HOW TO TATTOO A STRAIGHT LINE - Most In-Depth Tutorial on YouTube

[Music] feature everything that you need to know as a beginner about how to tattoo the straight line trust me this is going to completely straighten out everything for anyone that has been confused or been watching countless videos on YouTube with controversial information [Music] hello and welcome I'm Ben Fisher the owner of tattoo method Pro and the artist right here at Ink Rush my goal is to change the way we enter the title industry and make learning how to tattoo accessible to anybody that wants to learn firstly I want to quickly give you a breakdown of today's lesson the lesson will be broken down into two parts Theory and then also practical now the aim of this course is to get you to a level of tattooing that you want to achieve and to do that it's super important that you follow along with both parts of this lesson we all digest information in different ways so some of us will find it easier to listen and the theory side will be more helpful while some of us will prefer the Practical side of learning but by focusing on both naturally you're going to progress at a much faster rate so we're going to be covering how to tackle the straight line how to do it correctly from hand machine positioning to our different angles effects how the ink goes into the skin we're going to cover how hand speed affects the skin now it links together with machine speed we're also going to learn how to correctly enter and leave the skin following all this we're then going to go through a really simple little exercise to the whole thing into practice and start your tattooing Journey the right way so I personally feel and I'm sure that you'll agree that line work is massively important and if it's not done correctly then it really does stand out like a circle which means it can completely ruin a tattoo however when done correctly into a high standard then it can make even the simplest of tattoo designs look super crisp and super smooth so today's lesson is so so important just a quick little reminder before we start absorbing all this information like a spun I've never worked a single day since I became a tattoo artist because I absolutely love what I do now although you're just starting out on a relatively new to tattooing and still in that beginner learning phase the most important thing is to not stress and just enjoy the whole process not all of you will get these lessons instantly in fact most of you won't be very good at all in the beginning please do not worry about it or think that you're never going to improve because you will that's why you're on this course and I know you'll be quite shocked with just how much you improve and even more shots at the level of tattooing that you read in such a short space of time but don't take my word for it listen to the reviews and read the comments from others that have been following along to my training videos over 80 000 people have improved on a daily basis from my course and countless people have gone on to opening their own successful shops after completing the full tattoo method Pro cost which I'll be making available to you a huge discount after completing these 30 lessons so let me go over a few tips with you now as I'm going over these try to understand what I'm saying but at the same time don't overthink it and make it more complicated than it is or than it actually needs to be it really is quite simple once the penny drops just accept what I'm saying and when we win over this again with the in his hands then it'll just all make perfect sense and become crystal clear and as you've progress through the course it'll naturally become like second nature so let's get to the learning when tattooing a straight line there are five main things that I want you to start thinking about don't worry we'll go through each in fine detail however let's just first have a quick overview now and then we'll look at each one individually number one A to B in one motion and practice number two hand and machine positioning number three entry and exit of the skin number four Panda machine speed number five stretching let's start with point one A to B in one motion practice just let me explain so we're wanting to tattoo a straight line from point A to point B now for this lesson we want to do this line in one motion what I mean by this is we put the needle into the skin at Point a and then we move to point B in a constant speed and also without stopping obviously later on some lines on tattoos are really long the only way to do them is by stopping and starting because you either have to top up your ink or move your hand position in well we're going to cover all that later but for today we're focusing on trying to do every line in a single smooth motion starting at a finishing it B what do I mean by practice well it's a really good method of knowing if it's going to be doable in a single pass or not without putting the needle actually into the skin we can just mimic tattoo in that line whilst hovering above again we need to practice as if we're actually tattooing so can you do the line from point A to point B without stopping or having to alter your hand position I want you to do this before every line that you do foreseeable future let me tell you now that even after years of tattooing I sometimes find myself still doing this method before I do a line I'm not 100 sure that I'm gonna be able to do in a single go the next point is hand and machine positioning so what do I mean by this so let's imagine we're looking at a machine from the front and also the side so the front view we can have the machine upright like so but we can also have the machine angled to either side