home made tattoos ?

now, before you guys start telling me to go to a professional, or wait until im old enough or whatever
id just like you to know, i want to tattoo myself not because i cant get a tattoo professionally done, but because i want it to be more personal and special, i do have the patience to wait the short ammount of time until i can get one professionally done, i just want to do my first one myself

any tips ?
which method should i use?

 

use indian ink
sterilise the needle
wear latex gloves
make sure your skin is moisturised before you start
and do it somewhere that not many people can see it (incase you regret it a few years down the line)

and the greatest advice i can give you is to not do it but i suppose thats not what you asked us.

 

thanks for the info,
but how deep should i be poking ?

and ive read from different sources looking for the actual method of doing this
some say i should be "firmly scraping" my skin
others say i should be "lightly stabbing"

does anyone have experience in this?
which should i do ?

 

stab in a tiny bit(1-2mm) and then pull out at an angle. its like your picking a tiny scratches out of your skin.

i've got a bunch of tats like this that i've done to myself. they all look good even 5 years after i done them.


other things... use india ink, attach the needle to the end of a pencil and wrap it with string. the pencil gives you a longer grip and the string holds the ink so you dont have to dip it every time.

good luck

 

It's a bad idea. They rarely ever turn out well.

 

yeah, but if you're willing to fuck up one or two small ones to get hte right technique. then you can probably get good at it and have a few awesome ones. giver your friends some neat tats.


keep them simple designs.

 

this is probably good advice. I bought a gun off of ebay and gave myself several blacklight tattoos.

It hurt so much more than when i got one professional done. I also scarred myself a bit too and the shading doesnt look great.

I dont regret doing this only because i did mine in spots you cant see and you really have know where your looking to see it. Over all its best just to go to an actual artist imo

dont give your friends tats either, thats how diseases and infections are spread and you cant sterilize your equipment properly without an autoclave. So just tat yourself up if your gonna do it

 

dude, you sound like an idiot.

you bought a tattoo machine(thats right, a machine not a gun) off ebay and gave yourself a blacklight tat? lol. gave yourself scars and shitty shading. omg.

do you know that people have been doing tattoos on others since the beginning of history. don't fear something just because you know nothing about it. i've never given an infection, none of the tats i've done have bled out or scarred. its not like he is doing this in a mexican prison so instead of discouraging him why dont you give him some advice.

advice like, use new needles. boil your needles before use. don't redip into your ink, put it in a cup and then dip. don't have an idiot give you your first tattoo after buying a "gun" off ebay. don't attempt shading if you're new to tattoos and you're doing it on yourself. don't tattoo your groin.

for fucks sake, we're not his parents. let him do what he wants and learn in his own time.

good luck, man. i hope it turns out well

ps- i gave myself my first tattoo and it was so stupid looking. but it was small and simple and i dont regret it. its still way wicked special and i still dig it. lol, if you can take that kind of pain then you're the man so no one can fuck with you.

 

was just giving my opinion man.

Besides i think most people would agree to not do it, at least thats what i found out when i was doing my research on how to tattoo. If i remember correctly i found very little info on how ot do it properly casue most people were just flamed when asking and told to go do an apprenticeship if they wanna learn.

and congrats you can do tattoos better than me. seriously id have more but i dont like the quality of my work

 

yeah, sorry if i came off like a jerk.

apprenticeship, sounds like a waste of money. everyone gotta learn somehow, on yourself or whatever pay someone to teach you. i did a few on myself as a kid. then i was homeless for a bit and did a few on some homeless people, i got pretty good at that.(definite do not recommend tattooing the homeless.)

flaming people is ignorant.

 

its all good.

I know you gotta learn somehow but if you got someone that knows what they are doing your gonna learn alot faster and be better. Cause like i said i had a horrible time finding info on how to do anything.

Flaming isnt always ignorant. Posting how to tattoo questions when you dont have an apprenticeship to people who do it for a living seems like posting "what are your favorite movies to get high too" or "is my weed laced".

i always thought you didnt have to pay to do an apprenticeship, that you just worked in the shop and work your way up


EDIT- and i did call it a tattoo gun what was i thinking : )

 

nah man, lots of shops have you paying their rent just to stick around. they make you do a bunch of bitch work, like mop up and clean needles, book clients. they drop the occassional knowledge bomb on you and you may or may not be allowed to use their equipment.

honestly its kind of a pain in the ass and more work for the artist to have a novice around always mucking things up. you'd be really lucky and probably a pretty connected dude to have an artist actually pay you to apprentice.

on another note, i'm currently an art major in college and im applying for art school. this is a pretty good place to start for tattooing. knowing fine art techniques will take you far in many industries and is a good base for tattooing, animation, graphic design, etc technical fields. i dont intend on paying to apprentice, i intend on getting real fucking good at drawing and painting... eventually buy some professional grade equipment and practice my ass off... get certified in bloodborn pathogens, anatomy, etc... and taking it from there.

