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I wasn’t going to post this, because I wasn’t at all happy with it. But since I’m on the forum it seems wrong not to. This was a cover up of a tattoo I got when I was 15. I’m 39 now…so it’s been a while.
The Bad: I screwed up most of the lines, the reds didn’t cover like I thought they would, and the violet seems to be much darker than it looked in the bottle. My shader coils overheated and started to sputter half way through. I blew out the lines on the right side of the heart when I made a second pass.
The good: It is healing nice.What I did different than on practice skin:
1. Changed from diamond to round tip so I could use disposables.
2. Didn’t “watch” my needle like I should have due to success on practice skins. You can see I double visioned some lines
3. had 2 kids fighting in the background…had to play dad and tattooist…not enough focus.
4. I think I just tried to rush it.I’m confident I can fix it when it heals. It just gives me another area to practice, really.
Feel free to take shots, I can handle it. But throw in some helpful tidbits here and there too.
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@TexasPT wrote:
Feel free to take shots, I can handle it. But throw in some helpful tidbits here and there too.
*takes aim*…
Only kidding, bro, there’s nothing there that can’t be salvaged :) Here’s how I’d handle it…
Personally speaking, I prefer round tips, preference I know, but I feel there is less play between the needle and tip wall, so I would suggest sticking with them (but of course, it’s all a matter of personal preference…)
1. When it’s healed, re-line with a thicker lining needle, that will help mask any wonkiness/blurred lines
2. In a large ink cup, put in 3 drops of black ink, then top it off with distilled water to make a nice grey-wash. Do shading around the ‘swirls in the lower left section of the heart, and up around the edges of the hard lines you drew. Then use more red to over-saturate the entire heart.
3. Use more violet (with your shading machine) to totally fill the ‘outer cloud’ area which is currently un-worked skin. Then use the thick lining needle, and white ink, to put a single white line right next to the black outline
4. Add a second ‘cloud layer’ around the outer edge, and fill with more violet shading, and that should cover the last of the original ink :)Well, that’s my .2c… :)
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@TexasPT wrote:
Thanks for the input. All good ideas.
Any time, bro, I’m always happy to help if I can :)
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@evan wrote:
i agree with the kitchinwiz but a oldschooler gave me a old trick on graywash he told me to use white ink insted of water i tryed i love it i get a more even wash and it keeps its thickness that you lose with water
White and black is good to make a thick grey ink for obscuring blurred out lines with a ‘shadow glow’ but, I think on on piece like this, it would look ‘too solid’, if that makes any sense? Of course, just my .2c :)
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@evan wrote:
its all good i still use water too at times deepends on what im tating your most likely right on this one tho
I think if it was covering up a lot of visible lines, say like the lines of a peonie flower, then the grey ink would definitely be best to cover, I just think that with this one, the visible lines can be used to create ‘shadows’ around the heart, which is why I think that the grey ink might be ‘too solid’, but of course, as with everything, to each their own, and it’s just my .2c :)
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This afternoon I decided to fix my cover up. I used some of Kitchen Wizard’s ideas. Thanks, man.
I reworked all lines with a 14R liner and used a 7 mag for the color. Wish I had a 15 mag…would have been so much easier. I need to do some needle/tube shopping I guess. White was put in with a liner right next to the inner ring and between the violet and the innner ringer from the outer. (did that make sense?) I’m pretty sure I’m going to have some “holidays” in the violet and will probably need to go back one last time. I can’t for the life of me get my shader to run like I think it needs to run. I need to play some more…If I try to run it soft and slow I just don’t feel like it puts ink in.
I’m pretty happy with how I was able to redo some stuff. we’ll see how it heals.
Mark
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@TexasPT wrote:
This afternoon I decided to fix my cover up. I used some of Kitchen Wizard’s ideas. Thanks, man.
I reworked all lines with a 14R liner and used a 7 mag for the color. Wish I had a 15 mag…would have been so much easier. I need to do some needle/tube shopping I guess. White was put in with a liner right next to the inner ring and between the violet and the innner ringer from the outer. (did that make sense?) I’m pretty sure I’m going to have some “holidays” in the violet and will probably need to go back one last time. I can’t for the life of me get my shader to run like I think it needs to run. I need to play some more…If I try to run it soft and slow I just don’t feel like it puts ink in.
I’m pretty happy with how I was able to redo some stuff. we’ll see how it heals.
Mark
That is a 100% improvement, bro, that’s looking really clean :) With regards the shader set up (my color packer set up shades better than my shader :? ) I absolutely agree with what you say that id doesn’t feel like it puts ink in. With mine, it puts in such soft layers, that a single pass on an area (circular circles for a few seconds) won’t do more than break the skin, it takes 2-3 passes before the ink goes in at full saturation :) Sure, it’s going over the same place a few times, but it hits so softly, that it’s not chewing the skin in the process :)
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Thanks. I had the before and after side by side on the screen here and felt pretty good about it. I guess I can be taught. :) I appreciate the input on the design…I think the white is going to be a nice touch when it all heals up.
