Tattoo Star: Artist Life

Start at 18 as the new apprentice in a small street shop. You sweep the floor, watch everything, and practise on grapefruit, because the peel feels a lot like skin. Then your first client sits down.

Tattoo Star is a career game about becoming a tattoo artist, one client at a time. Where you end up is your call: a chair of your own, a city studio, a waiting list around the world, or your own name painted on the shop window.

Ink every piece yourself Each week brings a client and a design, and you tattoo it in steps, in the order a real tattoo is done: linework first, then shading, colour or both. • Linework: touch anywhere and steer the needle along the stencil, line by line, so your finger never hides the line. Your hand shakes when you’re tired, and the phone buzzes like a tattoo machine while the needle is down. • Shading and colour packing: rub smooth black-and-grey and solid colour into every shape, and stay inside the lines. • First tattoos: nervous clients tense up before they flinch. Lift the needle in time. Every piece earns a client rating out of 10.

Flash, clients and conventions Fourteen flash designs in the traditional style, from a tiny heart or star to roses, swallows, anchors, a koi, a snake and a lighthouse. Walk-ins want something small and bright, black-and-grey clients want soft, smoky shading, and resident artists get big custom pieces. Twice a year you tattoo live on the convention floor while judges watch.

A life around the shop Your shop owner decides which clients reach your chair. Your mentor wants your lines slower. Then there’s the crew, your regulars, the ink companies, your family (Gran still calls it doodling), your best friend since school, and a rival across town who copied your swallow. Each week you have only so much energy for practice, friends, family and days off, and relationships drift when you don’t make time.

More than 60 stories arrive as messages, and your answers stick. Ask a walk-in for ID. Point out the missing R in “STAY STONG” before it’s permanent. Talk a 19-year-old into starting somewhere easier to cover than their knuckles. Give a 70-year-old her first swallow. Some choices come back weeks later.

Practise, plan and aim high • Practise in your sketchbook: grapefruit, practice skin, colour theory, flash books, grip training and mock consultations, each a short drill. Play it well and you learn faster. • At the start of each year, choose how high to aim: safe, bold or legendary. Meet every goal and the boss pays out. Miss one and it costs you. • Climb the yearly Top Artists ranking and win awards such as Best Linework, Best Colour and Artist of the Year. • Six levels, from Apprentice through Junior Artist, Resident Artist, Headliner and World-Class to Legend, with studio offers at the end of each year.

Spend what you earn Spend your pay on machines, from a loud old coil machine to one custom-built for your grip, plus private lessons and masterclasses, a booking manager, a hand physio, homes from a room above the shop to a seaside cottage, and rides from a fixie bike to a restored classic car. Bigger things come with upkeep, so plan ahead.

Make it yours Name your artist, pick their look and choose a style: Line Master, Shading Wizard, Colour Maverick or Illustrator. When the time comes, hang up your machine and see the legacy you left.

Single-player. No ads, no account, and it plays offline. Your career is saved on this device.

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