I love doing geometric tattoos and so far 2017 has been a fantastic year with fun customers sending in cool tattoo requests (or ‘tatoeage verzoek’ for my Dutch customers). I had the opportunity to design some less standard types of mandala tattoos and on less typical places. Sternum tattoos are always a bit more challenging but nonetheless they look great once done correctly and I’ll tattoo an upper leg anytime of the day. This year I am gradually changing the style of my work and incorporating more old school and traditional tattoo designs into mandala inspired tattoo styles, thus hoping […]
Category Archives: Blog
I’ve been receiving more tattoo requests for a full mandala dotwork combined with patterns sleeve, something that’s both fun and also a challenge to design. In my head I can see the full design pieced together but how do you explain this to a client who obviously doesn’t have the same experience in orchestrating large scale tattoo sleeves. luckily I recently bumped into the 3D area of Photoshop which has all the abilities to design and render full sleeve compositions with the help of 3D models (and your own designs of course). I’ll be exploring this feature a lot more […]
A new blog post (woop woop) is definitely new this year because I want to update everyone a bit more frequently with all the new stuff that is happening at the moment. For starters, I have moved to a bigger studio (same location in Amsterdam) which has much more space and better light and feels very comfortable for both me and our clients (or so I’ve been told). I still prefer to have a tattoo studio in Amsterdam instead of a tattoo shop because it gives the clients more privacy and a bit more of a chill modus which is […]
Unfortunately I haven’t been blogging much lately due to a very hectic work schedule (I’m not complaining by the way) and even though I like to write more, after a full day of tattooing, drawing, being creative and setting up appointments it kinda drags on you (usually somewhere late at night) to also write something about my tattoo life. But I’m back on track, getting more and more comfortable with my schedule and preparing for the greatest gift all… becoming a father Woop woop happy happy joy joy and yes, I am very excited about all the new changes happening […]
Now there’s a title that is not really self explanatory for a tattoo artist like me but it does raise the question “what you been doing?”. Too put it boldly, I was out partying (parteee!) and maybe you did or maybe you didn’t know but I used to be a DJ back in the days and even ran my own tech house label which did pretty okay as far as being well known in the DJ community. It could explain why you see the term ‘party’ so often in my blog posts 😉 So did my past catch up with […]
I had the honor to be asked to tattoo at the Buiten Westen festival 2015 for the Human Rights Tattoo project which was something I had never done before. And since I like a challenge every now and then I prepared myself for a day of fun, sunshine and small tattoos. Three tattoo artists were asked to work that day, Jeff (Tattoo Bandit, Zaandam), Sera Hunt (True Love Tattooing, Amsterdam) who is a friend of mine and myself and our goal per tattoo artist was to tattoo one person every 15 minutes. Which is kind of a challenge since it […]
So you might think the title is a bit strange but living in Amsterdam as a tattoo artist also means you will encounter the yearly Dutch orange frenzy of King’s Day (formerly known as Queen’s Day). And because I have my tattoo studio right above one of Amsterdam’s clubbing hotspots (aka club Warehouse) it was only a matter of time before someone came up with the idea to ask their inhouse tattoeer if he (in other words me, myself and I) would be interested in doing a few tattoos during the King’s Day after party. Ow and yes we have […]
It’s the week before the Rotterdam Tattoo convention 2015 and I’m super busy creating new tattoo designs in the styles that I like best; geometry / geometric, dotwork and possibly some traditional designs (black ink only). It’s sometimes hard to find the time to just sit and create new designs which are not based on client requests since I’m so busy at Needle Art Tattoo, TattooMick and my own New Amsterdam Tattoo Studio. I feel fortunate to be working in Amsterdam (as well as Breda and Dordrecht) but I look forward to go to Rotterdam and ink out some kick […]
So the beginning of a new year has certainly been a creative and busy one with lots of tattoo requests dropping into my inbox, doing even more sweet tattoos (and not just geometric and dotwork) and meeting some very cool people. I feel very fortunate to be living this tattoo life, I’m happy with what’s buzzing so far and even more happier with my new start at Mick’s tattoo shop which is also the oldest shop in this typical Dutch town named Dordrecht. Dordrecht is actually the next stop after Rotterdam and just before Breda so I’m now pretty much […]
I’m starting the new year with a geometry tattoo challenge because large geometric patterns are always kinda tricky to stencil onto the body (cuz no body has perfect symmetry for stencilling tattoo designs). So the next few weeks/months I’ll be transforming Wouter’s arm into various sections with patterns and mandalas including dotwork & linework and it should be interesting to watch the design unfold into a cool looking half sleeve. The picture shown here is of an earlier sketch session where we were figuring out how and where to place the patterns on Wouter’s arm since the various lines fro […]