either left or right same with the side view we can have the machine either upright or tilt in forwards or backwards so how does this affect the tattooing process well let me explain if this doesn't fully make sense again don't get yourself worked up about it it'll all just suddenly fall into place as you're working through a course just accept what I'm saying and don't overthink it so let's look at the machine from the front view now we can see from this angle directly upright that the needle will go into the skin and deposit the ink into the second layer of skin directly beneath now once the tattoo Wheels then the first letter of skin is renewed then we're still left with the ink deposited directly underneath the point Adventure however when we tilt the machine to either side it's gonna have the same entry point however the ink is going to be deposited slightly towards side and this applies to both sides which means when the towel heals and the first layer of skin renews the deposited ink isn't going to be directly under the skin anymore and the same applies to the other side as well the same principle applies when we're looking at the machine from the side view when the machine is upright it's going to deposit the ink directly underneath the point of entry if we tilt the machine backwards then the deposited ink will be in front of the entry point and the opposite if we tilt the machine forward the deposited ink would be behind the entry point then now please don't overthink this point for the time being but the main thing is that your attention has been brought to it and you're now aware that the angle affects the ink and how or why it does this we can actually use this to as Advantage later on in the course but it can also cause some problems early on we've all seen tattoos out there where the lines don't fully look straight or the line where it looks thicker in some areas than in others well this is one of the things that can cause that exact problem problem imagine this tattooing this line let's say we have the machine at this angle as we start however as we tattoo the line we keep changing angles from one side to another now the entry point of the needle is always perfectly on the line however as we now know the deposited ink is going to be slightly off depending on the angle of the machine so when the line heals do you think that that line is going to look consistent definitely not so like I've already said it doesn't matter if you completely understand this point right now because it'll all become completely clear as we progress through the course and have a good few hours of tattooing under his belts next is entry and exit of the Skin So this refers to what it says on the tin basically there's a good and a bad way to enter the skin now this may be starting to seem like wow there's so much to remember and all we're trying to do is tackle a bloody straight line surely there's an easier way and you're absolutely right this is gonna seem super easy when you're actually doing it as you'll soon find out however if you bring brain works like mine I like to have a clear understanding of something before I'm doing it then later on when we're actually tattooing lines you'll start to notice everything that we've been talking about and it'll all just come together there are so many artists out there that have had multiple apprentices or even teach online via either online courses like mine or just on the YouTube channels the trouble is they're just showing people what to do this is how you tattoo a line however ask anyone that has learned this way okay so why are you doing it like that can you explain it to me well there's no idea because they've just been doing it and don't actually understand the whys or even the reasoning behind it half a time well that's not going to be you you're going to understand each aspect fully to the point if anyone asks you a question you'll have a clear and understandable answer and your knowledge will be deep enough that you'd then be able to teach it to somebody else so let's look firstly at how to end of this game so we'll use the tattooing a line from A to B example again let's imagine we're just drive the needle straight into the skin and then carry out the line so this is the customer skin and we just go straight into it into the second layer of skin and then carry out the line well for the start you can tell straight away that this looks a little aggressive granted we're over exaggerating it for demonstration purposes however because the needle is staying in the same spot for quite a while as we get to the correct depth of tattooing like this then there becomes a build up of ink in that area so what this car says well I'm sure that you've all seen tattoos with line work that either end or at the beginning of each line there's almost like a thicker dot or points to the line almost like a a ball at the end of the line and this is only a small difference and sometimes not even that noticeable however it's there nonetheless and there's a future amazing artist that's not how we're going to be tattooing from now now let's think back to the previous Point let's say we start the line with this machine tilted right back like so so in this instance even though the entry point for the needle is perfect we all know that as the tattoo heals there's a chance that it could actually be a little bit short from the starting point again we're not going to be taking that chance so how should we leave the skin to avoid these mistakes and therefore give yourself the best possible chance of a great looking outcome well we're going to enter the skin at less of an angle when we can as we get into the correct depth we're also going to