Wobbly line alert, I thought I was safe now

Hi guys.

I’ve been lurking this forum for a while now and already know that I will probably end up on premium. I’ve been thinking of posting this for a while but my last tattoo really pushed me to do it.

I started tattooing last year, first only handpoking myself and friends. I passed the hygiene formation, mandatory in France, then bought myself a Cheyenne Thunder. I started practicing on fake skin, and at some point started on myself and a few friends. I mostly do line works with solid packing occasionally, no shading because it doesn’t fit my style and I don’t want to go there for now.

I’m at that point where some of the tats I do I’m really satisfied with, and some other, more rarely come out... wobbly and wrong. I feel it is when the skin is softer and with more fat, though i do feel like I stretch. I obviously try to adapt according to the person, the placement, the design, but sometimes as much as I stretch and think I’m doing exactly the right thing, lines come out wobbly as if they were out of my control. It is very frustrating. I thought I cracked the code and was free from overly wobbly and shaky because, even if unperfect, I kept getting better. But the other day something happened and it caught me by surprise with the tat I’m showing below.

I can definitely draw straight lines on paper, I can get straight lines on fake skin as well. But when it comes to some tats on real skin, somehow sometimes it just doesn’t work and I don’t know precisely why. It is very discouraging and I wondered how do you guys deal or have dealt with insecurities. (People I tattoo on know the drill, they are all very much consenting to everything, knowing about the possible wobbly and all, most of them are already heavily tattooed and this is not the point of this post).

Here are some tats I did recently. 7rl, 80 cps (the Cheyenne power supply isn’t “voltage”). I know they aren’t perfect but I can see progression and I know I’m on the right path. But.... The table with the wine is on the back of a calf, and it’s the one that got me “what the fuck, I thought this kind of lines were never gonna happen again”. The calf had very soft skin and lots of “soft fat”. I did another calf before with no problem, and was very surprised at how I was unable to pull straight and smooth lines on this one. Could it be that I should have run my machine slower/faster, stretch even more perhaps? Do you guys experience good tats making and sudden unexpectedly wobbly tats? Obviously I am still learning and there’s no absolute answer and it’s all about practice, but if you have some thoughts on this particular one, please feel free to share.

Thank you in advance for your answer, have a nice day and holidays.

Place customer Well, make sure you placed yourself in good position as well, straight your back when possibile, when tattoing forearms I like to place it on a pillow wrapped in foil. Its gives my hand extra support and dont rush use little bit of oitment to slide your hand nicely when pulling lines. That are things what i'm doing and it helps me a lot. Still occasionaly gets a wobbly thing here and there but that's because im to coocky sometimes and i think I've got this, but every line is different that previous you made mate ;d relax

Salut Casob,
How fast is your hand when you're tattooing?

I found that the slower i go, the better my lines.

Also are you tattooing from the wrist or elbow?

When tattooing from the elbow, i find it easier to stay consistent in depht and following the stencil.

From my little experience, i would go slower, try to mimic the motion before tattoing a line, and lock my client to his/her chair.
Having both of your forearms sitting well on something changed a lot for me.
Before, my elbows where hanging, now i'm always lying down my client, massage table, anything that will help me to be stable and static.

What are the symptoms when you're getting woobles ?
To me, there are obviously 2 main reasons: you're moving or the client is moving.
Then, what is moving you or the client?
The tattoing pen vibrating? You being nervous? Your client tapping its feet on the last Maria Carrey ? Your studio is located over some subway rails?

Peace,

DKJ

Dzikichrzan said:

when tattoing forearms I like to place it on a pillow wrapped in

Click to expand...

I would very much appreciate a photo of this ??? I tattoo a lot of forearms (EVERY girl wants their tattoo on their forearm. And if they already tattooed their forearm they want it on the other forearm. Forearms, forearms, forearms ?)

Iv'e had this similar problem and it came from dragging the tattoo machine backwards and having little rubber band tension. The needle wasnt being pushed onto the back of the tube, instead it was dancing towards the front creating unsteady lines.

Cartridges have no rubber band to keep the needle straight, so if you are dragging with the tube backwards you get a lot of wobble.

For me, i always turn my machine(coil) up for fatty areas as i like running lines of the tip of the needle.

Sure will do one. Yeah i'm also trying to have them lying down when possibile, and my hand speed is quite slow as well.

Personally I dont mind the wobbly lines in your style of tattoo. Clean lines are definitely easier when you are relaxed and comfortable. When I get stressed my lines always go bad.

Hi everyone ! Thank you so much for reading and taking time to reply!

DKJ said:

Salut Casob,
How fast is your hand when you're tattooing?

I found that the slower i go, the better my lines.

Also are you tattooing from the wrist or elbow?

When tattooing from the elbow, i find it easier to stay consistent in depht and following the stencil.

From my little experience, i would go slower, try to mimic the motion before tattoing a line, and lock my client to his/her chair.
Having both of your forearms sitting well on something changed a lot for me.
Before, my elbows where hanging, now i'm always lying down my client, massage table, anything that will help me to be stable and static.

What are the symptoms when you're getting woobles ?
To me, there are obviously 2 main reasons: you're moving or the client is moving.
Then, what is moving you or the client?
The tattoing pen vibrating? You being nervous? Your client tapping its feet on the last Maria Carrey ? Your studio is located over some subway rails?

Peace,

DKJ

Click to expand...

Salut ! I try to tattoo from the elbow and shoulder but I guess there’s still some wrist action going on. And my speed is quite fast. Usually it’s not a problem but it might be with longer lines? I’ll try to go sloweeeer. Thanks for raising all of those points. My client doesn’t move and I always make sure my elbow isn’t floating in the air, I guess the wobbly lines originates from the machine vibration (when it happens I really feel like I’ve got no CONTROL over my line?!) and the skin vibration. Next time I’ll make sure to stretch the hell out + go slower then, maybe run the machine slower too. Trials and errors. I tend to get really frustrated at myself, especially when I’m confident and then the lines turn out like that, which doesn’t help.

Chustik said:

Iv'e had this similar problem and it came from dragging the tattoo machine backwards and having little rubber band tension. The needle wasnt being pushed onto the back of the tube, instead it was dancing towards the front creating unsteady lines.

Cartridges have no rubber band to keep the needle straight, so if you are dragging with the tube backwards you get a lot of wobble.

For me, i always turn my machine(coil) up for fatty areas as i like running lines of the tip of the needle.

Click to expand...

? What do you mean “dragging the machine backwards”? I use a rotative Cheyenne thunder with craft cartridges from Cheyenne and I never considered turning the machine in any way, but I’m not sure what you mean by backwards and turning up. Sounds interesting.

Torb said:

Personally I dont mind the wobbly lines in your style of tattoo. Clean lines are definitely easier when you are relaxed and comfortable. When I get stressed my lines always go bad.

Click to expand...

Thank you. Yeah people tend to be ok with wobbly lines with this style and telling me that it looks like it’s part of the style, but I want to pull cleeeeaaaaannnn lines even with a minimalistic naive artstyle haha. Practice makes perfect, and being more relaxed certainly wouldn’t hurt.

Okay, the cutout (the hole where you can see the needle) is the front of a tube/cartridge. If you run your machine so this part of the cartridge is always going foward the needle will be against the tube and stable. If you go the opposite direction, the needle wants to move to the other side of tube but will also get pulled back by the tension of the cartridge creating an unstable needle that will dance around in the tube.

It's not "turning the machine" but the direction you are moving it in consideration to where the needle wants to be in the tube that can create these inconsistent lines.

Hope this clears it up!