Shaggy

Agreed!

I actually prefer “Best Ink” to “Ink Master”… still got the b.s. drama for TV, but not as much. And Joe C. gives great advice compared to just saying whats wrong with a piece like Peck and Nunez do.

Nikko Hurtado… Bob Tyrell… Roman Abrego… Mike Devries!

SparkEater… I have been too busy to check here in awhile, but have to tell you I LOVE the stuff you have been posting. Gotta admire the honesty and passion for the craft in your posts (I also loved when MadReaper was around). Obviously it is all falling on deaf ears unless they are…[Read more]

No worries… glad to help!

Just a suggestion… you should be sticking with M1 mags anyway, M2’s serve their purpose as do curved, but just starting out you should be more focused on sinking ink and getting it to stay in the skin nice, smooth and saturated. Don’t assume an M2 is going to saturate just better because the needles are tighter, it…[Read more]

Are you using an 11 tip with your 11 m2? I’m guessing you are… M2’s are grouped tighter and therefore you have to drop down in tip size to eliminate the side to side wiggle. If you compare a standard 11 mag with an M2 you will see the M2 is much narrower. That is why you didn’t see it with your flat needle, cause it actually fit the tube…[Read more]

I have been using NeoTats for about 4 months now, after 5 years of coils, and I can say I love them. No muss, no fuss, no tweaking and no tuning… just the occasional oiling. I also agree with comments I have seen around the net that rotaries seem to produce less trauma to the skin.

@Ladysinaz wrote:

I have also noticed that when i take my foot…

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I agree with Jbeau. Since you said you switched to a 7RS and it went in, here are my 2 thoughts on possibilities:

1) Your machine isn’t properly set up as a shader/color packer.
2) Your angle is wrong… with liners and round shaders, your approach to the skin should be close to 90 degrees. With a mag however, your approach to the skin should…[Read more]

South Florida here… tshirt and shorts today, how about up there? :D

Our shop rate is $150/hr… (“friend” rate is $100/hr). Shop minimum is $60 for like simple script, etc.

@Jbeaufosho wrote:

What do you mean by a side stroke when lining?

With the reservoir facing forward going left or right. It follows the natural pendulum motion of the needle bar from the nipple, putting no undo stress on needle bar.

Granted you don’t want to move in multiple directions without stopping and letting needle reset at center.

@Ladysinaz wrote:

Thanks for the input shaggy

The second melon is done with my new power supply and the rotaries. I think that i had the voltage up too high when i was doing the lining, which is probably why i felt like i had to move my hand faster not to chew things up.
I actually got some of the thin thin skin, i was trying to figure out how to…

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I practiced on melons LONG before I went to real skin, mainly because I had no desire back then to do skin but just wanted to see how my airbrush skills might translate over. From your melon photos, one thing is obvious… you are going to deep with the needle 70% of the time. You need to practice needle control & depth control… take your…[Read more]

I’ve been getting quite a few rib tattoos coming in the shop lately, and a few weeks ago I think I stumbled on to a trick. Another tattooer was using the massage table so I had to have my customer sit sideways on a bar height chair… Yes very awkward and uncomfortable for them, but awesome for me height-wise and angle-wise. Placing a cushion…[Read more]

The whole saran wrap thing grew out of tattoo conventions. Artists would wrap the new tattoo in saran wrap because it offered barrier protection on the convention floor while letting the tattoo be visible to everyone on the convention floor. Just another example of a good idea gone wrong and brought into everyday practice. I think it probably…[Read more]

Actually Ram… according the Berne Convention which the US belongs to (not sure about Canada). Copyright is AUTOMATIC for original works (sorry Reaper but that does include photos). However in the US, to be compensated for damages and reimbursed for lawyer fees it MUST BE a registered copyright… which means you can still go to court and…[Read more]

Wow… been awhile since I’ve been on here, but I have to say reading all the back-and-forth between Infamous and Mad Reaper across multiple threads has made me laugh – imagining them sitting at the keyboard, blood boiling as they respond to each other.

Let me preface my post with this… While I am fairly new to this forum, I did graduate from…[Read more]

Thanks Infamous!

First piece completed in the shop… so my “first official tattoo”.

http://s1274.photobucket.com/user/f3greg/media/butterflycomp_zps939ccfec.jpg.html

There is a great Mario Barth video on the subject of tattooing darker skin on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=or9z_WcCSUI He talks about how color reacts with light in dark skinned people and compares it to laying a piece of tinted film over your art (the tinted film representing the dark skin color). Then he goes on to discuss what…[Read more]

Not sure where you read rotary machines damage the skin more… it is actually the opposite, which is why you see a lot of the big name guys now leaning toward rotary (less trauma and increased healing time). Don’t get me wrong I use both, I can’t find any cons to my rotary… there is no messing with settings just adjust power supply to what you…[Read more]

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…[Read more]