My 1st attempts at Tattooing

[memmnock]

Hi Guys i have took this up as a hobby and nothing more as i have a great career as a contracts manager in construction which pays very well so i prob will never do any tattoo’s on real skin unless my own later on after im comfortable with it.
Let me know what yous think? any criticism is welcome except the word “SCRATCHER” as it make my blood boil :evil:

I bought a hildebrandt kit off the net and added some pieces here and there to it.

I didnt have time to do the shading properly on the cross and blend it in properly as wife was pestering me to go shopping lol

Let me know what you think?

I only use Kuro Sumi ink and bought the 3 sets black & grey, cherry wash set and bronze wash set.

Arthur.

[Ramenuzumaki]

looks really good dude
i also see you use Hildbrant machines like me
remember you arent stuck with just what you have for washes
you can use those tones and create even MORE tones by adding witch hazel, and/or distilled water
for your first attempt I see a lot of talent, and a lot of potential. keep it up

[memmnock]

Thanks ramen. ;)

I am going to try the watering down of the 3 different shades in each set of the kurosumi ink. I love the bronze set the best as i think it has a nice sepia tone to it :)

Im going to start trying portraits with soft shading as these interest me the best :)

[Ramenuzumaki]

do it up dude
Lenn will def check that out as he specializes in Portraits
i only use the outline ink right now
100% black
75% black
50% black
25% black
10% black
5% black

i then add witch hazel, and distilled water to it to make my greys :3

[Lennart82]

Anyone say my name???? :D

I’m am in love with the design of that owl :D

What you have done so far looks great……. And some critisism here as well……. Is this your first??? Honestly? If it is….. I really think you should do more. And move it a step up, you clearly have some skills, and it looks like you know what your doing. So my critisism is sorely on your day job…..
If thats whats stopping you from doing more…… Then its a shame.

And I dont believe a “SCRATCHER” would even think of hitting up on portraits. Well okey, they proberbly would, but they will destroy everything in the attempt, (Needle, machine, ink, the skin of his victom, powersupply, everything) But I would love to see what you can do.
Have you done any portraits on paper? If so… Lets see :D

[memmnock]

Hi Lenn, It is my 1st attempts! Ive always been good at replicating images but not making them up as an artist would do :|

I will give a face a try and some shading in it, i dont really know what i should use needle wise but id think i would use a 3 liner for fine lines and shade off them so there are no hard outlines? and use a 13 & 29 curved mag with my hard, medium and soft ink? Maybe a 3 round shader for the eyes and mouth?

It would be good to know what you would use Lenn?

[Lennart82]

First attempt??? Well you have truly amazed me then… And ask around, I dont get amazed easily…. ;)

Curios here, making them up as an artist would do? And how do they do that? :P

First up, when it comes to portraits, stay away from liners. Well, you can use it in some places like the eyes. But using a liner for a realistic face, will do more harm then good. You will get … well, lines…. And I have never seen a face with lines (perhaps eyeliners, but thats not natural) Lines in a face, equals cartoony.
I use 7 to 13 curved mags. 7 flat for the details. And 5 round shader for some areas.

And I understand, ink wise, that you have 3 different greys? Just remember, you can dip those 3 into a lot of different shades.
Example; Dark, dark, meduim – dark, dark, light – dark, medium, medium. – dark, medium, light and so on and so forth. If you master this, you can get almost every scale there is. ;)

Also, when doing a portrait, your stencil is the key… DONT LOSE IT, if its lost, then your really on your own, and on real skin, you dont want to be on your own, even if you have years and years of practise. One tiny little thing can change the scale, and it will be a bad portrait.

Have you done a portrait before? On paper I mean?

[Spider]

Nicely done. When you attempt portrait work keep in mind there is no right way to do it, but there a ton of wrong ways to do it. Take your time and don’t rush.

[Lennart82]

@Spider wrote:

Nicely done. When you attempt portrait work keep in mind there is no right way to do it, but there a ton of wrong ways to do it. Take your time and don’t rush.

+1
Agreed. Take your time.

Also one of the reasons I asked for your; “making them up as an artist would do” ;)

[Infamous]

Holy crap dude. You’ve got a lot of natural ability, I think its a downright shame your not interested in doing this professionally honestly.

[memmnock]

This portrait stuff sounds hard :lol: Dont know if i shud be doing it this quick then? The main thing i dont have is time due to work but will try to get more practice in and get it posted as your comment help and i dont make the same mistake twice as you learn from your mistakes ;)

The no line rule in portrait makes sense as it would look like a cartoon :)

[Lennart82]

Its only hard if you think its hard, and you start your machine, thinking; This is going to be hard.

