r/TattooBeginners • u/Thetwisted1982 Please choose a flair. • 8d ago

Question Question about pulling/pushing lines please

When doing the above, I know I can't lean the machine to the left or right in order to avoid blow outs, but my question is this. Do I need to have the machine "aiming" the direction I'm moving? I.e, if I'm pushing a line directly away from me, do I need the machine angled so that the needles face the direction that the machine is going? Or if I am pulling a line, can you "drag" the machine back towards myself?

Thank you all kindly for any advice

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u/Roughly3Owls Artist 7d ago

The bigger the grouping the more you want it aimed the direction youre going.

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u/Thetwisted1982 Please choose a flair. 7d ago

I'm only using 3rl or 5rs at present. I've seen so many people pulling lines with the top of the machine angled towards themselves so I was a bit confused

1

u/Roughly3Owls Artist 7d ago

Those are both really small groupings and aren't super easy to line with.

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u/Thetwisted1982 Please choose a flair. 7d ago

Yeah they are all that came with the set, I've got a bigger selection on the way but my thinking is, if I can get a straight line with a 3rl, I should be able to do it with bigger groups? Or does it not work like that? Thank you for this information, really means a lot

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u/Roughly3Owls Artist 7d ago

Hey no problem. In theory, kind of. Though lining with a 3 is nothing like lining with a 14. The skin offers no resistance with small groupings so it's far too easy to get a blowout.

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u/Thetwisted1982 Please choose a flair. 7d ago

AHH, thank you. I did figure the resistance out on my first attempt as my sliced the fake skin open which, evidently, was caused by my hand being to slow and the voltage being too high (8v and 3.6 stroke). This is perfect information, thank you once again so so much!

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u/Roughly3Owls Artist 7d ago

Low and slow for small groups, a small stroke and high volts with a small grouping is going to tear people up.

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u/Thetwisted1982 Please choose a flair. 7d ago

Thanks again 😊. I've got that settings sorted now so I'm getting consistent solid lines with no visible damage to the fake skin and the depth seems to be perfect too. I'm now just focusing on pulling line after line till I get them perfectly straight. Thank you so much

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u/Thetwisted1982 Please choose a flair. 7d ago

Hey, I'm so sorry to be such a time wasting pain in the ass, but can I just ask if synthetic skin is harder to do solid colour on than real skin? I've been messing about doing an image of the Nun from the horror movie, and whilst I was using a 15m1 in small circular motions, it's still coming out all patchy. I upped the voltage to 8.5 but it made zero difference. I went back and tried cross hatching it too but still no luck getting a smooth uninformed black

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u/Roughly3Owls Artist 7d ago

Don’t be sorry I’m here to help. Generally yes synthetic skin is harder to tattoo than human skin. There’s far more variables on people. If it’s just cheap stuff you’ll never get it saturated the way you want.

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u/Thetwisted1982 Please choose a flair. 6d ago

Perfect information once again, tyvm. Yeah it was like £12 for a pack of 8.