Learning How to Tattoo: A Comprehensive Guide for Beginners

Embarking on the journey of becoming a tattoo artist can feel overwhelming, given the vast amount of information available. This comprehensive guide, crafted with insights from seasoned artists, aims to provide aspiring tattooists with a structured approach to learning the craft, covering essential aspects from initial practice to acquiring clients.

Getting Started: Essential Steps for Aspiring Tattoo Artists

The initial steps in learning how to tattoo involve familiarizing yourself with the equipment, practicing techniques, and understanding safety protocols. It's a process that requires patience, dedication, and a commitment to continuous improvement.

Mastering the Tattoo Machine on Fake Skin

Working with a tattoo machine requires practice. It’s crucial to avoid practicing on human skin initially to prevent accidental mistakes. Therefore, learning on fake skin is essential.

Perfecting Linework: Angle, Speed, and Needle Depth

Linework is a fundamental aspect of tattooing, demanding precision and control.

Angle and Direction: A key element in achieving perfect lines is the angle of the tattoo machine. It should be pointing towards the direction the line is going. The point where the needle enters the skin will be slightly behind where the ink will be delivered, resulting in a crisp line due to the ink's forward motion.

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Line Thickness: The thickness of a line affects its ease of execution. Thicker lines are generally easier to execute straight, making them ideal for beginners. Many beginner tattoo artists practice tattooing the thick outlines of traditional-style tattoos first when learning how to tattoo. However, it’s harder to get the ink in the skin with a bigger needle. While this means fewer blowouts, it can also mean that it’s difficult to get a larger line into the skin with a single pass. Thin lines, while more challenging to keep straight due to noticeable wobbles, allow for easier ink deposit because of the smaller surface area of the needle.

Skin Stretching: Stretching the skin is also important, make sure to stretch in the same direction of the line. If discomfort arises during a line, instead of forcing completion, break it into overlapping segments by whipping out at the end of the line and re-entering slightly before the previous endpoint.

Understanding Needle Depth: Reaching the Sweet Spot

Needle depth refers to how far into the skin the needle is going. Proper needle depth is crucial for preventing pain, blowouts, and scarring, and for ensuring the tattoo's image is clear and lasting. The skin consists of three layers:

The epidermis (top layer)
The dermis (middle layer)
The hypodermis (bottom layer of fat)

The goal is to deposit the ink into the dermis, the middle layer of the skin. The top layer will push the ink out, causing the tattoo to fade quickly. The particles of the bottom fat layer are loose and liquidy. If tattoo ink is put in this layer, it will disperse, causing blowouts.

Finding the Right Needle Depth: A Matter of Feel

Achieving the correct needle depth requires developing a sense for it. When tattooing a line, a vibration in the stretching hand indicates the appropriate depth. The ideal depth varies depending on the body part being tattooed, as skin thickness differs. For example, the skin on the shins is very different to skin on the arm or eyelid. Additionally, the skin’s thickness will be different for every person. But as a rule of thumb, you can expect men’s skin to be a little thicker than women’s skin. And the older someone is, the thinner their skin will be and the more gentle you will have to be.

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Needle Control Techniques: "Floating the Needle" vs. "Riding the Tube"

Two primary methods exist for controlling needle depth:

Ride the Tube: Pushing the tube against the skin prevents excessive depth and blowouts. However, it can obscure the stencil with ink.
Float the Needle: Keeping the machine off the skin allows for better visibility of the stencil and more accurate tattooing. However, blowouts are possible if you’re not sure how to manually control the depth properly. This method requires a machine with a stroke long enough for the needles to fully retract into the cartridge/tip with each cycle to ensure good ink flow and solid lines.

Many new artists “ride the tube” when they’re learning how to tattoo.

