In addition to excessive pain, bleeding, and scabbing, a tattoo that is too deep may also have a blurred or distorted appearance. When the needle goes too deep, it can cause the ink to spread beyond the intended area, leading to a smudged or blurry appearance.
They should look solid and crisp. Slightly raised. If they look a bit scratchy or uneven then go over them again. If there is more than a tiny amount of blood then you have gone too deep.
The dermis, the target for your tattoo ink, is between 1 mm and 2 mm under the surface of the skin. (1 mm is 0.03 inches.) The exact depth may vary from person to person, but 1 mm will be the minimum depth and 2 mm will be the maximum. All your work must occur within this range.
If you go too shallow, your tattoo will fade in just a few days. If you go too deep, you can cause scarring, blowouts, and extra pain for your client. To help, we're explaining where you should be putting ink - and how to tell you're doing it right.
Signs of an Overworked Tattoo
A Change in Appearance - If the tattoo looks faded, pale, cloudy, blurry, or heavily distorted, this could be a sign of overworked skin. This may also appear as ink distortion and blurring. During a tattoo, ink needs to be deposited in your dermis so the pigment stays put.
A deep cut or graze can pull ink away from the tattoo, leading to patchiness, fading, and even scarring if the cut is deep enough.
Fine line tattoos are often made using thinner needles, which means that the ink doesn't go as deep into the skin as other styles. As a result, they are more likely to fade over time due to normal wear and tear.
Your new tattoo is an open wound, and the impact of the tattooing process will usually result in some swelling. After a month or so, your tattoo should begin to settle in, and you shouldn't be able to feel such a difference between your new ink and the rest of your skin.
During the first week
When the skin begins to dry out, the area of the tattoo may also feel tight, as if it is pulling a little. Your skin might also still feel a little warm to the touch. This is perfectly normal, but the swelling should begin to subside by now.
Small Circles: Involves filling color into the tattoo using small concentric circles. The Push: Shoving the pigment into the skin in a single, fluid line with back and forth movements. The Pull: You'll pull the tattoo machine away from the tube tip to allow for a reduced amount of color into the skin.
The lines of a tattoo must be crisp, straight, and constant throughout the tattoo. Wonky lines are a big indicator of an unskilled artist. How a tattoo heals is a huge sign of a good tattoo vs a bad tattoo. If a tattoo scars, blows out or straight up falls out of the skin, it's a bad tattoo.
Overworked and scarred tattoos can be touched up after a significant healing time when the scar tissue softens or heals back to the normal skin texture and the amino acids and oils return to the skin.
Tattoo blowout occurs when your tattoo artist's mistake means they accidentally inject the ink too deep into your skin, causing the design to spread out and become distorted.
The tattoo needle punctures your skin around 100 times per second, with the aim of depositing the ink in a region of 1.5 to 2 millimeters below the surface of the skin. The reason for this depth of penetration is to bypass the outer layer of the skin, or the epidermis. This part of the skin constantly renews itself.
With the needle running, dip into water and drag the needle along a paper towel to “empty out” the buildup inside the cartridge. After rinsing, you can also re-dip your needles back into the pigment to get full-strength pigment.
Blown Vein: Signs and Symptoms
A blown vein, or a ruptured vein, is a vein that a needle has damaged. This causes blood to leak from the puncture into the surrounding tissues. Symptoms of a blown vein include discolored skin around the injection site, bruising, swelling, localized pain, and a stinging sensation.
Once you think you're in a vein, pull the plunger back to see if blood comes into the syringe. If so, and the blood is dark red and slow moving, you know that you've hit a vein.
Ninety-nine percent of the time the tattoo will remain as it was before the abrasion. It may not appear that way, but that is because the design is visually distorted by the trauma, as it temporarily becomes infused with blood, dirt, and upper layer skin particles.
Suggested Tattoo Aftercare
-DO NOT let anyone touch or slap your healing tattoo. Dirty hands cause infection. Slapping it can blow out the lines.
If your artist did not recommend re-wrapping, just let the tattoo stay exposed to air overnight. Every day from then on, you will wash the tattoo in the morning and at night, and apply lotion 3 times a day or so, or whenever the tattoo feels dry or tight.