I’ll try to run softer and be patient for a few runs to see what happens.
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@TexasPT wrote:
Thanks. I had the before and after side by side on the screen here and felt pretty good about it. I guess I can be taught. :) I appreciate the input on the design…I think the white is going to be a nice touch when it all heals up.
I’ll try to run softer and be patient for a few runs to see what happens.
No worries, it looks awesome :) My one suggestion, would be to add a little extra greywash around the inside of the heart, just to totally blend out the bird’s head, but, I know that is a result of looking at a close up photo on a screen, where if someone was to pass you in the street, they’d likely only see a heart and clouds :) One of the things discussed on the watch forum I belong to, is how good or how close to the original a replica watch can be made to look (we collect replicas, rather than the real thing 8-) ) and the overall concencus, is that if the watch looks good from 2 feet away (regardless of how it looks up close or viewed through a magnifier) then that is considered ‘good enough’ and ‘street worthy’, and that’s a mind-set I’ve had to learn to apply to tattoos as well. It’s like the shoulder piece I did on my friend… Before I added the color, I could still see every mistake and correction in the linework, but she received nothing but compliments for it, so what we see as the artist, is very rarely what the ‘guy in the street’ will see in passing or even when explained to them :) The white definitely helps define the break in the cloudwork, but don’t be surprized if you have to apply more white once it’s healed, I’ve heard of a few examples where white ink has faded quite quickly during healing and needed re-applying :? Softer is definitely better on the machine set up, sure, it might take a bit longer, but it’s going to be easier on the client in terms of the pain experienced, and also easier on their skin, as they’re not being chewed up :)
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I did a small bit of graywash already but didn’t want to blacken out the heart completely. When this is healed up I may end up making it a black heart with red highlights to cover it all. But like you said…it’s street worthy. Nobody who has seen the tattoo has noticed woody woodpecker peeking through. The running joke now is that I “covered my pecker with a heart on”…good stuff. :lol: I like the 2 foot rule. When I raced it was the 20/70 rule. At 20 feet and 70mph your spray-can paint job looks professional.
Probably like all of us, I’m my worst critic. If one things is off the whole piece is off in my mind. So I’ve tried real hard to remember this is a learning process. Stuff nobody else would ever notice I see. I actually flipped through a few magazines looking for lining errors and was amazed at how many I found. Even on some of the world’s best artists. It made me feel a little better about things.
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@TexasPT wrote:
I did a small bit of graywash already but didn’t want to blacken out the heart completely. When this is healed up I may end up making it a black heart with red highlights to cover it all. But like you said…it’s street worthy. Nobody who has seen the tattoo has noticed woody woodpecker peeking through. The running joke now is that I “covered my pecker with a heart on”…good stuff. :lol: I like the 2 foot rule. When I raced it was the 20/70 rule. At 20 feet and 70mph your spray-can paint job looks professional.
Probably like all of us, I’m my worst critic. If one things is off the whole piece is off in my mind. So I’ve tried real hard to remember this is a learning process. Stuff nobody else would ever notice I see. I actually flipped through a few magazines looking for lining errors and was amazed at how many I found. Even on some of the world’s best artists. It made me feel a little better about things.
Personally speaking, I’d suggest not blacking the heart out entirely, simply because that will then just look like a dark tattoo, where having the red in the heart makes a nice contrast in colors :) I’m liking the running gag as well :lol: I think those distance rules are the key things an artist needs to drum into themselves. Obviously, yes, as a matter of professional pride, we always strive to do the best piece we can, but, being Human, mistakes can and do happen (I’ve seen script work by Kat Von D where one letter was so out of scale to the others, it looked like a really amateur piece, and not the kind of thing I’d expect from an artist of her experience…) All we can do is learn to do good enough work to avoid the glaringly obvious mistakes (like tattooing “I worship Santa” on a Satanist :twisted: ), and learn to accept what is ‘within reason’ :)
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I like the progress thus far.
If this came to me….I would hit the dark purple area with a deeper purp. And add several blends of red…names of red will vary depending on your brand of ink. I would hit the reds hard. You can only do so much at this point without over traumatizing the skin.
I think the longer I sit and stare at this piece I get more and more ideas….so I’ll just end my note lol
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Yesterday I took the third stab at this tattoo. :) It has been a great learning experience for me.
I darkened up the outter band violet and even blended in a little light violet working in. The heart was covered again with red in efforts to hide old lines. So far I’ve used blood red, red, and bright red and if nothing else I have at least gotten all the spots filled in. I’ve finally learned to run my machine slow and fast and take my time to get ink in. (well…I’m better)
I think the best part of this one is I used a loose 9 round to make some lines broader. I think it gave the piece some depth.
Thanks everyone who has put in their .02 on this one from the start. It’s been a lot of fun so far using just one piece and watching my progression.
Mark
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