Hi Ive been on this site for a while now but this is my first post and Im looking for help pleaseIve been practicing on fake skin since July, a few weeks ago I did my first tattoo on real skin, my husband he wanted this design in this spot and I know there is so much wrong with it but the blood driping off the tail really makes me cringe Im open to all criticism but if someone can tell me how to fix that particular part if its even possible at this point I would really appreciate it. Thanks?
Hi everyone Im new and looking for help
- Starter Cativia
- Start date
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Hi!
Can you tell us what gear you've been using for this tattoo?
Also, can you tell us what problems/issues you had to manage during the session?
To me, humble beginner, i see many of the flaws i get/got as a newbie:
- depht is not consistant, as you have some grey lines (not deep enough), and some dashed ones (depht wasn't consistent during the line and/or inconsistent hand speed).
What you could try is to get back with a slower hand, it should help you to keep a stable depht. Try to let your hand slide and control your movement from your elbow.
Often, the stretch is too poor when your lines are grey. Try to position your husband so his skin is already stretched by gravity (i would have him standing instead of laying, but someone may have a better position), then use your non-tattoing hand to stretch the skin. It won't hurt him so stretch like crazy.
Also, you may try to join shorter lines, as long lines are often more difficult (hand movement is often stopped or worried B something in the way).
- i think your design is good and will get even better when you'll have fixed those inconsistent lines. I don't see blowouts from the picture so you may have a soft hand, which is cool because you can still come back on your work. Shaping the body of the scorpio with consistent lines should do rhe trick. After that, if you feel confident, you may bold up some lines to give it more relief, look at some comic books inking to see what i mean.
- it seems you tried to had some shadows, i thonk it's cool but maybe you should work more on your technique on fake skin before you come back at it.
If you're patient enough, i'd say try to laster your lining and then go for gradients and shadows.
Some very simple tips now : try not to rush, stretch at all times, turn around your husband to get the best hand movement for each line, read your reference as many times as you can to see what you will do before doing it.
Tell us how was your experience, you'lk have many more help coming up!
Peace,
DKJ
Can you tell us what gear you've been using for this tattoo?
Also, can you tell us what problems/issues you had to manage during the session?
To me, humble beginner, i see many of the flaws i get/got as a newbie:
- depht is not consistant, as you have some grey lines (not deep enough), and some dashed ones (depht wasn't consistent during the line and/or inconsistent hand speed).
What you could try is to get back with a slower hand, it should help you to keep a stable depht. Try to let your hand slide and control your movement from your elbow.
Often, the stretch is too poor when your lines are grey. Try to position your husband so his skin is already stretched by gravity (i would have him standing instead of laying, but someone may have a better position), then use your non-tattoing hand to stretch the skin. It won't hurt him so stretch like crazy.
Also, you may try to join shorter lines, as long lines are often more difficult (hand movement is often stopped or worried B something in the way).
- i think your design is good and will get even better when you'll have fixed those inconsistent lines. I don't see blowouts from the picture so you may have a soft hand, which is cool because you can still come back on your work. Shaping the body of the scorpio with consistent lines should do rhe trick. After that, if you feel confident, you may bold up some lines to give it more relief, look at some comic books inking to see what i mean.
- it seems you tried to had some shadows, i thonk it's cool but maybe you should work more on your technique on fake skin before you come back at it.
If you're patient enough, i'd say try to laster your lining and then go for gradients and shadows.
Some very simple tips now : try not to rush, stretch at all times, turn around your husband to get the best hand movement for each line, read your reference as many times as you can to see what you will do before doing it.
Tell us how was your experience, you'lk have many more help coming up!
Peace,
DKJ
- Starter
- #5
Hi and thank you so much, Im using a dragon hawk mast tour pen, I used a 3rl and a 5 curved mag for shading. As far as problems some areas the ink wasnt going in at all so I had to go over it again I tried changing my cartridge but that didnt seem to help he was sitting up so im not sure if it was the angle I was holding the pen or the quality of the pen itself. Im also strugling with moving my shoulder or elbow and not my wrist its almost a mind to arm thing and I forget. Also alot of the ink did fall out The pic didnt upload I will upload a pic of when it was fresh and also my reference. Thank you so much for your help?
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Take it for granted: if there's a needle and some ink, you're good to go. There's a lot of reasons your ink doesn't get into the skin, but it's rarely caused by the machine.
Not enough stretch seems to be the first cause. You will get it with experience, don't get mad too fast, after some 20 tattoo sessions, i'm getting more and more one pass lines, but i have something around 50 up to 75% lines for which i have to do double passes. 6 months ago (and i don't tattoo a lot), it was more like 85 to 100% of double and triple pass lines!
