My first tattoo ever.

Hello everyone,

I am from the Netherlands and just started tattooing. I am 30 years old and don’t have any experience in art or drawing. Also my current job has nothing to do with the artistic world whatsoever.

The tattoo below is my first ever. I must say that I did tattoo a few lines on an orange a few days ago to get the feel of it.

I am realy curious what you guys think and if I’m om the right track. I hope you can give me some advice, and ofcourse the hardest and most honest one !

Well the obvious sticks out like the proverbial dogs balls......Lining
Just keep in mind that learning to tattoo takes a lot of time, don't think that you can tattoo fruit one week, fake skin the next and then be ready...
Practice is the key, and read as much as you can on here....asking for us to give opinions on this tattoo is a daunting task, there is so much wrong with it, and also so much good about it. Don't be discouraged by negative comments, be prepared to tattoo hundreds of fake skins, don't try to do complete tattoos, just tattoo straight lines, curved lines, practice different types of shading. I know it can be boring, but it's how you learn.....go to Tattooing 101 youtube page, watch and learn.
Good luck on your journey to becoming a tattooist.

It looks great congratz.

Big Pete said:

Well the obvious sticks out like the proverbial dogs balls......Lining
Just keep in mind that learning to tattoo takes a lot of time, don't think that you can tattoo fruit one week, fake skin the next and then be ready...
Practice is the key, and read as much as you can on here....asking for us to give opinions on this tattoo is a daunting task, there is so much wrong with it, and also so much good about it. Don't be discouraged by negative comments, be prepared to tattoo hundreds of fake skins, don't try to do complete tattoos, just tattoo straight lines, curved lines, practice different types of shading. I know it can be boring, but it's how you learn.....go to Tattooing 101 youtube page, watch and learn.
Good luck on your journey to becoming a tattooist.

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Thank you so much for the time and feedback! I really appreciate it. Definitely not going to be discouraged by opinions. It’s my choice to drop my crappy work on here for everyone to see.

Thanks again and will definitely check out the youtube .

molliekaye1 said:

It looks great congratz.

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Thanks !

Big Pete said:

Well the obvious sticks out like the proverbial dogs balls......Lining
Just keep in mind that learning to tattoo takes a lot of time, don't think that you can tattoo fruit one week, fake skin the next and then be ready...
Practice is the key, and read as much as you can on here....asking for us to give opinions on this tattoo is a daunting task, there is so much wrong with it, and also so much good about it. Don't be discouraged by negative comments, be prepared to tattoo hundreds of fake skins, don't try to do complete tattoos, just tattoo straight lines, curved lines, practice different types of shading. I know it can be boring, but it's how you learn.....go to Tattooing 101 youtube page, watch and learn.
Good luck on your journey to becoming a tattooist.

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I'm not okay with everything Pete wrote, but i'd say it's a good path to take.
I believe everything is about your self-confidence.
I tattooed fake skin for about 20 minutes before i did my first tattoo on a real person.
There's no absolute on this journey, just take the path that fits you better.
Before i started, i read tons of info, watched tons of videos. So i did see some infos posted many times, aka basics or reminders.
It didn't made me a good tattoer, but i started with a bag of rules to follow.
Tattoo after tattoo, i went slow and smooth, trying to avoid damaging my clients' skin.
Not everyone has to do that, but it's another path you can take.
There are some things you have to know though, i had many years of drawingand graphic design behind me, i'm 46 and have some other life experience which helped me with stress and self confidence, reflections around the technique, etc...

All that to say that there are no strict rules and that you can take any clever road which fits you best.
Just filter everything you read, me included.

Peace,

DKJ

Leonemalo said:

Hello everyone,

I am from the Netherlands and just started tattooing. I am 30 years old and don’t have any experience in art or drawing. Also my current job has nothing to do with the artistic world whatsoever.

The tattoo below is my first ever. I must say that I did tattoo a few lines on an orange a few days ago to get the feel of it.