gradually start the line almost like a very short curve rather than a just blunt in and then start then carry on with the line in a smooth controlled manner when it comes to leaving the skin we're going to do it in the exact same way bear in mind this is referring to tattooing solid bold lines later we'll be learning how to tape lines Etc but let's just keep things nice and simple to start with moving on to hand the machine speed this is super super important and it's something that when you fully understand we can use to manipulate and create lots of cool effects and shading methods but also it's a great thing to understand when you're trying to troubleshoot why something isn't quite working as it should if lines are not nice and solid first thing I would check is my hand speed then onto all the key points like debt Etc so understanding this point initially will help you avoid making a lot of mistakes all together but also help you understand and solve problems later down the line if they arise so first let's look at machine speed let's just say as an example we had the machine running at five volts until this line from A to B now the time taken to do this line is two seconds and let's just say for instance that the speed of this machine goes in and out of the skin 50 times so if we speed up the machine to double then let's just say for easy numbers that with the machine now at 10 volts it would now enter and leave the skin 100 times every two seconds which means if we did the exact same line again then the needle go in and out of the skin twice as much now please understand this now let's talk about hand speed if we did the same first line at five volts and take two seconds to complete that line so our hand speed refers to how fast we actually move our hand we know that if we're slow does hand down by half and it took four seconds to complete the same line there'd be twice as many times the needle enters and leaves the skin which means it's the same as turning the machine up to double for that same length so the two Works side by side so when lining for example we want to move his hand at a comfortable and consistent speed for each line that we do but we need the machine speed to be faster that it creates a line and not just dots I'll show you what I mean let's say we're doing that same line again with the machine set at one volt as an example again we took two seconds to complete the line but the needle now only goes in and out of the skin ten times within that two seconds well that isn't going to create a line is it but instead you'd have 10 dots with spaces between them understand that tattoo machines create Tattoos by going in and out of the skin and pushing ink in to create a solid line we need those dots to actually be overlapping each other and therefore create what we now see as a line so I machine running too slow means that we could end up just getting dots with spaces between them having the machine running too fast means that we're going to be going in and out of the skin too many times in the same place and then could potentially cause damage to its skin so we need to find what works for you and your hand speed later like I say we can use this knowledge and understanding to create some awesome effects for example stipple shading but we'll get to all that and cover it again and again later down line hopefully the handle machine speed makes sense to you like I say it is day one so if you don't feel like you fully understand it at this stage then that's absolutely fine and completely normal but now that you're aware of it as we progress through the course then it naturally starts to make a lot more sense one thing that I want you to fully understand is this obviously every artist tattoos slightly different we're all going to hold the machine slightly different we're all going to tattoo at different speeds and move his hands at different speeds all also we're all going to be using different machines that run at different speeds so now we can see that by watching other artists tattoo and asking oh what Vault are you using when you're tattooing lines is a complete waste of time the amount of people who have messaged me over the years asking what bolts do I run the machine up for lining or shading is ridiculous and it shows that they have no understanding at all about tattooing works you need to find the correct hand speed and machine speed that suits your style of tattooing copying someone else's settings so to speak will never work for you I have a video I'm A YouTube showing exactly how to find the right speed for yourself which is actually a really simple process when you understand the principles that we've just gone through and I'll hand speed and machine speed work together and affect each other finally let's move on to stretching this is actually a really simple one to explain and understand but I'll be honest with you it's the one that most beginners always even get wrong or fail on and I think I know why that is because it is simple usually when something is so simple it's looked at as less important however when it comes to tattooing it's the opposite in fact the simple Basics are always the most important I want to quickly explain what stretching does to the skin and then hopefully you'll understand why it is so important then I want to go through a few different methods of stretching and also get rid of a few bits of bad advice that I've seen all over the Internet that just are simply not true at all so the first thing that I want us to think about is what do you think the skin does when the needle hits and penetrates the skin well as the needle hits the skin it doesn't just have no effect it pushes the skin down and causes