I had the pleasure of catching London Ink on You Tube the other day while lounging at home. I must say that it is a much better show than LA, or Miami Ink.
Why?
Focus it’s all about focus. The focus of London Ink is the tattoos (at least during the first episode). This is clearly evident because:
- London Ink devoted time to Aftercare by following a client home and detailing a small amount of the healing process
- London Ink dealt with “Multi Sitting Tattoo”, showing the first sitting of a long term tattoo something that both LA and Miami Ink lack.
- London Ink dealt with Tattoo Artist Mentoring, the owner gave one of the guys a suggestion, and they collaborated. In LA ink the person gives them the idea then the artist says “Gee Great, come back in 10 minutes and . . . ).
- Less emphasis on “Tattoo Meaning”, the symbolism of the various tattoos were only given a perfunctory mention, something I appreciated.
Don’t get me wrong, LA Ink is a decent show that serves their market, but it has the feeling of being contrived and insincere at best. The art is very good, but the designs they choose to showcase are more about the story behind them rather than something new and challenging to the artist. There are only so many flowers along the ribs and back on females that will hold my attention.
I notice that none of the artists on the American shows collaborate. When I’m at the shop, I regularly see the artists showing each other designs and talking about which color to use, or helping each other perfect their voltage settings or the tension on the needle, you know things Artisans talk about, eh but I’ll leave that for another time.
