Depth

Hi all
New to tattooing
Read that if needle depth is too shallow, ink will fade when healed
But when shading, the light gradient will need lighter strokes right? These lighter strokes will cause shallower needle depth right? Will these fade faster?

Hi Edwin, and welcome!

A gradient can go from a 100% black to a 50% black for example, meaning your lightest light will be a 50% black.
It could have been a 50% black to a 0% black (skin tone/no ink at all), 100% to 0%, etc...

From my experience (very little in terms of gradients), they always end up darker when they heal, but someone may have a different experience.
I'm talking gradients i made with a low voltage, using magnums and layering softly.

What i can tell you is that a good bunch of the lines and black packing i did 1 year ago has faded away recently (over a dozen tattoos). So you have to be sure that your depht is good and that enough ink will stay into the skin, while avoiding blouwouts.

Peace,

DKJ

Hello and welcome to the forum Edwin

This is something I myself have been thinking a lot of. My conclusion is that yes, it does fade faster, even when pros do it (I've seen top notch work with my own eyes irl that I haven't been that thrilled about). And when still pretty new to tattooing you have no way of knowing what technique you use that will look fine after let's say 5 years (which is a short time in tattoo terms). So my take on this is to avoid too light shading and too busy motifs.

The most recent I did is this (will do a little touch up to finish it when healed):

FRESH:




11 DAYS HEALED:


I used Nocturnal Super Black which darkens a bit when healing, but I expect it to lighten a bit the first 1-2 years after that.

And I avoid using washes due to this fact too. I don't trust it will not fade too much. On this one I dipped in solid black but also in water though.

The answer is a basic yes. The light lines will fade faster, as will the light shades. I've seen some people spending hours on getting super light values in their black and grey, which may look great in the first year. But they quickly fade out to nothing but skin tone, meaning all that time, money, and skin trauma was worthless.

DKJ said:

From my experience (very little in terms of gradients), they always end up darker when they heal, but someone may have a different experience.

Click to expand...

I can't think of any reason your values should ever get darker when healed. Everything will lighten up after it heals. People who have measured these things tend to say it will be about 30% lighter. It's both because the surface ink that's not actually under the skin is removed in the healing process and the skin develops a layer over the top of the ink which lightens it more. That's why it can be really hard to do good B&G gradients sometimes because every cup on your table looks black and you need to have a good eye for how things are going to lighten up as they heal when you're setting up your values.

Cyberthrasher said:

The answer is a basic yes. The light lines will fade faster, as will the light shades. I've seen some people spending hours on getting super light values in their black and grey, which may look great in the first year. But they quickly fade out to nothing but skin tone, meaning all that time, money, and skin trauma was worthless.

I can't think of any reason your values should ever get darker when healed. Everything will lighten up after it heals. People who have measured these things tend to say it will be about 30% lighter. It's both because the surface ink that's not actually under the skin is removed in the healing process and the skin develops a layer over the top of the ink which lightens it more. That's why it can be really hard to do good B&G gradients sometimes because every cup on your table looks black and you need to have a good eye for how things are going to lighten up as they heal when you're setting up your values.

Click to expand...

I'm using the nocturnal black, which will be darker after healing, in the first day and following month. Of course after that it will get lighter, you pointed that out well!

Peace,

DKJ

DKJ said:

Hi Edwin, and welcome!

A gradient can go from a 100% black to a 50% black for example, meaning your lightest light will be a 50% black.
It could have been a 50% black to a 0% black (skin tone/no ink at all), 100% to 0%, etc...

From my experience (very little in terms of gradients), they always end up darker when they heal, but someone may have a different experience.
I'm talking gradients i made with a low voltage, using magnums and layering softly.

What i can tell you is that a good bunch of the lines and black packing i did 1 year ago has faded away recently (over a dozen tattoos). So you have to be sure that your depth is good and that enough ink will stay into the skin, while avoiding blouwouts.

Peace,

DKJ

Click to expand...

I have 3 years of experience tattooing and have found that the depth is variable to angle and speed also.

There is no *correct* depth because all skin is different, between different people and different body parts.

Generally, over 1mm and below 2mm (usually below 1.5mm). But if you're like me and like to have your needle hang so you can see it, you will need to get used to eyeballing and feeling the depth.

For me, I use the vibration usually. There is a vibration that can be felt in my tattooing hand and in my stretching hand once the needle is at an effective depth in the skin. Then I try to keep my angles correct (more vertical for RS, 45 degrees to just under 90 (almost perpendicular to the skin) for magnums, and I like to use a 45 degree for liners. I have been able to line with my liner almost 90 degrees, just depends on your technique).

*ALSO* what Ive been told, have found to be true, and have read online from others is that whatever black tone you see on the skin, you can expect it to get 1 or 2 tones lighter by the time its done healing.

With super light tones, like a very light greywash, its hard for me to see while tattooing because the skin gets red and inflamed and the light tone doesnt stand out until healed and then it does look darker than it did during the tattoo.

I hope that makes sense.