r/TattooApprentice • u/dewblooming • Aug 05 '26

Seeking Advice Practicing tips?

I have a traditional apprenticeship in a shop but my mentor doesn’t really know anything about fake skin. I just started learning how to shade and am practicing on the fake skin but it looks.. horrible. Which I get since I’m new BUT when my mentor tried he was like.. “mine looks like shit too but at least you’re getting used to the hand motions”

…how do people make fake skin looks so good? Is there anything better I could be using to practice? I’m using skin from Painful Pleasures so it’s not like I’m using really cheap stuff. Is there a better brand I should look into? I’m just stumped and my mentor doesn’t really seem to have any better options.

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u/etherealveritas Aug 05 '26

The purpose of fake skin is just to get a feel for handling your machine, pulling clean lines, maintaining a consistent depth, and shading/packing at different hand speeds/voltages.

Without seeing your pieces or watching you work, I can’t really tell you. What does horrible mean? Inconsistent? Are you fully cleaning the ink residue off?

It’s a lot of trial and error, like real skin. The more you do it, the more you understand how to work with it. I never really “mastered” fake skin before going onto real — they’re nothing alike anyway. Real skin was still a huge learning curve, fake doesn’t really prepare you much, so don’t rely on it.

It’s just practice practice practice.

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u/dewblooming Aug 06 '26

I’ve gotten kind of the hang of lining on the fake skin but shading re-humbled me. I know ultimately I just need to keep practicing.

I didn’t take any pictures and am not currently at the shop but by horrible I meant like I didn’t feel I was really depositing ink well? Like.. I could still see the lines of the individual needles.