Haters gonna hate

About a week ago a disgruntled former client had some words to say about my work. I tattooed his wife (god only knows how long ago) and apparently she was unhappy with the work. Instead of saying something at the time, or even coming back after the tattoo healed for a free touch up, she went to another artist and paid full price to get the tattoo "fixed". From what I understand, all it needed was minor work on some fallen out color and a thin outline. Pretty basic and routine thing. Touch ups are going to be needed, thats why they are free. Even the greatest tattoo artists need to touch up their work from time to time and there is absolutely no shame in that what so ever. However as the story goes, however long it has been since I tattooed the girl, could be months, could be years for all I remember, her husband decides to comment on a photo of a tattoo I posted and not only critique it, but say things like "you'll get there one day". Not only is he not a tattoo artist, but not even an artist or craftsman, he also has no idea that "getting there" is not something I need to be worrying about these days. And any one who has been waiting for their appointment to get tattooed by me for the past few months can agree with me. Someone who is doing "test ink" wont have a 3 month waiting list, be listed as featured artists at conventions around the country, be put in magazines, have interviews, and last but not least be sponsored by the best ink company in the industry who also asked me to do a video talking about their product. I have still have a long ways to go and am by no means perfect or the best. There are so many great artists out there who blow my work out of the water and I still have plenty of learning to do from them. Those are the guys I will gladly take a harsh critique from. Not some nobody who has no idea what he's talking about and has no place to saying anything. All of this brings me to another point. Recently a friend of mine has had a hater do much worse than what my hater did to me. Another tattooer posted a lengthy rant about Travis Brown's work ethic and approach to tattooing. I've been following Travis' work for a while and he is nothing but a spectacular artist and craftsman. He's constantly traveling, doing new things and meeting new people to better himself. Kelly Miller, a Salt Lake City native, had a sour reaction when Travis won tattoo of the day at a SLC convention. Miller went on facebook to talk about how Travis isn't an artist because his award winning tattoo was stenciled on instead of freehanded with markers directly on the skin, along with other nonsense that couldnt be farther from the truth. I dont know Kelly Miller or his work other than the few things I saw on Facebook and my opinion is nothing other than Kelly Miller is a jealous tattooer because he's much older, probably has been tattooing as long as Travis has been alive, and Travis' work is more appealing and better. His work is cleaner, bolder, smoother and over all kick ass-ier. Travis if you are reading this, I love you and your work. I'm proud to say I know you and always look forward to seeing you amongst our travels. If you want to read Kelly Miller's rant, you can see if here https://www.facebook.com/KellyMillerSLC?ref=ts&fref=ts

2012

Haven't posted anything here in a real long time. Mainly because I'm not a blogger at hear. A lot of it has to do with instagram being a new blogging instrument at my fingertips. I mainly post photos on here and instragram gets them first. But not this time. I finally made myself a hard cover portfolio. I was unsure about doing this for a while because I tend to swap out photos regularly out of my album. I figured now was a good time to gather some of my favorite tattoos I completed last year and throw them into a final portfolio. I plan to do this every year. Or maybe every 6 months depending on how much work I get that I actually like.

New website a coming

A good friend of mine, Marcus Lewis of Variety Studios and VSMarcusLewis is making me a new website. Its going to be much simpler to navigate a whole lot nicer to look at. The link will still be www.matttruiano.com. Hopefully my email will stay the same as well. Until Then I'll be working with Maddy Black from Absolute Blackout in designing some new tshirts. Heres a rough of the party shirts.

The Online Printing Authority

News and updates

A few weekends ago I attended/worked at Inked Out New Jersey tattoo convention. I've worked conventions before, but this one brought a whole new level of satisfaction. Previous conventions were lesser known with tattooers of mediocre to subpar capabilities. Inked Out NJ was booth after booth of extremely talented artists and old timers who have been in the business since the 40's. I made a few new friends, and some good connections. Paul Gambino, editor of Skin And Ink Magazine, approached me before the doors opened and asked me to tattoo him as well as talked about putting me and my shop in the magazine. It was a great experience, but the beginning of hopefully greater experiences. Starting Jan 2012 I will be traveling a lot. Miami, DC, Philly, Mass, just to name a few. I'll keep updates on my travels. And if you are in the areas I'll be, send me an email at matt@matttruiano.com to book an appointment.

Inked Out NJ

Sketch for Saturdays appointment at the Inked Out NJ convention this weekend.

Them Hippies