TexasPT

Great stuff, Don. Thanks for sharing.

Mark

I’d love to see some pictures of your tattooing.

incredible work, Don. Have you done any tattooing yet or are you just drawing designs?

they just seem to go right where you put them with little effect from the vibration of the machines. They really are not that wide…but I love traditional broad lines and these not only make my job easier but they look awesome in my opinion.

I still need to try curved mags…on my to do list. Let me know how you like them. Can’t wait to see…[Read more]

that’s expensive for most. Welcome to the board.

Mark

I like you enthusiasm.

that being said…

If you are hoping to progress from paper and pencil to tattooing my suggestion would be to clean up your linework and learn how to shade. take a dull pencil and practice gradients going form dark to light and think about where the light is hitting your object and what kind of shadow it would cast. Your…[Read more]

I’ll shave with whatever I’m wiping with, antibacterial soap/water mixture. Then I’ll use rubbing alcohol and wipe the area down to remove any oils and soap residue that may be left. This helps the stencil stay put longer.

Hope that helps.

Mark

Thanks for your service!

This is a good site for learning. Very little in the way of attitude and everyone seems to genuinely want to help others. Good luck on your endeavors.

Mark

that’s awesome.

Do you do parallel lines and fill or do you just build? Thick lines scare me…I usually come back over lines with a round shader to get them bigger.

Great work, man. Thanks for posting.

Mark

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004DLURGO/ref=s9_simh_gw_p236_d0_g236_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0TYQY0J1WA27GTB0Z998&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

It just takes the wiggle out. Same connection it takes to get your TV hooked up to your VCR these days.

clip cord

they don’t always fit their holes snug and as you rotate the machine you’ll notice a difference in sounds. Funny you brought this up. I’m headed out to Radio Shack right now to make RCA conversions for my machines to eliminate that problem. Been studying it for a bit and had the issue explained by a friend who is apprenticing right now.

@Randy5 wrote:

Alcohol

Yep…get’m drunk and they won’t care if it’s clean or not. :)

Welcome…this is a “scratcher’s” forum for sure. Lots of us learning and sharing information. The more you post…the more you’ll learn.

Mark

good video on the subject. This guy’s channel has TONS of great information

whatever depth you choose, make sure you still get that depth when it is running. How does it look when the machine is going and you bog it down? I was so concerned at one point to have a “soft” running machine that the poor thing was just dying under load. It took a couple extra volts to make the needle reach full extension.

my biggest lesson…[Read more]

You don’t want to change voltage…so that leaves your contact screw for speed. If you are “shallow”, why not look at the needle depth rather than machine speed? If you are getting sketchy lines, maybe your needle is bouncing, or you just have the shakes like you said. Do you rubberband your needle? Is it snug on the a-bar? These will affect…[Read more]

Oh…and if you are tattooing people. STOP. get this sorted out before you hurt someone.

The problem is the how the hell do i get my machine to speed up to match my hand speed?

Do you adjust your pencil for hand speed, or paintbrush? Slow down or speed up your hand.

easy fix. :)

make sure skin is stretched

Check needle depth when the machine is loaded. Set it while it is off and then with the machine running move the machine over so the nipple on the armature bar hits your thumb. (this way you control the pressure with the machine and not your thumb). When it bogs down, make sure you still have enough needle coming out.…[Read more]

Welcome to the site. Lots of great information here. Saw your work in the other section, great stuff.