I am realy curious what you guys think and if I’m om the right track. I hope you can give me some advice, and ofcourse the hardest and most honest one !

Click to expand...

About your tattoo, you're beginning and it's quite a nice starting piece.

You tried multiple stuff here, lines, shading and packing!
Packing seems ok, shading is a good effort too but isn't very smooth.
Your lining lacks some fundamentals, it's not consistent, it's shaky and with a lot of depht variation.
Can you tell us more about the challenges you faced and how you did that piece?
What gear, needles, ink did you use?
Maybe you have more specific questions about how to do this or that, looking good on fake skin is undortunatly not enough.

Peace,

DKJ

.

DKJ said:

About your tattoo, you're beginning and it's quite a nice starting piece.

You tried multiple stuff here, lines, shading and packing!
Packing seems ok, shading is a good effort too but isn't very smooth.
Your lining lacks some fundamentals, it's not consistent, it's shaky and with a lot of depht variation.
Can you tell us more about the challenges you faced and how you did that piece?
What gear, needles, ink did you use?
Maybe you have more specific questions about how to do this or that, looking good on fake skin is undortunatly not enough.

Peace,

DKJ

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Thanks for the in depth reaction and sorry for the Italian style response time. So about the gear I used:

Tattoopen: Mast flip rotary with a rechargeable battery.
Needles: Extreme 1205RL and 1209M
Skin: cheap Chinese garbage (can not find reelskin anywhere)
I think the stroke was on 3.2 mm
And the voltage on 7.5.

It’s difficult to really pinpoint one specific challenge because everything was challenging .
I must say that the lining was really hard because the skin sticked to the needles many times so it came up and every time that happend I started wobbling. Also the way to hold the machine without getting cramps in my hand after 5 minutes of work ( I think I squeeze it too hard )

The black packing was also hard because I past it many times, if it was real skin I probably would have f*cked that person up real bad.

Now I must say that after a few attempts I pulled two lines on my self and the feeling was totally different, not only the pain involved… They were nice and straight and, in my opinion it was way easier to pull the lines on myself than on the fake Chinese skin…Like I did not have to do so much of the work and the machine was way smoother and consistent.

Leonemalo said:

Hello everyone,

I am from the Netherlands and just started tattooing. I am 30 years old and don’t have any experience in art or drawing. Also my current job has nothing to do with the artistic world whatsoever.

The tattoo below is my first ever. I must say that I did tattoo a few lines on an orange a few days ago to get the feel of it.

I am realy curious what you guys think and if I’m om the right track. I hope you can give me some advice, and ofcourse the hardest and most honest one !

Click to expand...

I think you did great for your first try.
Keep grinding!

Leonemalo said:

Hello everyone,

I am from the Netherlands and just started tattooing. I am 30 years old and don’t have any experience in art or drawing. Also my current job has nothing to do with the artistic world whatsoever.

The tattoo below is my first ever. I must say that I did tattoo a few lines on an orange a few days ago to get the feel of it.

I am realy curious what you guys think and if I’m om the right track. I hope you can give me some advice, and ofcourse the hardest and most honest one !

Click to expand...

It looks waaay better than my first tattoo, bro!

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Good job for a first try ,keep at it

John.D.Escu said:

I think you did great for your first try.
Keep grinding!

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Thnx man! Appreciate it

K_Tenn said:

It looks waaay better than my first tattoo, bro!

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Hahah thanks for the confidence

Dazza said:

Good job for a first try ,keep at it

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Thnx man. May I ask how the pig skin is to tattoo in confront of fake skin or real skin?

Leonemalo said:

Thnx man. May I ask how the pig skin is to tattoo in confront of fake skin or real skin?

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Pig skin is great to work on the closest thing to real skin

Dazza said:

Pig skin is great to work on the closest thing to real skin

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Do you also prep it in some kind of way or just start on it as it is?

