A More Confident Outline

I'm finally starting to feel comfortable, even excited about outlining. The guys at the shop have told me time and again to trust myself and stop being chicken.

See, I've been slowly building up lines in a scratching sort of manner. My tendency has been to work the line incredibly lightly, then inch my way up and through it. The concept has made sense to me from the beginning. Tiny little movements within the thickness of the line working their way to form the shape.

What I've discovered is that outlining this way is fine. It's an effective technique that can used in many situations. But I also need to feel comfortable going from point A to point B. Dive those needles in like a plane landing, follow the stencil smoothly, then pull those needles out just as smooth: like a plane taking off. If I can build a steady hand, it'll pay off elsewhere throughout every tattoo.

Months ago, I wanted to blame my machine. The idea was to buy a really good machine off the bat and hope it would fix my timid lines. But I had to keep listening to those around me trying to help. So I've kept at it.

When I error, I error on the side of a line not being deep enough. Some of the healed tattoos have come in and certain lines are barely visible. It's great that I can just go back over them and the problem is solved, but my goal is to hit it right the first time.

Lately, I'm trusting myself more. I've much more to learn, but I can see progress. My left hand really does tell me vibration alterations, skin response and stretch resistance. That coupled with the learned knowledge of needle depth, has helped tremendously. Now with a more solid and steady outline, I can whip out a flash dolphin feeling good about the shape. This leaves me with little to no concern while going into the shading and coloring stages.

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