I just got my first ever tattoo and it was likely overworked a little. Its kinda my fault though because of a time constraint of getting a half sleeve up to a pec (really detailed tattoo of a serpent battling a tiger) with the time constraint being a 14 day span. My first session was a 3 hour session for linework. The next session was literally the following day to get the detailed linework as well as some shading done, which was another 3 hour session. Then, 10 days later i had a double session making 6 hours followed the very next day by another single 3 hour session. Lots of shading, lots of white, orange, and red. The orange was the worst part. Anyways, my double session ended with me shaking and shivering from tensing my muscles for so long. The tattoo artist was trying to make sure i didnt have to come back for any touch-up because i was leaving the country not to come back, so he was digging in really deep on a lot of it, to the point where when he did some of the lighter shading, i literally did not even feel it and im a very touch sensitive person. The following day, i had to get the shading of the tiger done. This was a 3 hour session of passover and passover on the same spots to get the orange to shade properly as well as add a little bit of brown in there as well. His very last stroke, i flinched because the pain was so damn unbearable. I dont see any messed up spots on my tattoo so i dont think the flinch made him mess up, but he definitely didnt completely finish the shading. I have a little of the belly to finish with white otherwise itll just be skin color. I believe it may have been overworked because i remember he wrapped me up on the very last session and it was oozing so bad that i bled all over his floor when i was paying for the session. This was after it was wiped down and rubbed with vaseline. So, he had to rewipe it and add some paper towels under the wrap to keep it from bleeding out onto the floor anymore. It scabbed over so damn bad the following couple days and took about 2 weeks before the pain and heat subsided. Luckily, it looks very vibrant even now, so he did a great job and i didnt get infected or anything. It was just absolute hell for the few sessions i had lol
That’s a rough first tattoo! I have my entire rib cage (left side) done. That was like my 15th tattoo. If that was my first I would have had to tap out
I have 17 tattoos and mine never wheeped! I had a 9 hour session with two 15 mins breaks. That was brutal. I had one once where I couldn’t stop bleeding. Bleeding didn’t start until about 3 hours in
thank you informative video.... have been teaching myself over the last year or so... only done a couple on human skin so far.... but yeah mine and my partners healed fine.... but a friends arm I did has not healed like the others i've done.... thought I may have over worked it.... but after watching this i'm confident he let it dry or picked at it or something 😒😢
Awesome video man! About the 3 passes: generally, I see (and sometimes I do it myself) tattooers building dotspeed shadows, gradient shadows, overlaying the dots many and many times to achieve those darker tones... how can we do it more efficiently and less damaging to the skin?
We actually covered this in our podcast recording yesterday! I thought your questions was great and I brought it into the discussion so we could figure it out. Brian (an associate of BT) stated the most succinct answer out of anyone polled: "Use a darker wash". Here is a quick explanation - darkening the wash means you must know what you are doing. You cannot make a mistake if you commit a tone to the skin that cannot be adjusted. Knowing your products and how they interact with different types of skin shows a level of competency that takes time to develop, but offers a better result, long-term. Hopefully that makes sense. If you need more of an explanation, let us know. We can make a video for you. If you want a really detailed explanation, we can also make up an article for you.
@@BetterTattooing thanks a lot for the explanations! It makes sense that it takes time and experience to minimize those mistakes. Btw where can I listen to your podcast? I just met this channel and already loving it, so much information!
@@fr0stmourne870 thanks for that positivity! We are trying our best to really focus on theory without resorting to "THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT" malarkey 😬 Our podcast is called: 2 Dudes Talk Tattoos. It can be found on any podcast network you use. The first episode (.5) was a tester and the audio is a bit harsh, but episode 1 and 2 are much clearer. Thanks for giving us a listen if you find the time.
That’s honestly up to you. I’d have a talk with them to help them understand that they are making a mistake. I’d be prepared to have them fight my critique and possibly be rude or downright awful. If they did act this way I’d move on. If they didn’t truly act concerned and want to fix the issue free of charge, I’d move on. If they acted in any way that made me feel wronged, I’d move on.
Regarding the 3 passes… how could one build up the necessary saturation by 3 passes only? Even if you choose the right grey wash for the area, there still can be an issue achieving smoothness or certain texture. Could going lightly over the skin or having shorter needle allow for more passes? Thanks
I’m this case, multiple sittings would be the way to go, especially if you don’t truly understand how the value is going to settle as you work. In my case, I spent years learning how to apply tones with a single pass, which most folks don’t utilize in practice. I see people slowly building tones because that is what they know, which seems inefficient and offers a greater chance of overworking the skin. There are techniques to apply the shading to ensure it’s smooth - hand speed, grouping size and type, as well as hand positioning are key factors in those techniques - which is far more difficult when compared to the randomization of a pendulum motion. I’m not saying either are better or worse, as in the right hands both approaches can result in a good result. My effort is to put out the most efficient way, along with what has been proven to result in better longevity, to accomplish the result a person is looking for.