Leonemalo said:

Do you also prep it in some kind of way or just start on it as it is?

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Yes I allways wash mine with dish liquid,cut into tattoo size pieces and freeze till needed , to defrost just put it in some warm water , dry , wipe down with alcohol before applying the stencil , the stencil can take a while to dry on so I generally put it back in the fridge overnight, you usually get two days tattooing before it start to get tough and dry out , so put it back in the fridge between sessions, once finished take photos and throw it away as it will start to smell , if your lucky you’ll get some skin without the slits in it , which are a pain in the butt

It's not bad but I'm gonna be honest on what you need to work on as a whole -
- Depth.
- Hand speed.

Machine speed seems right and angle seems right however you are getting blots in the linework. Research CPS and hand movement and how they sync together.

As for the artistic takes - Work on finding your mid tone and light tone before the dark tone. It will help with recognizing the over-all image before it gets too dark.

Other than that, good job. Keep going.

Dazza said:

Yes I allways wash mine with dish liquid,cut into tattoo size pieces and freeze till needed , to defrost just put it in some warm water , dry , wipe down with alcohol before applying the stencil , the stencil can take a while to dry on so I generally put it back in the fridge overnight, you usually get two days tattooing before it start to get tough and dry out , so put it back in the fridge between sessions, once finished take photos and throw it away as it will start to smell , if your lucky you’ll get some skin without the slits in it , which are a pain in the buttView attachment 27748View attachment 27749View attachment 27750

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Grate work! Definitely going to try the pig skin out, I hope it feels a bit better than the rubber crap from china. Thank you for the help!

KyleBl4ck said:

It's not bad but I'm gonna be honest on what you need to work on as a whole -
- Depth.
- Hand speed.

Machine speed seems right and angle seems right however you are getting blots in the linework. Research CPS and hand movement and how they sync together.

As for the artistic takes - Work on finding your mid tone and light tone before the dark tone. It will help with recognizing the over-all image before it gets too dark.

Other than that, good job. Keep going.

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Thanks for the help!

yes of course it’s risky to start as black as I did, now I see the logic in what you are saying! Thanks again and especially for the honesty! I’m going to study Cps and handspeed

Studying cps is not so complicated.

A fast lining tattooer may be up at 150cps, any faster could be risky.

Packing with coils (innate give) the CPS would be between 100-120, a little faster to shade.

Packing with a rotary without give is a bit different. I’ve definitely found I pack black better at the higher end of CPS (150) with a slight reduction for colour as it’s more viscous. The key is to get in and out quickly and control depth carefully. That doesn’t mean faster hand speed, but it does mean being strategic and deliberate in zoning your areas to be packed, say a square cm at a time, packing it all then moving on.

Shading with a no-give rotary, cps should also be high but the stroke should be shorter if possible. Lower cps will give a less smooth tone/blend.

The lowest CPS you’re ever likely to use, and I’m guessing somewhere around 70, depending on how low a voltage your machine will run, is for stipple shading, ideally with a long stroke.

This lower cps and stroke set up illustrates why the inverse of this is suitable for soft shading, as one technique relies on spaces between individual dots, while the other relies on not seeing the spaces.

Below is an extract from issue 1 of “Machine Gun” magazine, introducing the serialised article and experiment that led to the Eikon Green Monster project machine, and the subsequent Green Monster production machine. Note: When they talk about ‘shading’ in this context, it translates to ‘packing’.

If anyone wants to know the ins and outs of coil machines AND the physics that translate (albeit with differences in some cases) to all tattooing, I highly recommend reading the project notes in their entirety.

whippet said:

If anyone wants to know the ins and outs of coil machines AND the physics that translate (albeit with differences in some cases) to all tattooing, I highly recommend reading the project notes in their entirety.

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If you wanna send some info feel free, I've been debating going back to coils. Im not a fan of rotary as much as I thought I would be.

Here’s issue 1 of the magazine. I do have the full set but need to download all