Mastering Shading Techniques

When shading with just black and grey, then you can have your needles a bit more shallow than what you would do if you were packing color. Black and grey tattoos are easier than color tattoos because they rely only on shading (as opposed to shading and color). However, without the grey wash mixed at the right solutions, you can’t achieve those different values. Premixed grey wash is a convenient option. All you have to do is put the ink in your ink caps, and you’re ready to go. Note:Keep in mind grey wash heals 30% lighter. If you want to make your own grey wash in individual caps, you can learn how in our Tattoo Shading Guide. If you want to make your own in large batches, make sure that you wear gloves while mixing, your area is sterile, and that you do it over a sink. You will need four sterile 50ml bottles, one in each of the following concentrations:

50mls black
5 mls black, 45 mls witch hazel
2.5 mls black, 47.5 mls of witch hazel
1.25mls black, 48.75 mls of witch hazel

Packing Ink: Achieving Solid Fills

Packing ink into the skin means making a solid fill on the skin by moving the needle in a small, oval formation. Because tattoo needles contain multiple needle barbs, you want to avoid all the barbs lining up and cutting the skin. Tilt the needle on an angle so the needles never line up when doing oval formations (see below).

Packing Color: A Different Approach

When packing color, tattoo dark colors first. 12-gauge needles work best for color because the individual needle barbs are thicker and space between the barbs is wider, which means you can pack more ink into the skin, faster. Additionally, you want your needles to be standard taper. Longer tapered needles pack less ink, slowing you down.

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Essential Equipment and Safety Measures

Acquiring the right equipment and adhering to strict safety protocols are paramount for any aspiring tattoo artist.

Where to Buy Tattooing Equipment

Here’s our recommended shopping list.To avoid knockoffs, we recommend buying directly from tattoo suppliers, not on Amazon. Kingpin Tattoo Supply and Painful Pleasures offer a wide range of options.Find our full list of tattoo equipment recommendations in our article, “How Much Does it Cost to Become a Tattoo Artist?” If you’re not sure that being a professional tattoo artist is right for you, then you can try out less expensive tattooing equipment while learning how to tattoo. However, you don’t want to just buy the cheapest equipment out there. Cheap machines make practicing harder because you’re battling with something that doesn’t work as well as a professional machine. If you aren’t sure where to look for quality materials that won’t break the bank, here’s a few of our favorite machines and kits for beginners: NoteNever call a tattoo machine a “tattoo gun.” Other tattoo artists will often be offended by that term.

Prioritizing Safety: Bloodborne Pathogens Certification

Before tattooing any client, ensuring safety is paramount. This involves using new gloves and needles for each client and adhering to strict hygiene standards to prevent cross-contamination and potential bloodborne diseases.

Bloodborne Pathogens (BBP) Certification: Obtaining a BBP certification is essential to understand and prevent cross-contamination. Many tattoo artists complete their certification as an online course. NoteIn most places, it is illegal to tattoo anyone (even yourself) without having your BBP certification. In states that regulate the tattoo business, BBP certification is part of the licensing process. A shop owner will not hire you without it.

Gaining Experience and Building a Portfolio

Practical experience is invaluable in honing tattooing skills. Starting with small tattoos on oneself and offering free tattoos to friends and family can provide valuable practice.

Starting Small: First Tattoos and Clients

The first tattoo should be on yourself. Then, you should be giving friends and family small, free tattoos. Technically…they’re doing you a favor by giving you some experience on real skin. Odds are, the first tattoo you ever do won’t be your best work. That’s why you want to keep it small and simple while learning how to tattoo - about the size of your palm or smaller. That way, you can touch it up - or even cover it up - later on. NoteSome “easy” tattoo designs will look simple to draw…but they’re actually difficult. If you need some help finding a design, check out our guide to Easy Tattoos for Beginners. There’s 100 designs to choose from (plus a few tips and tricks).

Determining Pricing: Value and Experience

Once you are consistently doing good tattoos with straight lines and solid shading, then you can begin to take your first clients (most likely friends of friends). If you charge for your tattoos when you first start out, people will expect your work to be as good as a professional tattoo artist who has been tattooing for years because they’re paying you. The more practice you get while learning how to tattoo, the faster you’ll improve. However, your clients won’t be able to pay for new tattoos every other day, meaning they can’t get tattooed as often. Because you want as much practice as possible, giving free tattoos will let you tattoo people regularly, even if they would normally have to wait and save up money. As your skills improve, you can begin charging for your work. Note:If you’re tattooing yourself for practice, we recommend tattooing your thigh.

Developing Artistic Skills: Drawing for Tattooing

Drawing is a fundamental skill for tattoo artists, influencing their potential and artistic expression.

