Linework bleeding

This small tattoo I've done is around 3cm in length, I've used traditional needle 1RL and I've barely touched the client's skin, i was so careful to not stay for too long and don't penetrate too deep.

Is this my mistake or is my expectation just too unrealistic for the size and the design and placement of this tattoo?

Are you sure you used a single needle for that??

I use single needles a lot, but never experienced the healing causing fat lines like these. I really have no clue what happened. Barely touching the skin doesn't sound correct though. Did you use a coil or a rotary?

I’m assuming the left image is healed, the right fresh (??)

It looks like you have gone way too deep and all of the lines have spread. Which part of the body is it on?

Keep in mind that fewer/thinner needles will penetrate easier, with less force, so set your machine accordingly and adjust your hand work.

Not sure how much tattooing you have done before but if its not all that much, I would avoid small needle groupings for now.

If you have fake skin, practise depositing full-saturation lines with the minimum damage to the surface, test your lines with the back of your fingernail (rub over) to see if you detect any damage. You can learn to pull fully saturated lines by staying high and moving slower than you might imagine, the key is to keep checking for damage. I took this approach and my linework on skin has become much more solid.