To expand on that - using a shorter stroke can result in less deep trauma but will still traumatize the epidermis. Sometimes it can get damaged enough to result in scarring, or at the minimum an increased change of opportunistic infection (especially with inadequate aftercare). Also, going lightly will increase the chances of improper depth or saturation leading to a greater loss of pigment in the healed tattoo. Really, there is a right way to do a tattoo, based on your clients biology. Steering away from proper technique will result in a poor result
@@BetterTattooing Thank you a lot for answering and with such a detailed explanation! I’m a self thought tattooer and the only person who received a tattoo by me was me so far lol. Soon, I will engage in tattooing my relatives and friends to see the theoretical knowledge in practice, but since there is a bigger realization of the responsibility for ones health and a desire to learn right from the beginning, makes me question a lot of approaches that some artists use, not to disbelieve, but rather have a little more skeptical approach, especially when seeing almost all artists having it their own way. To be on the safe side by waiting till it heals makes a lot of sense honestly. Artist’s capability of adjusting to each skin type as well. I guess my best learning will arise from the process itself by learning the golden middle. Thanks once again, your videos are very helpful and informative!
Hi, i am learning to tattoo at home however I noticed on my last few tattoos I seem to be cutting the fake skin in a few areas. I'm struggling to figure out how I am managing this so was wondering if you had any pointers on what I am doing wrong and how to avoid this in the future. Thank you!
yow. you have many vids . but you got low subs. in my opinion. you need a better thumbnail. im not saying that you have to follow the rest of the yt channels, you have to make a more interesting thumbnail. its not that much but it will help you to gain more subs.
I just got my first ever tattoo and it was likely overworked a little. Its kinda my fault though because of a time constraint of getting a half sleeve up to a pec (really detailed tattoo of a serpent battling a tiger) with the time constraint being a 14 day span. My first session was a 3 hour session for linework. The next session was literally the following day to get the detailed linework as well as some shading done, which was another 3 hour session. Then, 10 days later i had a double session making 6 hours followed the very next day by another single 3 hour session. Lots of shading, lots of white, orange, and red. The orange was the worst part.
Anyways, my double session ended with me shaking and shivering from tensing my muscles for so long. The tattoo artist was trying to make sure i didnt have to come back for any touch-up because i was leaving the country not to come back, so he was digging in really deep on a lot of it, to the point where when he did some of the lighter shading, i literally did not even feel it and im a very touch sensitive person.
The following day, i had to get the shading of the tiger done. This was a 3 hour session of passover and passover on the same spots to get the orange to shade properly as well as add a little bit of brown in there as well. His very last stroke, i flinched because the pain was so damn unbearable. I dont see any messed up spots on my tattoo so i dont think the flinch made him mess up, but he definitely didnt completely finish the shading. I have a little of the belly to finish with white otherwise itll just be skin color.
I believe it may have been overworked because i remember he wrapped me up on the very last session and it was oozing so bad that i bled all over his floor when i was paying for the session. This was after it was wiped down and rubbed with vaseline. So, he had to rewipe it and add some paper towels under the wrap to keep it from bleeding out onto the floor anymore. It scabbed over so damn bad the following couple days and took about 2 weeks before the pain and heat subsided. Luckily, it looks very vibrant even now, so he did a great job and i didnt get infected or anything. It was just absolute hell for the few sessions i had lol
That’s a rough first tattoo! I have my entire rib cage (left side) done. That was like my 15th tattoo. If that was my first I would have had to tap out
I have 17 tattoos and mine never wheeped! I had a 9 hour session with two 15 mins breaks. That was brutal. I had one once where I couldn’t stop bleeding. Bleeding didn’t start until about 3 hours in
thank you informative video.... have been teaching myself over the last year or so... only done a couple on human skin so far.... but yeah mine and my partners healed fine.... but a friends arm I did has not healed like the others i've done.... thought I may have over worked it....
but after watching this i'm confident he let it dry or picked at it or something 😒😢
dude this is super informative! thank you
Thanks for watching!🤘
@@BetterTattooing watching All of them now
you got my sub because of this.
