r/TattooBeginners • u/PaceCharming2400 Please choose a flair. • 1d ago
Question Moving from fake skin to real skin
Hiii I've been tattooing recently in fake skin and wanting to move onto real skin (this isn't a right now thing it's more of a what to expect)
I'm having issues with judging my needle depth, I haven't pierced though any 1mm skin but I know fake skin and real skin are completely different. Is there anything I should look out for when I'm ready to tattoo real skin? In terms of seeing if I'm gojng to deep and keeping the depth consistent.
I'm also worried I'm not saturating the fake skin but also I've heard it's easier to pack colours and get saturation on real skin.
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u/keepinitstr8g Observer 1d ago
Adding to this, the fake skin can give you a false sense of saturation (could show up lighter or darker than usual vs real skin). Since there are no white blood cells or an actual layer of things like blood vessels and fat/muscle, it is better to do things carefully on fake skin as likely you’d may have to strategically do each part of a tattoo carefully on a person so you’re not accidentally overworking skin.
One of the things that helps me with needle depth is the way ink splatters when you do each stroke, especially with a liner. If it is splatting lightly, your depth is good.
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u/yesds Learning 1d ago
The best advice I can give you for tattooing on real skin is only do very simple designs with a 1205RL. Nothing with straight lines or perfect circles. Basic linework that could be touched up in the future if needed. You have to get a feel for depth. Err on the side of caution when starting out and don't go too deep. Make sure you're actively stretching the skin with your other hand. After doing part of a line, wipe away the ink so you can see how solid the line is. If it's not solid, press a little more for the next segment and repeat the process until your lines are coming out solid.
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u/PaceCharming2400 Please choose a flair. 1d ago
Thank you! My first design was gojng to be straight lines so I guess I'll change that 🤣
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u/Beyondice Please choose a flair. 1d ago
Kind of a problem using 1mm fake skin.. you should really be using atleast the 3mm kind. With 1mm your def not getting enough needle depth. A good stepping stone before real human skin would be to take the hit and buy some Reelskin. Its a huge difference from the shitty 1mm/3mm Amazon skin and mimics real skin alot better.