Now NOT saying its easy, ;) But if you set your mind to it, thinking; I can do this. Then your one step closer. And practise skins is created just to give you some practise. What could go wrong? You screw up? No big deal, you dispose of it, and try again. Even if you try 20 times…. just do it…
(I dont know if you can read between my lines…. but…. DO IT…………. :D )

These first goes of yours…… You look like you have experience (if not? You have Raw Natural Talent) thats why I really would love to see you try out a portrait.
You my friend, NEED to find time….. It would be a waste of talent, if you just hide it away. Think of it this way; How many contracts manager do you think roam the world???
In my country of Denmark, there are about 5.000 +, How many tattooers do you think there is? 200…. 85 % of them I WILL call Scratchers, caurse they do NOT know what the heck they are doing.

A person with RNT should concentrate on it. And keep this in mind; NO ONE have EVER had a flawless tattoo career, mening, even the TOP Pros make mistakes now and then, so dont let that get to you.
Take your machine and tattoo. If theres no power, take a pencil and draw…… Dont stop ;)

Okey too much encouragement????? :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

[memmnock]

A clowns face i done as i had a spare cpl hrs.

I just cant seem to get ink to shade correct in pigskin? Is it because its dead? It just seems to go all gooey before your complete :(

I know i shouldnt have done it with lines but it was a cartoon face!

[Lennart82]

Hmmm toug one actually.
You CAN get lucky and make a perfect shade on a pigskin. AND even more lucky, if you CAN do it on a practise skin. But nevertheless, both of them are NOT real skin. Its only as close as it is.
Real skin has an elasticity, and as you said it, is alive. Real skin has a healing periode, in witch you arent 100 percent sure if the client is destroying it…
Now on real skin you stretch the skin like a balloon, and is easier to get the ink in, with the correct stretch. You cant stretch pigskin correctly, as its dead. And practise skin…. Ohhh boy… You cant even get the feel of a stretch.

But the clown down there, good work. (Even though I hate clowns…. childhood…. :lol: )

[memmnock]

Len, see when you stretch the skin (human) does it allow the ink to go in easier and not have to keep going over it over and over which would prob damage it? Ive done my forearm with my 3 kids names on it with a wall surrounding it. Its all just made up from imagination and im starting shading the blocks in the wall with the kurosumi cherry wash set i have but dont know how the ink will settle into it and how dark or light it will be so i have just done one block to see and need to leave it now. It went in easy but need to see the end result so i know what i actually done and learn from that shading on skin?

[Infamous]

Tattooing skin and tattooing practice skin are very different. It definitely seems easier to me to get my stuff down on real skin. Maybe thats the way its supposed to be though, get good at practice skin then when you get to work in real skin your work will be that much better. Basically because you’re used to working on a client with just the worst skin you’ve ever seen.

I believe someone here posted a little bit ago that the trick to getting good colors and shades in practice skin was to water down the ink. Think it was Shaggy… I haven’t had a chance to test that yet, just reiterating what I’ve heard.

As far as skin goes, real skin, it will heal just a little bit lighter than when it was first put in. (If administered properly anyway and the ink is placed at the right depth between the dermal and the epidermal layers) Thats because when it is fully healed there’s a brand new translucent layer of epidermis over the top of a tattoo.

[memmnock]

Thanks infamous that makes sense!
My best friend let me do his star sign the ram today on his ankle to get a better feel on skin and it felt really easy going in and tried shading techniques in the blackout area before i filled it in! I used a 5 round liner and 5 flat to fill it, should i have done it in any other needle group? it went in at around 1.5mm-2mm as my actions set around that and didn’t bleed much?
Here it is.

I will wait for about 3 weeks and fill in any missing bits if any but looks completely filled in to me!

[Ramenuzumaki]

Try using M1 M2 or RM. With a flat it is too easy to damage the skin unless you know what you’re doing

[memmnock]

Thanks raz, i have allot of m1 and m2 so will try those on pigskin to see the effects of those!

[Shaggy]

Mags are the best needle ever invented… I have done nothing the past few weeks but use an 11 M2, yes even on smaller designs. Learning to rotate and angle that needle has really improved my game. I can now get into tight corners with it, cover large areas, and by angling it so some needles are going in while others just kiss the skin I am getting a quick smooth even gradient. I’ve even been using it to bold up a line or 2 for varying line weights here and there. Truly an all-purpose needle.

