big tattoo Archives - Matt Hodel Tattoo

The Japanese Tattoo In 1997 and 1998 I visited Japan to tattoo and learn. It was a trip that shaped the rest of my career. I brought home 2 suitcases of books that I purchased while traveling. From these books and my experience in Japan, my love for the Japanese tattoo was born. Over my…

Do you want that big tattoo? How do you get started?

Becoming Heavily Tattooed. Swapping stories about getting your first tattoo is fun. It’s a lot like bagging about fishing tales or near death experiences. Your nerves overestimated the environment and the adjectives don’t quite capture the maximum effect your trying to articulate. There is a feeling that the only way someone else can understand is…

The traditions of tattooing have been deeply rooted in the echoes of time. If you meet anyone who has been tattooing for more than 15 years, they will tell you how things used to be. Truly, tattooing has changed and evolved from the sponge and bucket days. With many progressive features being most noticeable on…

Putting the extra into your hard work is what makes you rise to the top. Nothing will be given to you. What is amazing is how many people will come to help you once you have started to help yourself. I have found that staying in motion is the key to advancing my career. This…

Tips for the Freshman Tattooist. Its has been said that you haven’t been tattooing until your fifth year is complete. This is when you get to see your old tattoos healed. It takes that long for your tattoos to settle. Until then, your first 5 years are very important. Here is some advice. Take it…

Your reward is a byproduct. The fastest route is a straight line: unless you’re so focused on the destination that you fall off the path. This happens when you are trying so dang hard to succeed. Sometimes we get so obsessed that we micro manage the entire journey. Have you ever counted calories or tracked…

“I just love my tattoo! It was fast and efficient!” -nobody ever Why. Why do I want to rally the troops? Why do I want to reach out to artists? Because times have changed. The product is no longer the institutional names of big shops but the future solely relies on the individual tattoo artist…

People cancel their appointments. This is a simple fact of business. I do not take offense to a cancelation. Do you want to know why? I love my clients. I love hanging out with them and I put them before myself. If someone needs to cancel I do not penalize them or beat them down…

In a perfect world I would sit in a small cabin and draw pictures that made me giggle all day. Here are some ink and digital pictures I drew last year or so.

My SELFJournal has a few parts to it. There is an opening of the day that includes writing your Itinerary, a Gratitude lList, Targets and daily Goals. Upon closing the day, you write Lessons Learned, Wins and another Gratitude List. The journal has helped me to take a daily inventory of myself and my actions.…

Sometimes I feel so swamped drawing new tattoos for clients that I forget how much I have done. They say if you wanna have self esteem, do something to be esteemed about! I’m posting this as a reminder to lift my head from the grind and appreciate what I do and who I have met.…

I hear the word success more that 10 times a day. I choose to hear it. I surround myself with the word. When I run, the Nike App commentator says it in my earbuds. When I listen to podcasts on my drive to work, the host says success repeatedly. The book I am reading right…

It’s Throw Back Thursday! I found a memory card from 2008. I guess I didn’t like taking straight photos in back then.

This is the closest I get to a portrait. Franky and Madison have been getting tattooed from me for almost a decade. Here is Franky’s new tattoo! It is a tribute to his love, Madison. www.matthodeltattoo.com

Sammie was disappointed with the direction her tattoo was going. She needed someone to cover-up, fix-up, and finish her Elephant! I helped Sammie get a tattoo she is no longer embarrassed by.

The first years of tattooing are tricky. Your focus should be on technical ability. Can you make the machines do what you want them to do? The first few years are just a challenge to figure out why what worked on Monday will not work on Wednesday. Consider the novice tattooist. There is an urgency…

Your crystal balls sucks.

by Mark DeNicola at collective-evolution.com In a world where people are regularly commended for things such as hard work, dedication and focus, the idea of not taking life seriously can sound preposterous. But is a serious mentality really at the core of the previously mentioned good habits? Or is it what’s potentially getting in the…

For all its ups and downs, tattooing has been the only constant in my life. I started tattooing before I could legally drink. I had to borrow Mark Andrew state ID to get into the events of the Houston Convention in 1996. They were not only my formative years of tattooing, they were my formative…

I want to revisit a Blog post from a few years ago. I think Google is a great place to start. It’s very useful in getting your brain emerged into a visual library. We know that any image you can think of is up on the internet but how you use google is important. Google…

Just make the time. We’ve been talking a lot lately about getting on track, optimizing time, being productive, and other goal-achieving tips. I thought it would be good to be a little more specific about some of these ideas. It’s pretty easy to just think, “I need to [insert thing that never gets done],” but…

They say having kids will change you. This is Emma and I. In these photos I have been a father for 6 months. I was broke and we lived in a hotel in Albuquerque New Mexico. Our neighbors were Junkies and Whores. Something had to change. I really thought that one day I would wake…

It’s Monday, and there’s usually a mixed sense of optimism and exhaustion with what lies ahead for the week. A fresh start, and a new mountain of work. Here’s a few simple reminders about how to keep stress at bay and use it to your advantage. Found over at Psych Central, this quick article will…

I miss my friend Max. He lives in Austria. He is awesome. Check him out: Tattoos to the Maxx