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JaSven · Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 8:20 pm Post subject: My first attempt

Well after ditching the Scream inks I waited till my Eternal inks came in.
I only had a limited number of needles having got the most simple ebay kit. After a week of practicing on fruit and paper I decided to pick a small area on my leg to see what I was getting into when I go to skin.

I picked a small design- one that would let me see how I handled tight curves and such, a Ying-Yang about the size of a penny (18mm or 3/4").

Although it totally fails as a commercial grade tattoo I am pretty pleased considering it is the first time I put ink to flesh.

The lining went pretty easy- though I did find that the location I picked had really stretchy skin. Still I went slow and steady and by the end I was eager to do more lining lol. I used the Eternal Lining Black #1 with a 3R and it went in just like drawing with a felt pen. I actually found that the minor 'pain' was the best indication that I was holding the machine properly as on occassion it started to angle back more like a pencil (and so it wouldnt poke as deep and didnt 'feel' like it was going in?).

After the lining I used the same black but switched to a 5RS for the fill/shading. The black went in perfect again- it was almost too easy.

I grabbed the white #31 (even though white never seems to hold in my skin) since I figured I might as well see what it was like using a lighter colour. Using a 5RS I went over the white once but it didnt take- it was watery. So I grabbed the bottle and gave it the shake for a few minutes this time rather than just a quick shake... and it was much thicker. I went over the white area again and the white went in really well but since it was the second going over I noticed that the top layer of skin was tearing slightly.

So I stopped as I had heard that if you hamburger up the skin it wont be a nice Tattoo at all. I snapped a pic of it and marked my errors- most of which I can easily fix after it heals.

Overall I'm 'pleased' in that it wasnt complete garbage and I quickly learned from some mistakes. Of course it is no where near commercial quality but it is no where as bad I as feared it might be lol.

I'm not pleased with the selection of needles I got though- I think I'll do another order of needles and try to get better liners & shaders to choose from.

Feel free to post comments or suggestions Wink

edited- the shader was a 5RS not a 9RL- it goes without saying that ebay kits are NOT the way to start lol

JaSven · Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2007 8:22 pm Post subject:

oops guess I cant post a link to the pic unless people modify their html settings- sorry folks lol

edit- I made a personal gallery and added a tiny pic of it so you can also see it there

chic · Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 2:51 am Post subject:

it is very small..

but do you practice on animal/pig skin, too.

JaSven · Posted: Sun Oct 07, 2007 1:58 pm Post subject:

Not yet- but only cause I am having trouble finding pig skin- I was thinking of trying a small butcher or the asian markets rather than the big stores since they dont seem to be as helpful at Safeway and such (Safeway is the big grocery giant for Canada).

Fruit was ok- but not very much like (human) skin so I'm dissatisfied with it lol.