I have been drawing up some new mandala tattoo designs for various tattoo requests and I’m always super stoked on drawing them. Ever since we moved back to Amsterdam these geometrical designs seemed like the right step in my tattoo career and I really enjoy doing them. I put on some lounge music, pour myself a cold drink and start drawing repeating patterns until I have what I want. And if I don’t get it right the first time I’ll do it again because drawing mandala designs for tattoos is truly something I can do al day. Can’t wait to […]
I just made it through the Alkmaar convention last Sunday and wanted to write something about the Brussel convention which was a week earlier, but I just couldn’t find the time to sit down due to a hectic schedule of requests. And even though we only went on a Sunday, the buzz at the door already notified us that we were entering a big area of tattoo enthusiasts wo were looking to get inked or get inspired by one or many great artists and their work. Brussels is only an hour and a half drive from Rotterdam so even if […]
Geometric tattoo designs are super fun to do and I have created a new set of flash so check out the pic below for more fine line art, circles, arrows and abstract shapes which are cool for tattooing. I’m starting to get a nice workflow for creating these little types of jewelry tattoos and love doing more geometrical line work designs so mail me for info or a tattoo date when you want to get tattooed in the Amsterdam or Breda shop. Also check out my other geometric tattoo flash sheet. Peace…
I have been working on some new tattoo designs and with more and more requests coming in for small tattoos I came up with some fine lined artwork. Come visit me at the Amsterdam Tattoo Market shop when you want something fresh or check me out at the Needle Art shop in Breda (every Wednesday). Next up is some more dotwork vs black ink traditional tattoo stuff. For more info and tattoo appointments: info@jamesnidecker.com
I was inspired by Zombiesandwich (Tumblr) and tried out something new today, since it’s been a slow day at the shop (that shop being Amsterdam Tattoo Market). Having some lazy reggae music in the back and the occasional walkin passing by I had some spare time to focus on my latest inspiration which is combining traditional tattoo flash designs with dotwork sacred geometry… — Wanna get this tattooed? Email me: info@jamesnidecker.com
A Short Story ft… Leon
I recently shot a short film about tattoo artist (and colleague) Leon who specializes in Maori and Polynesian (tribal) tattoos and one of few people I know who can actually freehand a whole sleeve without an example drawn out in front of him. It truly is amazing to watch the puzzle unfold since Maori can be a complex maze of lines and is something that has such a rich background of symbolism, making it an art form that you can not just go out and draw slash tattoo on someone just for the fun of it. If you want a […]
I had the honor to tattoo my old friend Sabine recently who I hadn’t seen for a very long time and it’s super nice to catch up with friends while tattooing some cool sacred geo black dotwork ink (or whatever you want to call it). I didn’t realize until we started talking about the past few years that things have changed considerably and that tattooing has become such a big part of my life (and in a way also Sabine’s). “Who could have thought we’d end up running into each other again like this, so crazy!”, said Sabine. And I […]
Blogging is always fun but with so many active social media platforms out there I sometimes can’t get them all synced up at the same time. Also, I have been busy with a lot of stuff outside of tattooing so time hasn’t always been on my side unfortunately. But besides all the excuses, I do need to re-group every now and then and blog some stuff out of my system to get the juices flowing again. It has been going well lately (it has been good since we went around the world :-)) and it’s still exciting to see how […]
I always wondered whether there was a specific way to get a head tattoo properly stencilled but Dennis demonstrated yesterday that there is no such thing as a ‘standard’ way. So he took Lesley outside and drew some more lines on her head while we chilled out and watched bicycles and boats pass us by in our beloved city of Amsterdam. It’s a very cool mandala design and sacred geometry / dotwork tattoos have always been fascinating to draw and they resonate well on almost any body part. A head tattoo is ‘slightly’ different from any other part of the […]
Hi ya’ll, it has been fun to be back in Amsterdam after travelling around the world and living in Bangkok and New York which were super exciting times for both me and Kiki. I have been following the path of the tattoo apprentice and couldn’t wait to get back to The Netherlands and soak up more tattoo lessons and secrets from my current mentor Gino Dobbelstein from Red Rose Tattoo in Schiedam. I’m very lucky to be under his wings cuz he definitely knows all the ins and outs of tattooing to help me step up my game and I […]