Awesome video man! About the 3 passes: generally, I see (and sometimes I do it myself) tattooers building dotspeed shadows, gradient shadows, overlaying the dots many and many times to achieve those darker tones... how can we do it more efficiently and less damaging to the skin?
We actually covered this in our podcast recording yesterday! I thought your questions was great and I brought it into the discussion so we could figure it out. Brian (an associate of BT) stated the most succinct answer out of anyone polled:
"Use a darker wash".
Here is a quick explanation - darkening the wash means you must know what you are doing. You cannot make a mistake if you commit a tone to the skin that cannot be adjusted. Knowing your products and how they interact with different types of skin shows a level of competency that takes time to develop, but offers a better result, long-term.
Hopefully that makes sense. If you need more of an explanation, let us know. We can make a video for you. If you want a really detailed explanation, we can also make up an article for you.
@@BetterTattooing thanks a lot for the explanations! It makes sense that it takes time and experience to minimize those mistakes.
Btw where can I listen to your podcast? I just met this channel and already loving it, so much information!
@@fr0stmourne870 thanks for that positivity! We are trying our best to really focus on theory without resorting to "THIS IS HOW YOU DO IT" malarkey 😬
Our podcast is called: 2 Dudes Talk Tattoos. It can be found on any podcast network you use. The first episode (.5) was a tester and the audio is a bit harsh, but episode 1 and 2 are much clearer. Thanks for giving us a listen if you find the time.
If an artist didn’t used to scar you but does now everytime does that mean you should switch? Or should I address that concern with them?
That’s honestly up to you. I’d have a talk with them to help them understand that they are making a mistake. I’d be prepared to have them fight my critique and possibly be rude or downright awful. If they did act this way I’d move on. If they didn’t truly act concerned and want to fix the issue free of charge, I’d move on. If they acted in any way that made me feel wronged, I’d move on.
Thank you!!
🤘
Regarding the 3 passes… how could one build up the necessary saturation by 3 passes only? Even if you choose the right grey wash for the area, there still can be an issue achieving smoothness or certain texture.
Could going lightly over the skin or having shorter needle allow for more passes?
Thanks
I’m this case, multiple sittings would be the way to go, especially if you don’t truly understand how the value is going to settle as you work. In my case, I spent years learning how to apply tones with a single pass, which most folks don’t utilize in practice. I see people slowly building tones because that is what they know, which seems inefficient and offers a greater chance of overworking the skin. There are techniques to apply the shading to ensure it’s smooth - hand speed, grouping size and type, as well as hand positioning are key factors in those techniques - which is far more difficult when compared to the randomization of a pendulum motion.
I’m not saying either are better or worse, as in the right hands both approaches can result in a good result. My effort is to put out the most efficient way, along with what has been proven to result in better longevity, to accomplish the result a person is looking for.
Good question.
To expand on that - using a shorter stroke can result in less deep trauma but will still traumatize the epidermis. Sometimes it can get damaged enough to result in scarring, or at the minimum an increased change of opportunistic infection (especially with inadequate aftercare). Also, going lightly will increase the chances of improper depth or saturation leading to a greater loss of pigment in the healed tattoo. Really, there is a right way to do a tattoo, based on your clients biology. Steering away from proper technique will result in a poor result
@@BetterTattooing Thank you a lot for answering and with such a detailed explanation!
I’m a self thought tattooer and the only person who received a tattoo by me was me so far lol. Soon, I will engage in tattooing my relatives and friends to see the theoretical knowledge in practice, but since there is a bigger realization of the responsibility for ones health and a desire to learn right from the beginning, makes me question a lot of approaches that some artists use, not to disbelieve, but rather have a little more skeptical approach, especially when seeing almost all artists having it their own way. To be on the safe side by waiting till it heals makes a lot of sense honestly. Artist’s capability of adjusting to each skin type as well. I guess my best learning will arise from the process itself by learning the golden middle. Thanks once again, your videos are very helpful and informative!
Hi, i am learning to tattoo at home however I noticed on my last few tattoos I seem to be cutting the fake skin in a few areas. I'm struggling to figure out how I am managing this so was wondering if you had any pointers on what I am doing wrong and how to avoid this in the future. Thank you!
Get an apprenticeship. It’s the easiest way to learn.
good!
How to tell if skin is over worked.....clients leg has fallen off 😂😂😂
yow. you have many vids . but you got low subs. in my opinion. you need a better thumbnail. im not saying that you have to follow the rest of the yt channels, you have to make a more interesting thumbnail. its not that much but it will help you to gain more subs.