Sterilization

Proper sterilization is a serious concern in this age of many diseases and viruses. It should be a priority with yourself that under no circumstances do you ever use non-sterile equipment. All needles, tubes, bars, and inks should be sterilized.

To sterilize equipment before using, 1st put new needle boars and tubes in an ultrasonic cleaner. A chemical cleaner can be used in the ultrasonic cleaner. This helps get all the flux off of needles and works wonders in getting ink out of tubes. A tube can be scrubbed by hand for 5 minutes, but when they're put in an ultrasonic the ink will just boil right out of it.

Leave the equipment in the ultrasonic for about a half an hour. When they're removed, it's easy to brush off any remaining ink or other debris with a denture brush.

To clean a tube, brush it good, inside and out, rinsing it out under the faucet while scrubbing.

After tubes and needle bars have been scrubbed and rinsed well it's time to sterilize them because ultrasonics do not sterilize, they just vibrate hardened ink and crustrations off the parts. Dip them in Benz-all solution. Then carefully line them up in a dry heat sterilizer and turn it on for fifty minutes. At the end of this time, remove them and put in stainless steel containers full of Benz-all. This keep the needles from rusting and keeps tubes and needles sterile until ready for use. Sterilizer tubing and bags are also available from your supplier.

Tattoo Placement

Some areas of the body are easier to tattoo than others.

On a male, the easiest places are the forearm, upper arms and legs.
The most popular and easiest areas for the female are on the shoulder blades, breasts and hips. The fleshy portion of the upper breast, above the nipple, is the easiest spot for a woman to get a tattoo. Women seem to take a tattoo a lot easier than a man. This is due to the fact that they have a naturally higher threshold of pain and also an extra layer of fat in their skin than men do.

Some thought should go behind the actual placement of tattoos, such as the size and shape of the design as opposed to the size and shape of the skin area being tattooed. A large flying bird spanning left to right would look a little awkward on a skinny arm that hangs basically up and down. Try to use the lines of the tattoo to enhance the curves of the body part, this will be making more of an artistic statement than just slamming any tattoo in any position.

Small tattoos don't usually look that good on large areas and seem to get lost.
Large tattoos squeezed into small areas are confusing and usually the entire picture isn't visible from one angle.

Sometimes what looks best isn't necessarily what the customer wants. It isn't your job to argue with them, after all, they're always right, but it does help to make a few suggestions and to state how you view things. People will usually consider what you have to say.

The direction a tattoo faces also should be considered. Although the customer always has the final say, a general rule to follow is that a tattoo that is in profile, or partial view turned, should always face to the front of the person. That is, don't have them pointing backwards to the rear.

Skin

The skin isn't some board to be etched on but an actual working, organism to be dealt with carefully, so extra sensitivity is needed.

Everyone's skin is different. Some people's skin is quite flaky while others are naturally readily. Certain people have extremely sensitive skin and others just the opposite, totally impervious to abrasion, as it seems. Always be aware of the type of skin you are dealing with. For example, you shouldn't grab everyone the same way, some bruise more easily. Be open to individual needs. No matter what skin type a person has, it can all be somewhat equalized in texture by keeping it moist. Always keep the skin lubricated with vaseline or bacitracin ointment while working on it.

A good tattoo does not have to go extremely deep to stay permanent, but can survive quite satisfactorily in just the epidermis layers of the skin.

Stretching Skin

One of the major bonuses that you have working with skin is in its elasticity. It stretches a lot. In order to perform any kind of precise work and to get the ink in correctly, the skin must be taut. It's important that the skin be stretched tightly like a drum so the needles don't bounce, or get hung up in the skin. If the skin in'st very tight, your lines will go from too strong to too weak. If it is too strong, you have gone way too deep and a big fat line with "knots" in it may occur and scar tissue will usually result.

If the skin isn't stretched tight, it will be difficult to get the color to go in the skin. The needles will bounce off the skin instead of penetrating it. It may look like the ink is getting in all right, but it could be an illusion and be gettin in on only the very top layer of epidermis. Keep the area you have just finished clean so yo can see how solid the color is. 

If you are working on an arm or leg, Grasp the back of it and squeeze firmly.

If you are working on a back, chest, breast, or bottom or somewhere where you can't grab the back of it to stretch , you will have to stretch it with your free hand. You can do this by cradling the tattoo area between the "V" formed between the tumb and the forefinger. 

Japanese Tattooing.

Around 5,000 BC the earliest evidence of tattooing in Japan is found in the form of clay figurines that have faces painted or engraved to represent tattoo marks. While i don't consider then tattooing it is an interesting view of what tattooing is. Engraving into a surface. The Oldest figures of this kind have been recovered from tombs dated to 5,000 BC or older. 

297 AD 
The first written record of Japanese tattooing was discovered when a Chinese dynastic history was compiled. According to the text, Japanese "men young and old, all tattoo their faces and decorate their bodies with designs." Japanese tattooing is also mentioned in other Chinese histories, but almost always in a negative context. The Chinese considered tattooing to be a sign of barbarism and used it only as punishment.

7th Century 
By the time of early seventh century, the rulers of Japan had adopted much of the same culture, style and attitude of the Chinese, and as a result decorative tattooing fell into official disfavor.

720AD 
The first record of Japanese tattooing as punishment was mentioned in a history. that reads: "The Emperor summoned before him Hamako, Muraji of Azumi and commanded him saying: You have plotted to rebel and overthrow the state. This offence is punishable by death. I shall, however, confer great mercy on you by remitting the death penalty and sentence you to be tattooed."

