A beginner tattoo artist needs to be extra cautious with his/her skills. They still need to establish themselves in the business. It is advisable for the beginner tattoo artists to avoid making complex designs. Give your customers a choice from easy designs. This would help you sharpen your basic skills to proceed further to complex designs in some time. Here are a few tips for beginner tattoo artists.
1. Select a design with a scope for shading
The first and foremost thing for a beginner is to select a suitable design according to his clients. The design should be as individualistic as possible for each client. Shaded designs look rich and vibrant. Images of dragons, human portraits , flowers are good objects for shading. The rounded objects are filled with graded shading of ink to make it look alive.
2. Select the right tools
A fresh tattooist should choose his tools aptly. A shaded tattoo design is best applied with a tattoo gun connected to an electric motor. The gun uses a group of needles to inject the ink into the skin at the right depth. The electric motor moves the needles at a speed of 80 to 150 times per second up and down and allows a gradual shading and filling of the design evenly and fast.
3. Mixing of the ink
Mixing of ink is another crucial thing for a beginner. Shaded tattoos need ink mixed in the right proportion with sterile water which is known as wash. Ink mixed with more water makes a lighter wash. The beginner should prepare the washes in exact shades that is needed for a particular design well in advance to avoid stoppage of tattooing for want of ink.
4. Using needles like a paintbrush
The needles that a tattoo artist uses are of two kinds: the liner and the magnum. The liners are round in shape and are used to outline the design. The magnum needles are flat and are used for shading and color filling. They are arranged in two rows. The artist is expected to use them like a paint brush to make his design come alive. The needles should be used very tactfully to differentiate the dark shade and the light shade.Since more ink is used for darker shade, it becomes difficult to make it lighter. So the beginner should work carefully. Though tattooing beautifies the body there are some health risks such as infection and skin allergy. To ensure less health-risk, the tattooist should clean his hand and wears a one-time use gloves. He also should clean the place where the tattoo is to be created and a thin layer of a lubricant may be applied to enable smooth piercing of the needles into the skin. While applying he should wipe off the excess ink and the blood with a clean cloth. As an after care, oil based ointment can be applied on the tattoo. Removal of the scab formed on the tattoo and exposure to the sun is not advisable.
