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Heard a guy at a tattoo expo say stick and poke is just 'beginner stuff'
I was at a convention in Portland last Saturday and this dude with a full sleeve of machine work said stick and poke isn't real tattooing. I've been doing hand pokes for 3 years and my shading is cleaner than half the coils I see. Why do people treat a method like a skill level?
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faith_shah8815d agoMost Upvoted
Would you say the same thing about a guy who learned guitar on a $200 acoustic versus a guy who bought a $2,000 electric? The tool matters, but it doesn't make you a beginner. I get what you're saying about skill, but think about it this way - most machine artists put in thousands of hours learning to handle the weight and vibration of a coil or rotary. Hand poking skips that whole learning curve. It's like comparing someone who builds a house with a hammer and nails to someone who uses a nail gun. Both can build a solid house, but one method is a lot harder to master and takes more time. I'm not saying stick and poke is bad, I've seen some amazing work. But if you're going to charge the same price as a machine artist, you better have earned that respect through experience, not just a clean Instagram feed.
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Man, I feel you. Had a pro tell me my mandala was "cute for a beginner.
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blair_nguyen16d ago
Hearing that crap all the time. Ran into some old school shop guy at a convention last year who looked at my stick and poke work and asked if I was "practicing for the real thing." My dotwork is cleaner than most of the machine stuff I see on Instagram. It's like they can't see past the tool to the actual skill. Hand poking takes a totally different kind of control and patience. People just need to feel superior, man.
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