How to Draw Tattoo Designs

Doing small tattoos is great to practice your tattooing skills. But to be a good tattoo artist, you need to learn is how to draw. Your ability to draw is the “ceiling” of your potential as a tattoo artist. The better you are able to draw, the better you will be able to tattoo.For some people, this is a natural skill. Others have to invest time into developing their drawing skills. Luckily, it’s possible to speed up the learning process if you follow these steps:

Step 1: Choosing a Style

If you want to learn fast, traditional tattoo designs and realism are both great starting points for new tattoo artists who want to sharpen their skills. Here’s why:

Realism: Realism allows you to focus on the technical side of drawing (shading and correct tones) without having to learn other difficult drawing concepts (perspective and proportion). A lot of the time, what slows artists down is figuring out what to draw. With realism, you do not have this problem. You just have to copy a photograph. Additionally, realism is a great style because it’s in demand. No matter where you are in the world, realism is one of tattooing’s most popular styles. If you can do realism, you can make a living anywhere in the world. It requires less creativity than coming up with your own designs - but your technique has to be perfect. As a beginner, stick with black and grey. You’ll only need to focus on the values of the image as opposed to trying to work with color on top of everything else. NoteRealism allows you to focus on the technical side of drawing (shading and correct tones) without having to learn other difficult drawing concepts (perspective and proportion). However, it’s a difficult style. You’ll need to nail realism on paper long before you touch human skin.

Traditional: Traditional tattoo designs are the easiest to draw, and it’s what most tattoo artists start off doing. The cool thing about traditional is that lots of the design elements are repeated over and over in each tattoo. After drawing 50-100 or so traditional style tattoos you’ll learn how to draw stuff like ships, flames, water, flowers, and more. Once you learn how to draw these elements, designing tattoos becomes a lot easier. You won’t need reference images because you’ll have muscle memory and experience to rely on. After that you’ll be able to knock out designs even faster, and it will get easier and easier. Whatever style you choose, stick with smaller designs at first. You’ll be able to draw them faster and learn quicker from mistakes. This will also prepare you for when you first start tattooing, as you’ll only be doing smaller designs at the beginning of your career. NoteWhen building a portfolio, most shop owners will want to see a variety of styles before giving you a tattoo apprenticeship.

Step 2: Emulating Experienced Artists

Find an experienced tattoo artist whose work you admire (check their Instagram account). Try to replicate their tattoo designs without tracing. If you trace every design, you won’t learn a thing. However, when you replicate, you learn:

What good tattoos look like
How to draw designs that fit the shape of the body and flow with the muscles.
What “works” in a tattoo

As you continue to replicate the work of famous tattoo artists, you’ll pick up on these three things and start to naturally use them in your own style later on. Picking these instincts up by studying an artist’s work will save you a ton of time. Why?

Reason 1: You Skip the Trial and Error. You don’t have to waste time trying to figure out what designs work in tattoos…and which ones just don’t. When you use practice drawing this way, you can leverage the decades of experience from other people and skip the trial and error of learning how to design tattoos on your own. You’ll quickly pick up what looks good on skin.

Reason 2: You Don’t Have to Make Up Your Own Designs. Emulating professional artists takes the creativity out of the process so you can draw more designs per day (no staring at the wall trying to think of a design). You’ll be able to produce more art, make more mistakes, and therefore learn much faster. NoteDo NOT put any of these drawings in your portfolio. Someone looking at your portfolio is not only looking at your drawing skills, but also your design skills. Passing off someone else’s design as your own is stealing. You only want to do this exercise for practice. When you get good, create your own designs and use them in your portfolio.

Step 3: Focusing on One Medium

If you are trying to learn how to use watercolors, acrylic/oil paint, charcoal, digital, graphite and copic markers at the same time, you will spread your focus - too thin. It will take you much longer to reach competency in any one of them compared to if you just focused all your energy and effort into one. If you want to progress quickly, focus on one medium. We already touched on getting your BBP certification. But if you’re ready to begin working in a studio, you’ll probably also need to be licensed (depending on where you live), have a strong portfolio, and begin marketing yourself to get more clients - whether you plan to work in a tattoo shop or your own private st…

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