Coloring

I know this question has been asked many times but I am still having issues. When I color I do not think the color is going in properly I get dozens of holidays. To get rid of them I have to go over and over. It takes me 2-3 hours just to finish coloring a small tattoo. Im fairly new at this so maybe that is normal? Ive searched online, I have read PDF on Ultamite tattoo and watched videos. Ive read many other PDF on the subject but I am still having trouble getting the color to go in. I tried many things, adjusting the depth of the needle adjusting the voltage and hand speed, differerent needles and sizes, different ink, changed springs and gaps. I thought it maybe my machine so I bought a machine from Huck Spauldings website but I have the same issue. Ive attached a recent tattoo I did, it is a very small tattoo and it took 2-3 hours just to get the colors to look even and come out looking ok, but I overworked the skin.

Any suggestions would be greatfull. Thanks for your time and anticipated responses

try to get a picture thats in focus and we can discuss..........

Hopefully this one shows up in focus

Hopefully this one shows up in focus

Welllll.......thats not much better, LOL.
Im no expert by the way but just judging from what I can make out in the picture overall it looks decent. I think your having more problems with saturation, that could be due to a lot of factors, ink being one of them. If your using cheap inks, as those included in a kit, your likely not going to get the saturation due to the pigment load of those inks, they are produced cheaply in mass production with little or no quality control so its a complete crap shoot on what you receive in your kits. Another factor is how your stretching the skin, if you stretch a certain way ink goes in rather well, stretch another way and its wont go in at all, the needles just bounce up and down on the skin so to speak. Proper stretching techinque is quite important. Also, and more importantly is too many new tattoo artist rush things along, Im not saying this is what you have done and that tattoo shouldnt take 3hrs to complete but when your packing color you need to be very aware how your doing it, going to fast will leave shallow areas. Once you get the color in, leave it, dont go back and forth over an area just to keep packing in color, as you said youll just chew up skin. A good color packing machine, as Josh Carlton would put it should have a long stroke, youve adjusted your machines and watched the videos so try to make your shader a long stroke shader for packing in the color, hopefully you got some pointers. Like I said before Im not expert and hopefully more folks chime in here to help you out.

Thanks so much for your advice, I am using intenze ink. Next one I do I will utilize your advice, thanks for taking the time to respond. I do think the needle is just bouncing off the skin.

no problem....good, we can take the inks out of the equation....!!

http://www.youtube.com/user/TATTOOTRAIN ... xep2dy4hWs

I posted this on your other question, too. This should help you.

Mark

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I just watched that video.
Great information! He mentions that he has a bumper between
the bar and the top of the coil. What does he mean?

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but I just watched that video.
Great information! He mentions that he has a bumper between
the bar and the top of the coil. What does he mean?

basically its like a stick-on foam rubbery thing. it does nothing for the quality, nor does it make the machine run better or worse. it just for quieting the machine down.