Tarantula

@butterflyhitman wrote:

these forums won’t teach u what u need to know, helpful perhaps but we don’t need u out there hacking up flesh making our lives more difficult fixing mistakes, so learn hands on before u purchase a kit online. please.

Wow that’s pretty negative and not really the kind of advice most people on here would give. Watercolours…[Read more]

@Viper65 wrote:

you got a link for buying them trantula?

http://www.thetattooshop.co.uk/shop/textured-weaved-magnum-tattoo-needles-for-colour-shading.html

That’s a UK shop I think the US version is Worldwide Tattoo?
Or the tattoo shop also sell on ebay I believe.

http://www.killerinktattoo.co.uk/tattoo-needles/precision/magnum-weaved/
Also a UK…[Read more]

Woven are not the same as stacked. A woven mag is just like using a flat but the 2 rows will help the color go in faster. Stacked mags are just what they say they are, the needles are stacked on top of each other so the skin takes more punishment per pass. I like to use woven as you get to go over the area more often getting a much more solid…[Read more]

I think the clue might be in the tips and tubes cleaned with ultrasonic might be a clue. If you can’t autoclave use disposables, ultrasonics do not sterilize.

I’ll be honest Tex, if you’re tattooing people and their arms are doubling in size you may want to look at your technique. Tattoo’s swell sometimes,sure, but DOUBLE in size? When I started tattoing we did it with either a needle and cotton or a syringe needle but even poking the tats in didn’t make the area swell up that much.

@TexasPT wrote:

sometimes tattoos swell up. It doesn’t mean you had an infection…you’d know if you had.

I think the arm doubling in size and hurting like hell may have been an indication that it wasnt normal swelling :P

Look elsewhere, if you even have a tiny concern about his ability then he’s no good for you, you’ll get to the point where when you are better than him really quickly, or he won’t teach you anything out of fear of being shown up.

If you’re gonna apprentice then do it under someone who fills you with awe when you see his work.

Fotosketcher http://www.fotosketcher.com/
Gimp http://www.gimp.org/
both free, both easy to use, enjoy

Red is a pain to fill with as its the same colour as blood and unhappy skin, really easy to miss spots. if you have decent light and give it a spray with water every now and then the holidays will show up better.
Awesome work though :)

Take care out there, looking forward to seeing some more stuff when you’re back :)

Viper, no offense taken :D
A 14rs is pretty easy to use and puts in a pretty straight line but if you want a crisp edge you need to tidy it up with a small tight liner, I use this technique a lot when I want thicker lines, I have other techniques posted elsewhere but this is the easiest I think.

I apologise, my grammar was much more legible in my head I promise :D I wasn’t telling you to stick to piggy as I’d actually like to see some of your latest stuff on skin :)
One of my pet hates on some other sites at the moment is people posting some awesome piece of work and then having a load of people asking which needle groups have been used…[Read more]

If you don’t recommend that beginners use certain needle groupings then stating which needles they use is counter productive surely? If you post a pic and tell everyone you used a flat 5 to do the shading and colouring you can guarantee that atleast one person reading is gonna buy some flats and try them out, as we all know flats can slice like a…[Read more]

Viper, I dont want to start a big flaming match here, so please don’t take this the wrong way: in another post you are asking people to say what needles they used when doing their work, then here you tell OP that you don’t reccomend they use certain needles…

Try using a 14r for the outline, you can use a shader that will give you plenty of weight for a cartoon style tattoo, just fix the edges with a 3rl or single needle. you can also outline the black with a thin white line to give it the impression of a sticker, also some white highlights to give some reflected light would be good. This is for the heart tat

Shading at the top is supposed to be from the leaf I’m guessing? It looks slightly off but in all not a bad tattoo. Sometimes a real thick outline will make that style pop a bit more, maybe some reflected light would have been nice, and some more shading to give it more of a 3D feel. As Viper said if you go over it with some darker colours it…[Read more]

I don’t think it matters which way you want to put it, fish can pretty much go whichever way you like (look at koi tats!). If I do tats on my own legs I try to make them as challenging as possible, a detailed tattoo done upside down is a pretty good challenge, it also helps you concentrate on your lines more as your eyes aren’t telling you what it…[Read more]

If you want to make a “true” grey the best way I find to do it is to start with a cap 3/4 full with white ink, then I have an electric stirrer that i dip into the black ink (or any dark ink when I’m mixing colors), give it a real good stir and see if its light enough, if not just repeat. Don’t use a whole drop of black ink as this will most likely…[Read more]

Nice!

On a serious note when doing a final clean up I usually put on a small ammount of undiluted green soap and then use some dettol/water mix rub it all in (with clean gloves) then gently wipe it with a moistened kitchen towel, I get good feedback from this as you get most of the crap off with the soap and then the wiping is really gentle as theres no…[Read more]