the skin to bounce now when the skin isn't stretched this allows the skin to bounce even more another key point to make is the bounce isn't consistent which means the needle is going to be going in and out at different depths all the time because of the movement of the skin sometimes the skin will move a lot and the needle will barely penetrate the skin sometimes the skin can move less and the needle would penetrate more well as an artist we want everything to be as consistent as possible think of it like pushing your finger into a balloon if the balloon isn't blown up much it has a lot of movement because the surface isn't stretched however if we blow the balloon up a lot more therefore stretching the surface Mark as we go to press the finger in again we can see now it's a lot more firm and doesn't allow as much bounce well the same things apply to somebody's skin so how can we stretch the skin to make sure we are always ensure a consistent tattoo this is where there's some rubbish out there on internet we've just gone over why we need to stretch the skin and what happens to the skin when not stretched therefore the only aim of the stretch is to do one thing pull the skin nice and tight to prevent the skin moving as much as possible and keep everything as consistent as we can I've seen countless videos and teaching about to correctly stretch the skin even video stating the only way to stretch the skin let me tell you now that they are all wrong it doesn't matter how we do it as long as the skin is tight I'll go through some of the most common ways of stretching and then it's up to you to try them all and see which you prefer it also depends on the body part that you're tattooing and space Etc and of course the biggest factor in all this is how stretch it or tight the customer's skin is in the first place so we've got the four point stretch so one of the most commonly used stretchers is the four point stretch so for this we stretch using both the stretch in hand and the tattooing hand to actually perform the stretch it's called a four point stretch because we have four points of contact which are all pulling away from the area to be tattooed which creates the optimum stretch so we have the thumb and fingers of the stretching hand above and below and we also will have the Palm or the side of both hands again pulling away from the area being tattooed this is a very reliable way of stretching but the only downside I find is because we're using both hands to stretch it doesn't allow a great deal of movement with the tattoo in hand so you have to be working on a relatively small area at a time the next is the three-point search which is basically the same as the four point stretch however this time without using the palm of the tattoo in hand which obviously brings it down to three points of contact this is still a very good strong stretch however because we're no longer using the tattoo in hand to also stretch it does have the perk of allowing a lot more freedom and range of motion with the machine we also have the full Palm stretch now this one is actually one of my most used stretches however does require a little more room around the tattoo so not the best suited for small areas for example or down near the wrist so to perform this stretch we just place the full land near the tattoo I usually go below when I can't but you can also go either side or even in some cases you might want your hand above the design and then just with the entire hand pull and stretch the skin away from the tattoo area now then this is obviously only pulling the skin in One Direction and could be classed as a weaker stretch than the previous two however think back to why we need to stretch the skin pulling the skin tight is the only goal if we can pull the skin nice and tight in Just One Direction and the ink is going in nice and smooth then I don't really understand why this stretch isn't seen as equally as good one of the things I love about this stretch is obviously it allows total freedom of the tattoo and but I always rest with machine hand on me stretch in hand at the same time and almost use it like a form of support for me I personally find this really help stabilize my hand and I just find it really really comfortable there's also the grasp stretch this stretch if you can even call it one is more of a grass it's usually what I call a last resort but I've had to use this stretch often over last 10 years plus so I've only ever used it on the upper arm countless times when I've been doing tattooing this area and been struggling to get a good stretch with one of the other methods or I've been simply struggling to get the ink to go in without it being a lot of effort I end up using this stretch so instead of stretching around the design itself I twist the arm around the opposite side and then almost grasp a large area of skin and grip it quite tight obviously by doing this it is pulling all the skin at the front and tightening it all up I suppose it's almost like pulling a belt nice and tight not something I use all the time but when it's needed and obviously the option is there so what do I want you to take away from this little section well as long as you get in the skin nice and tight and you're in a comfortable and stable position while doing so does it really matter what method you use my personal answer is no it doesn't not really I've seen enough artists working away and each of them have their own ways of stretching however the end result the skin is being nice and tight is all that is important well I hope that these key areas that we've just been going through make a little bit of sense I'm sure for a lot of you you sat thinking wow that's a lot to take in just