Blood Line – Outline

Sometimes the artist wants to achieve a smoky effect or a light
background effect, or even just create a piece of work that
mimics reality and does not have the solid cartoon coloring
book lines that are prevalent in traditional tattoo. One way, but
surely not the only way to achieve this is by using the bloodline.
It is called a bloodline because the tattoo machine will actually
scratch the skin, and sometimes draw a small amount of blood
when the lines are sketched into the skin without use of pigment.
The blood is actually always there; usually the pigments
are darker than the blood so they are not noticeable. More and
more professional artists are getting away from bloodline style
all together because it is possible to achieve the same effects
without even lining.