 

this is how i did mine:
took a sterilized sewing needle, wrapped string around all of it except for the tip,
(the needle was taped to the end of an unsharpened pencil for stability).
i used india ink, higgins ink to be exact, and drew my design on my skin with a pen first to make sure i liked it. then, after dipping the needle in the ink far enough to saturate the string, i began to poke out my design, continuously wiping away any excess ink dripping onto the skin surface.
a few things to watch out for are:
make sure the skin surface you are tattooing is clean and/or shaved, if it is hairy.
make sure your needle is sterilized.
make sure your hands are clean.
make sure you actually want the tattoo, and you aren't just tattooing yourself for the fuck of it.
to be safe, make sure you have had a tetanus shot recently.

don't stretch the skin out when you are poking the tattoo, the skin should lay naturally on the muscle. if you do stretch the skin while tattooing, it could result in a morphed picture, because the tattoo will look different when the skin is being stretched than when it is laying naturally on your body.

most importantly, keep the design simple. don't try to fill anything in, stick to simple lines (like words or symbols). if you try to fill in a large area completely with ink using the poke method, or if you try to make an extremely detailed tattoo using the poke method, it will most likely look fucked up.
another pointer for deciding where to place your tattoo, don't tattoo yourself on a high-traffic area. this meaning somewhere that the skin is moved a lot, or stretched a lot, like on a joint (the fingers, toes). putting the tattoo in a fatty area will prevent spreading or fading better than a bony, high-traffic skin surface will.

and as for how deep to poke, it is very important not to poke too deep. if you poke deep enough to bleed, you're going too deep. the needle should just meet under the skin's surface. if you go too deep, the ink won't hold. if you don't go deep enough, the ink won't hold. as you begin to poke the tattoo you will get a feel for how deep to go, which will be just deep enough for you not to bleed.

my tattoo is a peace sign on the inside of my foot, which still looks good today. i have experienced no spreading or fading so far. when done carefully and properly, home made tattoos can be really rad.
also, this link was helpful to me when i first did mine:
http://www.fecalface.com/SF/index.php?Itemid=104&id=282&option=com_content&task=view
:cheers2:

 

thanks for the help you guys

i got a pretty small ammount of people telling me not to do it here,
i really dislike how close-minded people are in this world
most people who will tell you not to tattoo yourself have little to no knowledge of it at all

ill be trying this out as soon as i can buy some india ink

 

i got a friend to do mine, and i don't regret it at all. ill send you a pic of it if you want to see how it will look about a year after.

If you want it do it. you shouldnt need the opinion of anyone else telling you what to think. remember though, if its visible people are going to ask you what it means and shit about it all the time.

 

And what I see here is someone who made a thread hoping to find people that would justify himself while acting like a idiot because he cant wait until he's 18.

I have a entire rib cage tattooed, my back done, my wrist, my stomach, and my finger. I know that it's a dumb fucking idea because I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING about! My finger was a home done monstrosity because I couldn't wait. Now I'm going threw my 3rd laser session to get rid of it.

Don't be a little whiny prick because you didn't hear what you wanted too.

 

Truth.

India ink feathers very quickly. Within ten years, there's a good chance that you'll end up with a faded, feathery blob. And since it's going to be black, you'll be severely limiting your coverup options.
You'll also more than likely end up with lots of scar tissue, you might run into problems in that respect. Scar tissue takes ink differently than normal skin.

You're obviously underage. I'd venture to say fifteen or sixteen, by your attitude toward people giving you COMPLETELY RATIONAL advice, albeit not what you wanted. Wanna be the "cool kid" in school? Go for it. I guarantee by the time you move outta mommy's house you'll wish you weren't SO. FUCKING. COOL.

 

im actually not underage, and i dont live in "mommys house", i live alone in my apartment

and if you read my original post, you would know im not doing this to be the "cool kid in school", im not even going to school
im doing this because i want my first tattoo to be done by me,
i made this thread because i want to do it "properly" and have it last as long as possible

you dont have to be an asshole about this

 

We aren't the ones that are acting like assholes.

 

how is that not acting like an asshole ?

you quoted me thanking the people of this forum in that post
and called me a whiney prick
to be honest, that seems a little un-called for

how was i acting like an asshole ?
i asked a question, got answers, and thanked the people who answered me