any suggestions on coloring

[Alrethian]

Hi all,

I need some assistance in coloring in tattoos.

for some reason i can’t get the color to fill in smoothly. sometimes when i color a tattoo it often looks good but when it heals up i can tel that it’s not completely filled.

i don’t want to overwork the skin so i usualy do on a low voltage and rather fast small circles up and then again from left to right to make sure i cover the entire surface of the skin, but still…

can anyone help me on a better technique so the coloring looks good and is good from the start?

low voltage on the power suply and rapid circles with my magnum, or is there another and a better way to color in? I work with a cheyenne hawk

when i color my tattoos my powersuply is between 70 -80

Please help me. Thank you

[Spider]

Try using a flat for fill instead of a mag. While mags are great people underestimate the efficiency of a flat for shading and fill color. On most of my larger tribal work I go with a 11 – 15 flat not a mag for fill. When filling make sure to go back to the fill area after a few minutes to let the redness go down some (witch hazel mixtures help in this) and look for any lighter areas and give it a go over. If you can get the technique down flats are excellent for flipping sideways and running like a liner to hit the space right next to the lines. be careful in this though as running a flat sideways like a liner you can very easily chop up the skin, quick small strokes when doing this. On some areas of fill with color, try adding some wash (keep a cap of clean water for every color you are using) and dip a full tip with color quickly into the water to thin it out anf go into the color areas, this will help the ink kind of spread out some and fill some of the lighter areas.

[Lennart82]

The last couple of tattoos I’ve done, I actually stopped looking at the voltage screen.. I think I hear it… :?

Flats are good for colouring yes. And as Spider said, be carefull if you use it as a liner.
Theres an artist, American I believe, called something like 6 Flat Joe or something like that. Well never mind, cant remember. He uses a 6 flat for every thing (Or is it 7??)
So a flat is definatly a thing thats useable if you can master it.

One of my major issues when starting, I was way too fast, thinking it like charcoal. And just doing it fast. And people were amazed at how fast I was…
Lets just say, I’m still making up for my dumb idiot idea of being fast, and clients with half coloured fills are still coming back..
I learn my lesson.

Point being. Maybe your going too fast. Pace yourself, I hard learn lesson from myself. Better go over things more thourougly (Or how the heck thats spelled) and fast and forgetfullness-ish.

You could show a picture of the piece, that way, its easier to see the weakness. ;)

[Alrethian]

Hey guy’s thax for the replies.

I’m definitly gonna try these tips out, thank you.

I will try to post some works this weekend, i’ll attach them in this tread if that’s ok? Then you can see what i mean.

[Jbeaufosho]

It would definitely be a 6 flat. The old timers love them. And I’ve only ever used evenly numbered flats. From what I’ve learned flats aren’t really good to go out of the box. We make our own at the shop I work at and there’s an extra step that the mass produced ones I’ve seen don’t do. That being said its very easy to tear someone up using a flat improperly. How do you run your shader machine? I like mine to run pretty slow hit soft and have a long stroke. I know some people like punchier packers but i use the same machine for coloring and shading and never had a problem. But practice makes perfect with coloring. Its scary learning when the skin has had enough but dont be afraid to get that shit in there. In might take a couple passes. You might also be moving a little too fast maybe? Depending on how your machine runs. Hope that helped/made any sense. Good luck

[Jbeaufosho]

Also spider I know you’re a vet and you’ve been in the game for a while so no disrespect. I’m just speaking from my own personal experience and what I’ve been taught. Anyway hope I could help.

[Spider]

Been gone for a minute, but no disrespect taken at all. The whole point of posting here is to help others. I tell peeps I have worked with, there are 10,000 ways to do a succesul tattoo, there is only one way to do a horrible tattoo; fuck it up.

[Author]

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