a tattle alive and yeah it can sometimes feel like that at the very beginning however trust me you're not on your own so don't get worked up over it this will all become like second nature to you a lot faster than what you think next we're going to be putting all the concepts into practice and actually tattooing some straight lines well done for slaying engaged are we all ready to grab the machine and get some tatwind off I'll see you in part two [Music] thank you [Music] hey and welcome back to the tattoo method Pro online tattoo course I'm Ben Fisher the owner and also the artist right here at Ingram so in the last lesson we covered the main focus areas we need to think about when tackling a straight line the reason this is so important is because I want you to have at least a little bit of an understanding of the concepts prior to just grabbing the machine and then nothing makes sense or as we're doing things you have no idea what or why we're doing them that being said please if you haven't watched part one of this lesson then please stop right now and go back and watch that first this seems like a perfect place to just re-explain that I've put this course together in a very very particular way I want you to learn how to tattoo in the fastest most structured way possible in a way that just makes sense to everyone and builds skills upon skills in a progressive manner that's exactly what I've created and what you and our part of however for me to bring the best out in you in the shortest time possible I need just one thing from you please follow the lessons from day one in order right through to the end I believe that when everything is broken down into small enough segments and repeat over and over that anyone can learn almost anything and master that skill in a much shorter time that being said Rome wasn't built in a day please don't expect to get everything perfect the very first time you try again these lessons are designed to constantly be building and improving your skills as the lessons progress so please just have a little faith in the system that I've created and like I've already said time and time again you'll be shocked at the level attacking that you reach in just a few weeks we all love that feeling when we sit back and look at something that we've done completed and think wow have I actually just done that anyway let's get on with the lesson so if you'd all like to get your practice stations set up and let's get all this Theory into some actual practice if you don't know how to set up your practice sessions then please refer back to the YouTube and there's a video on there showing exactly how to set everything up and everything that you need it's literally step by step and you can watch it again and again until you can just do it with your eyes shut and that's one of the great things about learning online firstly let's get a stencils onto mats for those of you that are following Along on YouTube then there's a link in the description which if you click you can follow this link after you've entered your email I'll send you an email with all the lessons and all the stencils needed to complete those lessons if you're on the full tattoo method Pro course then the sensors are just attached to the lesson for you to be able to download again if you're not sure on how to apply these stencils or make one then please refer to the lessons on how to create stencils or how to apply them to fake skin so the first thing that I want us to do is a little drill that helps us do a few things understand exactly where the needle is going to hit the skin needle control and it's also the best way to understand the correct needle that this is super easy to do and great at building a little muscle memory in the end now if you haven't already watched the videos on machine setups practice stations set up need a lang Etc then please go watch all of them in the pre-tattooin lessons and then come back to this one so let's just get his machines loaded up with some ink dab a little ointment onto the area that we're going to be tackling now I want you to slowly go towards the skin and stop as soon as we feel that we've made contact or we can see a small pool of ink onto the mat then instantly come back so this is the needle just touching the skin and into that first layer so this time we're going to do the exact same thing however this time when we feel or see the little pool of ink we're going to go just that slight bit deeper and then stop and come out we can then give a little dab or wipe and make sure that the ink has stayed in if it has then Gray we know that we're at the correct debt so we keep repeating this leaving small spaces in between the dots and follow the stencil keep going over this until you've completed a full row of lines if you still don't feel very confident then feel free to just keep repeating it until it feels more natural however a role is usually enough remember this is all new so don't expect to feel like you've been doing it for years after just a few minutes let's keep his expectations overselves realistic and actually achievable okay so we're ready to start actually doing some lines remember as previous Theory lesson and the points that we've made well let's just quickly recap however this time together with the machine in his hands on that note please remember these are follow along lessons rather than just sat watching let's pull the finger out and do it together A to B in one motion and practice practice doing the line without actually putting the machine into the skin this confirms that we have full range of motion and are in a comfortable position two hand the machine position it remember that the angle of the machine affects