How to Make a Good Tattoo Portfolio

Show Your Creativity and Range

Your tattoo portfolio should balance quality with creativity. Whether you’re a master of line work, a coloring savant—or both—your tattoo art should reflect your amazing talents. Use a wide array of colors, and classic black and white. Highlight works that show off your shading skills, and include pictures that inspired your end-work. 

Highlight Your Technique

Your portfolio should serve as a window in your imagination and perspective. Don’t hesitate to include artwork that shows your unique take on a concept, especially if you’re seeking a tattoo apprenticeship. Tattoo artists and clients may love specific aspects of it and get inspired to work with you because they know your personality. 

What you don’t want to be is boring. Ink with no personality will stain your portfolio pages. Many tattoo artists have mastered their technique, but to be a successful tattoo artist, there needs to be passion behind your work. If your designs don’t fly off the page, you’ll have a hard time landing work. Speaking of… 

Quality is Everything

If you have 15 amazing tattoo designs, 15 “good” designs, and 15 that could be great but incomplete, only put the first 15 in your portfolio. You want to impress with only the best of your work. Anything less than that will hurt your portfolio’s quality. Even if it means leaving back half of your book empty, it’s better for clients and artists to be left with thoughts of your amazing potential, rather than your lesser quality work.

Design with the Body in Mind

Showing off your amazing tattoo styles is great, but your art also has to realistically go somewhere on the body. Include various styles on different body parts in your portfolio: legs, arms, ankles, backs, sides, etc. 

Clients and tattoo artists need to know you can turn your designs into ink. You can recreate the Mona Lisa, but if she can’t realistically fit anywhere, your tattoo design will never leave the paper.

Have a Physical and an Online Portfolio

These days, you need a physical black folder and a digital footprint. Don’t just walk into a tattoo shop to show the owners photos from your Instagram page. Having a physical portfolio proves to people that you’re a professional who takes their work seriously. If someone wants to hire you in their shop or use their body as a canvas, they need to know you take your work seriously. 

The professionals at Tattooing101 recommend the following tools:

• A4 black hard-cover folder with plastic sleeve
• Markers or Prismacolor pencils
• Strathmore tanned paper
• Digital photo paper

That said, your online portfolio is also important. Showcasing your art on your website (more on that next) and social will help potential tattoo shops and clients find you and ask about your work. You won’t always have your physical portfolio on you, and many of your future customers could be scrolling through Instagram posts right now looking for art that inspires them. Having a strong, well-marketed digital portfolio will make it easier for them to find you.

Have an Amazing Tattoo Website

Tattoos are visually stimulating. You need a website to match! There’s a reason why some of the highest-quality websites are run by successful tattoo parlors: their art catches the attention of people looking for new ink. 

A quality tattoo website acts as a digital portfolio, a space where you can tell your story, highlight your testimonials, sell awesome merch, and book new clients. 

Your website as your virtual tattoo shop (or tattoo artists’ page). It needs to reflect your talents and style, just like your tattoo studio does.

Creating your Tattoo Portfolio

Ultimately, the main goal of your portfolio is to convince someone that you can take a concept from a customer and turn it into ink. If your book conveys that, then you’re off to a great start!

To help share your portfolio with the world, contact us for a website that enhances the quality of your work.