute. When this happens, you'll tend to go back to the artificial idea and this can lead to extra time spent by the artist trying to manage expectations instead of spending it creating something fresh and unique for you. A tattoo artist, instead, brings their own creativity and sets realistic expectations for the pieces they create. Be careful what you set your mind on. AI just mixes some existing ideas, but is incapable of coming up with original viewpoints. It's good to use it to see what you'd look like with a tattoo, or just to send the image as a reference to your chosen artist if you cannot find real tattoos to use as examples and if it's absolutely necessary (most probably it isn't).

   
   

4. Lack of emotional depth

   For me, this is the most important reason for not accepting tattooing AI-generated design projects I receive from potential clients. At the end of the day, AI is just a robot; it lacks emotion, it lacks human experience and the broader perception of life and art. It will give you back what you're asking of it, but not the emotional depth a human can put into such a form of body art. For me and my realism tattooing style, it is particularly important to design around emotions. Even the surrealist pieces.

5. Limiting your artist's creativity

   I always create my designs after a brainstorm with my clients, based on their stories and preferred style. Communication is key and it is only together that we can bring to life a piece that is truly unique and personal. AI cannot read your reaction or desires; it only executes. Using AI to create a tattoo project and sending it to your artist as a request limits the potential of creating something that is tailored to your story and emotions.

What to do instead of sending AI-generated images to your artist as a desired concept:

• Use your own words to describe the idea. No pressure to send the perfect text; just describe your idea briefly. I am a visual artist; I can easily picture what you're describing or think of a refined concept right on the spot. This allows me the freedom to create something new and truly unique for you.

• Send real tattoos as reference, whether from my portfolio or something you found online. It helps me better understand where we're heading, while keeping an open mind for an influx of creativity. Photos of real tattoos show what can actually be done on skin.

Let's connect and create your next tattoo together!