I have arthritis and i do mainly American traditional tattoos with a thick bold outline so usually I ride the tube simply because it makes my life 10x easier.
I use both methods all the time if my hands on the shakey side I ride the tube if My hand is on point I float . Also if I’m tattooing a thin skinned area I ride the tube I.e throat , arm pit , genitalia, inside lip and anywhere on the face . Not that I don’t trust my needle depth but unexpected movements from the client while working in areas that needle depth is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT
At first times when practicing on fake skin I used to ride the tube until I saw videos and other artist floating their needle and creating amazing work with accurate details and lines. After a few months of practice I am getting into floating my needle and I have to say that it's challenging quite a bit. I am in a lining "boot camp" (practicing only lining on designs) at the moment and it helps a ton. It is my worst fear to tattoo someone and give them a blow out even if already happened to me. Blow outs and jagged lines are my black sheep. Thank you Brandon for all of these videos. helps me through my journey a lot 😊
Now I finally know how to change the needle depth. I knew I needed to twist it to set it up but now I understand how to do that safely to avoid letting it hang out too much ❤
I always like to float the needle when I’m working on practice skin the only problem I have is the needle bounces off the skin when I’m trying to line so it’s not solid I have to learn the depth as well as hand speed better I believe
Can you please show me how to do a cover up? I have 3 big letters on my upper thigh, that I let an inexperienced "tattoo artist" tattoo on me.. I have been tattoo for a little while now and I'm really needing some pointers on how to do this correctly. I love your videos btw, you have helped me so much..
Iv been riding the tube but iv step up and now im hang my neddle out a bit but my thing is I can get my hand comfortable hold my tattoo machine and have my middle finger on the cartridge. Its like when im doing a line my hand dose not want to slide along with the line .if that makes sent.
Right now I ride the tube but I finally found a shop n mentor to help me out with getting my skills sharpened and honed. I’m mainly worried about going too deep if I don’t ride the tube. I do have ink pooling out on me but I try to not let it be a problem for now. I’m using coil machines right now but recently acquired a pen type machine. My mentor is gonna help me get acquainted with using it properly.
I float the needle but sometimes I have issues with snagging and cutting the fake skin. It's very aggravating. I e checked my needle to make sure there's no burs or hooks on the ends. What can be causing these issues?
Try putting down a thin layer of vaseline before you tattoo that area. This will help your needle to glide across and reduce the chance of your needles snagging
Does floating the needle only apply to lining? After watching hundreds of videos it appears that when shading or color packing the tube is touching the skin?
You can do either. If you float the needles while you shade you’ll have more visibility but your depth control needs to be on point. Tube to skin is the opposite. It all comes down to how you like to tattoo
What about when you're color packing? Can't find any info on this. I've seen guys press hard and ride it. Looks like a lot of black outs they ride the tube.....
Hello, these two techniques are understandable but I’m always curious about how deep you really are pushing. I’m always cutting my fake skin with scissors and cutting along my straight lines, wheres it’s bold, and seeing my depth. I rarely create blow outs but I’m wondering if that’s because I’m not puncturing as hard as I should be?
so i have been trying to float the needle but am still getting ink pooling as if i were riding the tube? whats going on? i know its not cheap cartridges, i use some of thw best tattoo cartridges available. (blackclaw) and im using a regular 9RL what could i be doing wrong? using world famous ink it doesn't seem too liquidy.
When you dip your needle make sure its the tip bringing in the ink into the cartridge kinda like lightly dip just needle tip where its does the work...i just barely touch the ink cap with mind pull it up quick and see little bit of ink start to fill tube at a time where the cartridge only has ink fill on thinner part of tube it works for me.
I float but after years of doing drunk shitty tattoos w friends im finally doing legit tattoos and learning proper methods, ive been tattooing reelskin for a bit and am tattooing a friend soon bc i just have to make the leap to real people now, its just scary bc now i actually care how it turns out
Wow first of all don't jump from side to side work right to left wipe away from the tattoo do not float the needle accidents happen the customer might move and the you left with a big web blow out that you cant fix people have been floating the needle every since the tattoo show have been airing because they tried learning from watching them and they seem the needle on TV so people thought that is how it is done but the is just close up of the ink coming out of the tube when the needle is not in the skin I have seen a lot of tattoo from a lot of new artists floating the needle and after healing there are thick and thin lines because you will not be able to tell if the line are perfect if you float the needle