720AD 
The first record of Japanese tattooing as punishment was mentioned in a history. that reads: "The Emperor summoned before him Hamako, Muraji of Azumi and commanded him saying: You have plotted to rebel and overthrow the state. This offence is punishable by death. I shall, however, confer great mercy on you by remitting the death penalty and sentence you to be tattooed."

17th Century
By the early seventeenth century, there was a generally accepted codification of tattoo marks used to identify criminals and outcasts in Japan. Outcasts were tattooed on the arms: a cross might be tattooed on the inner forearm, or a straight line on the outside of the forearm or on the upper arm.

Criminals were marked with a variety of symbols that designated the places where the crimes were committed. In one region, the pictograph for "dog" was tattooed on the criminal's forehead. Other marks included patterns which included bars, crosses, double lines, and circles on the face and arms. Tattooing was reserved for those who committed serious crimes, and individuals bearing tattoo marks were ostracized by their families and denied all participation in community life. For the Japanese, tattooing was a very severe and terrible form of punishment.

By the end of the seventeenth century, penal tattooing had been largely replaced by other forms of punishment. One is reason is that decorative tattooing became popular, and criminals covered their penal tattoos with larger decorative tattoos. This is also thought to be the historical origin of the association of tattooing and organized crime in Japan.

The earliest reports of decorative tattooing are found in fiction published toward the end of the seventeenth century.

18th Century 
Pictorial tattooing flourished during the eighteenth century in connection with the popular culture of Edo, as Tokyo was then called. Early in the 18th century, publishers needed illustrations for novels, theatres needed advertisements for their plays and the Japanese wood block print was developed to meet these needs. The development of the wood block print parallels, and had great influence on, the development of the art of tattooing. Because of the association between tattooing and criminal activity, tattooing was outlawed on the grounds that it was "deleterious to public morals."

Tattooing continued to flourish among firemen, laborers and others considered to be at the lower end of the social scale. Tattoos were favored by gangs called Yakuza, outlaws, penniless peasants, laborers and misfits who migrated to Edo in the hope of improving their lives.

The Yakuza felt that because tattooing was painful, it was a proof of courage; because it was permanent, it was evidence of lifelong loyalty to the group; and because it was illegal, it made them outlaws forever.

Around the middle of the 18th century, the popularity of tattooing was stimulated by a popular Chinese novel, Suikoden, with many of its novel's heroes extensively tattooed. The Japanese version of Suikoden was illustrated by a variety of artists, each of whom created prints with new interpretations of the tattoos described in the novel.

This novel and the new illustrations influenced all Japanese arts and culture.

19th Century By 1867, the last of the Tokugawa shoguns was deposed and an emperor was restored to power. The laws against tattooing were strictly enforced because the new rulers feared that Japanese customs would seem barbaric and ridiculous to Westerners. Ironically, under the new laws Japanese tattoo artists were allowed to tattoo foreigners but not Japanese. The best tattoo masters established studios in Yokohama and did a lot of business tattooing foreign sailors. Their skills were so great that they attracted a number of very distinguished clients including the Duke of York (Later King George V), the Czarevich of Russia (Later Czar Nicholas II), and other European dignitaries.

The Japanese tattoo masters also continued to tattoo Japanese clients illegally, but after the middle of the 19th century, their themes and techniques remained unchanged. Classical Japanese tattooing is limited to specific designs representing legendary heroes and religious motifs which were combined with certain symbolic animals and flowers and set off against a background of waves, clouds and lightning bolts.

The original designs used in Japanese tattooing were created by some of the best ukiyoe artists. The tattoo masters adapted and simplified these designs to make them suitable for tattooing, but didn't invent the designs on their own.

Traditional Japanese tattoo differs from Western tattoos in that is consists of a single major design that covers the back and extends onto the arms, legs and chest. The design requires a major commitment of time, money and emotional energy.

During most of the 19th century, an artist and a tattooist worked together. The artist drew the picture with a brush on the customer's skin, and the tattooist just copied it.

20th Century
In 1936, when fighting broke out in China, almost all the men were drafted into the army. People with tattoos were thought to be discipline problems, so they weren't drafted and the government passed a law against tattooing. After that the tattooists had to work in secret. After WWII, General MacArthur liberalized the Japanese laws, and tattooing became legal again. But the tattoo artists continued to work privately by appointment, and this tradition continues today.

Needles

Needles are soldered on bars called needle bars. There two types of needle bars, Liners and Shaders

Liner needle bars are round on the end where the needles are soldered
Shader needle bars are flat on the end where the needles are soldered

Liners:
The needles are grouped tightly together to do outlining with

Shaders:
The needles are grouped flat, next to each other, to do shading.

High quality needles are easier on the customer regarding pain and health and makes the tattoo cleaner and shaper.

A tattoo needle's lifespan is very short. Needles cannot be sharpened and when they are used up, solder them off.

Needle groups used for outlining come in 4 common sizes. Needle groups are the number of needles on the end of the liner bar. They are one needle groups, Three, Four, and then Five needle groups.

Needle groups most commonly used for shading are Four needles group and six needle groups.
A Four is used for smaller areas and the six for larger ones. The only exception is the big 14 needle round shader, used for large work.

Needle wear down over use. The needle ends begin to hook. Tattooing with a bad point results in:

The ink not going in properly
Excessive pain for the customer
Skin damage and Ripping
Leaving Scar tissue
Terrible tattoo