8 Tattoo Artists You Should Follow on Instagram

One profession that has benefited greatly from Instagram marketing is tattooing.  

I was talking to my tattoo artist during my last session about how Instagram has helped his business and he said it has been a great tool for him.  He said he gets appointments from followers a few times a month. 

As an Instagram user myself, I noticed how catchy it can be to follow artists.  For example, I got a tattoo on my leg and posted a picture with the caption “Thanks for my new piece @primm_!” From there, all of my followers saw his artwork and were able to click the tag and go to his Instagram and start following him if they liked his style.  I noticed that from that post, one of my followers ended up getting a tattoo by my artist.  It is a fun and creative way of marketing for these artists, it puts their work in front of people that they may have never had the opportunity to be in front of before. 

If you are a tattoo enthusiast, this is a great way to keep up with all the work done by the top artists in the business. 

Mashabel.com pointed out how most artist websites are very out of date.  They are hard to keep up with and take too much time to update.  Facebook helped artists share their work, but it is not consistent for followers to see the way Instagram is.  People are on their Instagram feed often and this makes the artist want to share their artwork on the daily.

Also, Mashabel.com brings up how it is interesting to see the actual process of a tattoo. 

“We can glimpse a tattoo's entire lifespan — from sketch to stencil to completion. It’s no longer about the high-resolution photograph of the finished product. One becomes a virtual voyeur to a painful and indelible process. If you’ve ever been tattooed, this brings the sense-memory racing back to you: the small cups of ink, the smell of the disinfectant soap, the whir of the machine, the blood and sweat.”

Here are 8 tattoo artists that you should follow on Instagram from Mashable.com:

1. @nikkohurtado

Style: Realism/Portraiture

Whenever I share Hurtado's work with someone, the usual response is: "That's a painting, that's not a tattoo!" Wrong. It's definitely a tattoo; though his amazing use of a broad color palette, mastery of realistic shading, and control of the tattoo machine does make his work look like it belongs in a museum.

2. @chueyquintanar

Style: Black and Grey

Quintanar is doing some of the best—if not the best—black and grey tattoos in the United States. With his West Coast lettering style and his intricately shaded portraits, you won’t mind overlooking the pictures of Travis Barker(whom he has tattooed extensively).

3. @thomashoopertattooing

Style: Blackwork/Dot-work

Hooper has taken mandalic patterns and sacred geometry to new heights with his refined ornamental work and intricate pointillism. His work is often large, sometimes dizzying, and always beautiful.

4. @horiyoshi3

Style: Japanese Traditional

If you don't know the name Horiyoshi III, you don't know anything about the Japanese tattoo. Horiyoshi III has been tattooing for more than 40 years. In his feed you’ll see not only the famous bodysuit work for which he's known, but a sense of the tradition he works in: fascinating antique photographs of Japanese tattooing, and Ukiyo-e woodblock prints from which the tattoos are derived.

5. @mrubendall and 6. @codonnell_nyc

Style: Japanese Contemporary

Rubendall and O'Donnell have a long history of working together in NYC and both have a deep passion for the traditions of Japanese iconography. They have also added their own modernizations, and inevitably "Americanized," twists to the genre. Rubendall and O’Donnell’s shading and gradation of color are complex without being overbearing; their choices are somehow rebellious yet respectful; and, most importantly, they both tattoo some really amazing skulls!

7. @whatsnottalike

Style: Pin-up/New School

These ain’t your average pin ups. If the size of Joe Capobianco's pompadour is a symbol of anything, it's that he's all about big curves. The hips and lips on these ladies are large and plump, and their chests are as robust as Capobianco's color palette. For pin ups that are cartoonish, more than a little naughty, and always beautifully executed, be sure to follow this account.

8. @philipszlosek_ka

Style: Americana

Skulls and anchors and daggers, oh my! If you pine for the "Good Ole Days" of tattooing, you need to tune into the work of Philip Szlosek. His lines are tight and crisp, he churns out flash sheets on a regular basis, and most of all, he breathes new life into the traditional tattoo iconography of panthers, gypsy girls and the like.

When I was 8 years old, my father bought a book called The Japanese Tattoo. It took me 20 more years to take the plunge to get one for myself and—after 100 hours beneath the needle—I haven’t regretted any of my decisions. That’s because I did my research and I did it the hard way: by walking into shops and flipping through hard-copy portfolios.

I’m envious of the next generation who can do their tattoo homework from an iPhone.

To add to Mashable.com’s list, here are a few of my favorite artists to follow:

@primm_

@justinhartmanart

@gordoncombs

Source: mashable.com