building lines

[TexasPT]

I’ve been working on practice skin and trying to build lines. I don’t have a problem putting down clean lines initially but when I try to get them bigger they get all crazy. I know the book says think of it as three parts, the two lines running parallel and then the “filler”…

Do you “fill” the lines with the liner or is it better to fill it up when you switch to a mag or shader? Or does it simply depend on the thickness of the line you are trying to build?

Thanks in advance for opinions on this one.
Mark

[jtdaltonsr]

In my experience, which, im not a pro yet so u will know, but when i have multiple line thickness within one piece, I will do the outside lines, then fill in with the magnum. I was told to try with the liner, but Im afraid i may turn to oatmeal if i do that. So if i were u, I would FIRST try with the mag setup, if THAT doesnt work, ask your mentor.

[KitchenWizard]

I did a Hawaiian piece on my thigh a few days ago… Internal lines’re pretty wonky, and I’m going to go over them with a 9 liner, then shade, to correct that wonkiness. (Tattooing the outside edge of ones own thigh is rather awkward…) But, the filling on the outer triangles, I’m really pleased with, and that was done with a color packer set at nickel and dime thickness between contact screw and front spring, and a soft spring, which gives a little ‘backwards travel’ when it hits the needle (When running, the blur of the A bar creates a very tight pyramid in the center of the blur) and it hits soft as butter on the skin. Took a couple of passes with a 7 shader, but the ink is in there solid. Moral of the story, is I would suggest using a similar technique, and simply using the appropriate size shader to do the fill between the outer lines :)

http://i141.photobucket.com/albums/r44/TreadstoneArt/DSCN4007-Copy.jpg

[messijesse]

I get letter requests alot. So a good fine line is a must. What I have learned is to put my little finger out an touch it to the skin to anchor and I use my spare hand to stretch the skin and I almost rest my machine on my spare hand to guide. Almost always I go back when Im done filling to touchup lines.

The key here is the anchor pinky and really stretched skin for a single pass line. Also a little vasalin on my tattoo hand to help with the gliding.

[TexasPT]

Thanks.
I’ve tried the pinkie thing and I just don’t have the dexterity in my hands. Maybe I’ve broken the fingers too many times…it always feels awkward. maybe I need to try again and see what happens.

[Tarantula]

Guy Aitchinsons in his book “Reinventing the Tattoo” says that a good way to build up a line is to go over it first in a small looping manner (as if you were colouring, very small looping overlapping circles) then straighten both edges with a small (3rl) liner. I’ve done this, and it works well on big thick lines. The idea is that as its hard to follow a line perfectly its double hard to follow it perfectly twice (as in running your liner either side of the line you want to build up), whereas colouring OVER the line and then tidying the edges makes a better job. Try it and see on pig skin, fruit or plastic ofc, don’t try new stuff on people.

[Author]

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