Danzig Shin

Andy got this on his shin, right below his knee. Ouch.

I'm not sure how much I've gone into the extra dimension of depth while tattooing. The concept is taking more time than I imagined. I am drawing with a set of needles going in and out of the skin. Which seems basic enough... but adding a mental calibration of precise depth on a three dimensional surface is tricky. Oh, and that surface happens to move, flinch, twitch, perspire, swell, and contract.

Also, depth needs to change depending on what area of the body is getting tattooed. When going over Andy's knee, the skin on the side of his calf is normal, but the challenge is figuring out - on the fly - where that skin begins to thin out towards the front of the leg. If you've tattooed, this is basic knowledge. You hear it, and it makes sense. Then you tattoo and watch as a normal line gets crazy thick, if not blown out as you pass over a thin area.

So when I moved from calf to shin, there's a transition to the thin section over the tibia bone. I'm certain he felt more pain there, but more importantly, I needed to trust what my hands felt while I slowly approached that area. The skin stretches a little different, as if slack has been slightly removed. Then suddenly, it's taut and I had better have already diminished my needle depth.