PRACTICE SKIN ADVICE:
Yes I have found that with practice skin… because it is non-porous and really just a piece of rubber, that the ink needs to be watered down slightly. Which of course if you really think about it makes perfect sense, you are trying to force something with a thick density (i.e. colored ink pigment) into something that has the very high density of rubber and there is no room for it in there. So by watering it down some it goes in much easier (since it is now less dense), and eventually the water evaporates and leaves just the pigment. However lining black is not as thick so it works ok as is.

TIP on BUYING Practice Skin… DON’T buy the thick stuff, buy the practice skin that is just over 1/16 of an inch thick. Why? Because it will teach you proper needle depth. If your needle comes thru the back of the 1/16 inch practice skin you just went too deep on your customer. With the thicker practice skins you have no idea how deep you went and if you come out the back on the thicker practice skin then your customer would be bleeding profusely. Also with the 1/16 inch practice skin, when you are comfortable that you are not going thru the back… place it on your leg to ink it, its so thin it will give you more flesh like resistance against your own flesh. Also if you do happen to go thru it, you will learn quick since it is on your leg… I recommend having jeans on just in case.

[Lennart82]

@Shaggy wrote:

Mags are the best needle ever invented… I have done nothing the past few weeks but use an 11 M2, yes even on smaller designs. Learning to rotate and angle that needle has really improved my game. I can now get into tight corners with it, cover large areas, and by angling it so some needles are going in while others just kiss the skin I am getting a quick smooth even gradient. I’ve even been using it to bold up a line or 2 for varying line weights here and there. Truly an all-purpose needle.

PRACTICE SKIN ADVICE:
Yes I have found that with practice skin… because it is non-porous and really just a piece of rubber, that the ink needs to be watered down slightly. Which of course if you really think about it makes perfect sense, you are trying to force something with a thick density (i.e. colored ink pigment) into something that has the very high density of rubber and there is no room for it in there. So by watering it down some it goes in much easier (since it is now less dense), and eventually the water evaporates and leaves just the pigment. However lining black is not as thick so it works ok as is.

TIP on BUYING Practice Skin… DON’T buy the thick stuff, buy the practice skin that is just over 1/16 of an inch thick. Why? Because it will teach you proper needle depth. If your needle comes thru the back of the 1/16 inch practice skin you just went too deep on your customer. With the thicker practice skins you have no idea how deep you went and if you come out the back on the thicker practice skin then your customer would be bleeding profusely. Also with the 1/16 inch practice skin, when you are comfortable that you are not going thru the back… place it on your leg to ink it, its so thin it will give you more flesh like resistance against your own flesh. Also if you do happen to go thru it, you will learn quick since it is on your leg… I recommend having jeans on just in case.

+ 1 on the advice here :D

Mags are brillient though.
It takes practise, but what dosent? And once you master a mag, you can pull out great stuff. It truly is great for everything. ;)

Needle depth wise, the thin practise skin really helps. I hated practise skin, especially when the ink didnt do what I wanted it to do, and then I pressed deeper, which resultet in a permenant mark of an eye, on my desk…. This in it self was a lesson on depth ;)

[memmnock]

A cheshire cats face that took 70min as i didnt have anymore time :( Turned out ok though except the writing! Its started in a circle above the cats face and because i was holding and stretching the skin it has stayed that way squint :lol: This would have been ok on real skin as its elastic and goes back i know but i wasnt happy and was gonna bin it but who cares we are all friends and i dont do perfect ;)

Its around 3-4″ wide and i used a 5 round liner and 15 round shader! Should i have done it in any other needle group maybe??

Arthur.

[memmnock]

A butterfly but didnt have time for the shading underneath :-(

[Christa]

i like that butterfly! you are very good! what does one say to a butcher to see if he will give up his skinz lol

[Lennart82]

Memm, Im saying this again…. You should move up. ;)
Enough practise, do it already ;)

[memmnock]

Christa a butcher a butcher will gladly give you their pig skin for very little money as they throw the skin in the bin! I get mine for nothing as my wife works in a butchers shop :lol: you should see my freezer my god its full and i just keep adding to it!

Thanks len..im trying to get more time in practicing now as im wanting to do it all the time and have allot of people on FB wanting tats but im not doing them as i dont want to make a mistakes and get a bad name :( I like doing pigskin for now and every time i do one i feel im learning fast on it. I really want to start practicing portraits with black & grey and know i will get them wrong but should learn pretty fast from it. Im off work for a week so im gonna be doing tats solid if my wife doesnt bug me to do other stuff :lol: Hopefully i can get this portrait stuff down and get a feel for it as drawing is quiet easy but using a tattoo machine to do its not :?

[Lennart82]

I am really looking forwards for your portrait project :D

[Author]

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