Tarantula

Dab with an alchohol soaked kitchen towel… then when he’s finished screaming ask him if he’d prefer you to go back to wiping.

Rounds tend to abuse the skin more as the way they are made means more needles hitting the same patch of skin. Small flats can be just as good at getting into tight spots if you turn them on their side, but care is needed so as not to cut like a razor. As Tex says going too deep or having volts too high can also be a problem as can letting the…[Read more]

The easiest, fastest and safest way to solid fill an area is to do it slowly, small overlapping circles. Make sure you fill each small area as you go as you don’t want to go over the same area too many times. Machine setup plays a massive role here. Buy the book its all in there :)

For colour work, yes work dark to light so the darker colour doesn’t bleed into the lighter ones making them look muddy this can happen when you wipe the tattoo too. For grey wash it really doesn’t matter although it makes more sense to do your lighter washes first then darken them, nothing worse than starting dark then overlapping washes and…[Read more]

I bought the book as I was looking for something that would help me with building my own machines. Then found this site by way of that, glad I did as the people here seem to be pretty cool and happy to take constructive criticism. I belong to some other sites, some are good most are bad, some are downright dangerous.

I use pig skin a fair bit, I have a buddy who is a chef and he gets bits from his supplier, some are smallish but some are fairly big. The gigger bits, yes you can tattoo on then then stick them back in the freezer, or cut off a size you want to use.
They are pretty greasy so you need to clean them up with a bit of rubbing alchohol.
I dont know…[Read more]

Personally if someone were to “harrass” me over the phone, it would just make me want to employ them less. You really want people you’re going to get on with around you, so you’re more likely to pick someone who has been in and had a few tats from you before and expressd an interest in tattooing.
That’s my opinion atleast.

True but respect need to be earned, you cant just go around demanding that people respect you, respect the fact that they’re another human being yes but anything else needs to be earned.
The way people teach is different but theres usually a reason for it, standing in a low painful stance in martial arts seems like torture and after a few weeks a…[Read more]

It looks pretty good to me :) picture is pretty small to see much detail though :( I’ve seen “professionals” do a worse job than that…
I pre-make my greywash inks: 50% 25% 12% and 6%. I have also used the 1,2 and 3 drops of ink version.
Another way to mix your ink is to use 1 16 mm cap of pure black and 3 of water / witchhazel / wash solution…[Read more]

I’ve been into martial arts for about 25 years, I have a black belt in a couple, but I still go to other styles and train to learn what they do differently. I would never dream of going to them and saying “Hey fk you pal, I’m a black belt, I don’t want to learn your basics, just show me the good stuff…!” If people want to teach themselves to…[Read more]

Nice job Tex :) I’m glad that anything I said helped you, after all that’s why were here :)

4 Painted portraits yes, they’re already been painted so theres not a lot you can do about light source. It takes 2 minutes to flip an image so it faces the other way so the light all hits the same side. I’m fairly sure the masters, if they knew artwork was going to hang side by side, would have painted them with the same light source.

Small tattoos I will dab with a dry towel while outlining and wipe with a moist towel when colouring. Bigger tattoos I will use moist towels as I don’t want the skin to be sore already when I get to the shading / colouring part.

I don’t think green soap pulls ink out, in my experience fading is usually down to peoples choice of aftercare.

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…[Read more]

Most inks that come with kits need to be put straight in the bin

that’s very cool, like it!

The colours are faint? I have the same problem on plastic skins, the cheap thin ones that is never used the thicker double sided ones. As they’re plastic the colour tends to fade when you wash them off, the best way I’ve found to keep colour in better is cleaning them with vaseline.

That one is outlined, he wants some bamboo put in the background which I will do in greywash without a liner to give the impression of distance. Using a round shader for Kanji without outline gives it a softer edge, using a flat 5 can give it a more brushed on look. Personally I’m not so keen on kanji with such soft edges unless it serves a purpose.

Some chinese caligraphy I did for a friend about 6 months ago. I used flats for shading as they get into corners nicely, if you want a “painted on” look then use flats like you would a brush with no outline.

What problems are you having with lines? Is it just long lines you have trouble with? I always work off the tips, with a nice thin coating of vaseline the excess ink kinda goes back up the tube and I can see how my lines are going. Riding the tube I always found I was getting ink everywhere and wiping half my design away cleaning up.
Make sure…[Read more]