This seminar cuts straight to what actually elevates a tattooer: instinct-driven decisions, precision-built technique, and the confidence to read skin like a second language. If you’re ready to work smarter, tattoo cleaner, and level up your creative control, this is the room you want to be in.

Unlock your next level—because talent

grow fast when technique makes sense.

What is Ink and Instinct?

is a deep-dive tattoo seminar built for hungry artists and apprentices who want to sharpen fundamentals, understand machines and needles with confidence, and clean up every part of their workflow—from stencil to highlights.

The session opens with your personal journey: how you started tattooing, the inspirations that drove your early work, and the systems you still use today to stay improving. Artists learn exactly how your mindset evolved, how you built your technical foundation, and how those steps can shorten their learning curve.

From there, we break into pure application fundamentals, covering needles, gauges, taper differences, machine give vs. no-give, and your voltage system for small and large configurations. Attendees learn the underlying logic of why certain needles saturate better, why others blend cleaner, and how stroke length affects both damage and outcome.

(Needle systems, voltage ranges, long throw vs. short throw, shading vs. packing—everything is fully broken down.)

Next, we walk through the complete tattooing process, layer by layer:

Setting and preserving your stencil
Using midtones and lighter tones to “set” and build
Packing shadows and landmarking
Blending midtones with pendulum motion
Cross-hatching, second pass blending, and controlled rendering
Reading the skin and knowing when to move on
Strategic use of liners, round shaders, mags across stages
Final highlights with voltage + hand-speed control

The seminar closes with your current setup—the machines, stroke lengths, and needle groupings you use for everyday work, large multi-day projects, and competitions. Attendees leave with a practical, simplified setup they can implement instantly.

Who this benefits:

new artists, apprentices, or any tattooer who wants clarity. Ink and Instinct III gives them a modern, streamlined system for saturation, smooth blends, and structured workflows so they can tattoo cleaner, faster, and more confidently.

Carson “The Kid” Kennedy is a surrealism and hyper-realism tattoo artist known for his signature Grit & Glow style—cinematic lighting, seamless blends, and instinct-driven technique. From his early days studying needle theory and traditional fundamentals, to developing a modern, efficient workflow for large-scale realism, Carson built a method that bridges creativity and precision.

Today he tattoos full-time at Evolution Tattoo Gallery and travels to expos across the country, teaching artists how to master application fundamentals, read the skin in real time, and build tattoos that heal bright and solid. Ink and Instinct is the next evolution of his teaching—direct, detailed, and designed to push artists to their next level.