The location of the tattoo, the skin type, the position of your client's body are affecting your stretch for example. I tattoed twice this part of the body (upper chest) and it's one of the places i had the more difficulties with stretching.
The angle thing: i'm sure from vertical to 45° of the skin should work. Maybe more experienced peeps here will tell you what to do and to avoid angle wise.
The cartridge, the pen, the ink are rarely faulty, unless you bought very cheap, used to death gear. Don't get fooled, it's often 99% your fault, but since you're a beginner, you have everything to learn, so no worries
About your wrist working the lines, try to hold your pen lightly, don't grip it like an enraged crocodile.
Put your hand softly on your client, don't sit your body on the hand. Try to line in the air over the part you wish to tattoo, pulling or pushing your hand by moving your harm (movement coming from your shoulder).
See if something is in the way, your client knee, your own leg... if yes, change position. Try again. If it's going smooth, you can tattoo this line easy.
Read this topic for more info around the restrictions of tattoing only with your wrist : Tattooing with your wrist vs. your shoulder
The ink falling from the pen... I had this problem in my first tattoos. I really can't recall how i managed to change that. I guess you should try to dip less ink, also i guess that too many needle hanging out of your tube may be causing it. I'll let the others respond on this one.
This is an Help forum, i learn a lot from here!
Peace,
DKJ
Last edited:
Another thing: in your pictures, from fresh to healed, everything seems be lighter (when healed), grey instead of black (when fresh).
I usually see clearly, while the tattoo is fresh, if the ink is correctly applied into the skin, in reverse my lining usually darken when it heals (from a dark, textured grey to a full black after 8 hours of healing).
Maybe tell us which ink brand you're using, peeps around here may give you some tips.
A question comes to my mind, do you wash/swipe your tattoo along the process with green soap?
I do it usually after i've sinked most of my lines, or finished an area, and that i don't fear to loose my stencil.
It gives me a clear vision of which lines actually got in and which are not deep enough.
Before that, i was seeing dark lines everywhere, until i did the last wash to clean all up, just to see almost everything wasn't dark/correct... Very late in the process with a stencil totally lost, it was stressing!
Peace,
DKJ
I usually see clearly, while the tattoo is fresh, if the ink is correctly applied into the skin, in reverse my lining usually darken when it heals (from a dark, textured grey to a full black after 8 hours of healing).
Maybe tell us which ink brand you're using, peeps around here may give you some tips.
A question comes to my mind, do you wash/swipe your tattoo along the process with green soap?
I do it usually after i've sinked most of my lines, or finished an area, and that i don't fear to loose my stencil.
It gives me a clear vision of which lines actually got in and which are not deep enough.
Before that, i was seeing dark lines everywhere, until i did the last wash to clean all up, just to see almost everything wasn't dark/correct... Very late in the process with a stencil totally lost, it was stressing!
Peace,
DKJ
- Starter
- #9
Hi Im using Dynamic black and yes I am wiping with green soap as I go this is the only tattoo Ive done on real skin so I have nothing to compare it to I do find that I have to go fairly deep to get the ink to stay in fake skin, is this the depth I should be going in real skin as well? Also Im starting to question my ink as ive watched a video from oliver Ayer about conterfit ink tho All my ink somes from a tattoo supplier ive noticed some red flags with some of my Intenze ink. I hope they are not selling me cheap chineese ink but im considering changing suppliers just in case. The red I used in this Tat is one of the bottles that doesn’t have the intenze markings on this is also where I got my Dynamic black from it has a verry thin vicosity.
No you should not go as deep on human skin as you do on Reelskin.
Yes, i should have told you how it works (for me only, there are numerous ways to do it).
I put a very thin layer of vaseline (very thin = shiny skin, not greasy skin) on the part i'm going to tattoo.
Then i tattoo 1 up to 4 lines, and just wipe with a dry towel. Then repeat, repeat, repeat...
Vaseline helps me for 2 things: my ink is not splashing everywhere (it's "glued" in the vaseline), plus it goes away well with my wipe (ink on dry skin is hard to wipe off in my actual experience).
Then, green soap: let's say i'm tattooing Mario from Nintendo games.
I'm done with his body and going for the head.
I'll use green soap to clean the body (cautiously not touching the head, to keep the stencil clean) to see how it looks like, and do some retouch where needed.
Same goes when i've finished Mario's head.
There's this final greensoap wash before i put Bepanthen and then plastic bag the tattoo.
Then i try to reanimate my agonizing client because it took me 4 hours to pull this 3 inches tall Mario, lol
Peace,
DKJ
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