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Stick and poke or machine for a first DIY tattoo - I picked wrong
I tried doing a simple line design on my thigh with a machine kit from a friend, but the needle depth was all over the place. After 45 minutes of shaky lines and a blown out section near my knee, I switched to stick and poke with a 5RL needle. It took 3 hours instead of 1, but the lines came out way cleaner and I could control the depth way easier. Has anyone else had better luck with one method for small, detailed work?
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moore.beth7d agoTop Commenter
My buddy Jenny tried the machine on her first one too and it was a disaster. She used a cheap rotary pen off Amazon and ended up with blowouts on a little star design because she couldn't feel the depth right. She gave up halfway through and switched to stick and poke with a 3RL needle and a bottle of Dynamic ink I had laying around. Took her a solid four hours to finish the star but the lines are crisp and clean even a year later. She says stick and poke lets her feel the skin popping under the needle better so she never goes too deep. I think for tiny detailed stuff it's just harder to mess up when you're doing it by hand.
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smith.parker7d ago
My buddy Carlos tried a machine for his first tattoo, a little dagger on his forearm, and the needle went too deep on the first pass and blew out the whole outline. He switched to stick and poke with a 7RL needle and spent 5 hours carefully dotting in each line, and it ended up looking way better than any machine attempt. Have you found stick and poke easier on smaller designs too?
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gavin4697d ago
My cousin gave himself a nasty infection with a stick and poke because the needle dipped in and out of the ink bottle too many times and got contaminated. Machine is way more sterile if you actually take the time to set the depth right on some practice skin first.
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