things ever so slightly where the ink will be deposited Under the Skin number three let's make sure we're not stabbing in or out of the skin but instead using the gradual and smooth start and finish to the lines number four hand the machine speed remember they're both work side by side we need to be tackling a comfortable hand speed to make sure the machine is adjusted accordingly number five stretching finally just always be aware that we would be stretching I'll admit it's hard to replicate that on these mats but as long as you have it in the back of your mind then that's great so let's do this first line together load up with something then we're going to be aware of the stretching and make sure we're in a comfortable position do a practice run from A to B as many times as you feel that you need go towards the skin and wait for that pool of ink go slightly deeper and smoothly start the line keep consistent and then smoothly come out of the skin at the end literally as easy as that please don't don't start stressing if your lines aren't perfect straight away we're not looking for perfect straight away however what we are looking for is Improvement long term let's do one more with me talking through it and then I'm gonna do a few without talking and I want you to talk explaining to yourself what I'm doing load up with ink then we're going to be aware of the stretch in hand make sure we're in a comfortable position do a practice run from A to B as many times as you feel that you need go towards your skin and wait for that little pool of ink go slightly deeper and smoothly start the line keep consistent and then smoothly come out of the skin at the end brilliant that's another little straight line done now I'm gonna do a few without talking like I said make sure that you're actively watching and tell me out loud what I'm doing it may seem Daft but this really helps sync information into your brain we're trying to start a really good habit foreign thank you we need to complete the rest of the stencil and remember really take your time and do it right under no circumstances do you want to be rushing any part of this this is actually a lot harder than it seems let me quickly explain why I've seen so many lessons on YouTube and online title trainings that learn people through title designs straight away this is [ __ ] and not how we should learn art when you tattoo a design which we will be later on it's easy to hide mistakes or at least they don't stand out as much because there's other things going on in the design that helps hide anything well learning with my method we drill each area of the tattoo in and focus on one thing at a time and then bring everything together no cutting Corners no rushing you'll thank me in a few weeks I'm sure look at the lines that you've just done if there is any mistakes we can see them straight away there's no hiding them remember this isn't to knock your confidence or prove that you can't do it its goal is the complete opposite let's focus on his weak areas if we see that the line that we've just done is slightly off then let's try and make the next line that little bit better then the next one a little bit better again and so on foreign you've made it to the end of the first lesson how to tattoo a straight line now to the few of you that'll have done that perfect first time congratulations and to the majority of you that'll have found things difficult to get straight lines and we're maybe a bit wobbly or inconsistent don't worry it sounds super simple to do a straight line doesn't it when in actual fact it's one of the hardest things that you can do in tattooing and something that even artists wear years and years experience dread coming up against the main thing in these first few days and week or two is that you maintain focus and concentration so please don't get worked off if it's not going right straight away take a little break and come back to it it's much better to do smog half hour stints when learning than thinking right it's not going good so I'm gonna just keep doing it over and over for hours and hours and if anything that'll just make you more stressed and slow your progress down so make sure it's enjoyable whilst you're doing it take plenty of breaks and trust me the progress will come grab yourself a nice pot of Yorkshire Tea it works wonders anyway well done again and I'll see you in next lesson where we'll be getting more practice with straight line and adding how to tackle straight lines in different directions if you have any questions just shoot me a private message over on my Facebook page let's make sure that you subscribed or follow me YouTube Facebook and insta it really does make a huge difference also I'm putting these lessons together because I genuinely want to help you if I can please if you're watching on YouTube then leave a comment telling me what you found good about this lesson but also if you think anything needs improving is there anything that you think that I could explain a bit better again thank you for watching and as always I'll see you in the next one cheers

Channel: Ben Fisher

Views: 50,615

Keywords: learn how to tattoo, lesrn how to tattoo, tattoo, artist, learn, beginner, oliver ayre, be a tattoo artist, how to tattoo, straight lines, lines, tattoo machine, ben fisher, inkrush, shade, stipple, tattoo techniques, lesrn how to tatoo, learn how to tattoo for beginners, learn how to tattoo at home, learn how to tattoo yourself, learn how to tattoo part 1, oliver ayre learn how to tattoo, learn how to do tattoos, learn how to draw tattoos, How to tattoo straight lines

Id: n8dHeK0AQX4

Length: 34min 38sec (2078 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 29 2023