Tattoo problems…

Well Im laid up with that flu thats been going around lately…get breathed on by so many people and its bound to happen. Going a little stir crazy, im not the type to sit around and do nothing, so I thought I should write a little.

I cant remember who said it, but it stuck with me…it went something like this: “If you have a problem with your tattooing, start at the skin/needle and work your way up.” Wise words to remember. It can be extremely frustrating trying to troubleshoot a tattoo problem, with soooooo many variables going on at once. So to take it point by point from where the needle makes contact, makes so much sense.

As far as lining goes, alot of times in my experience of course, problems arise from the needles themselves. When we used to make needles from scratch(if your old enough) we could really control how tight the tips were setup. With premades, were trusting the manufacturers which may or may not give a shit how well their needles work. Also with premades, because they are made by machines, the tolerances can be either really good or really bad, depending on how old and worn said machines are. Ive looked at needle tips in a loupe after dipping the needle in water and its an interesting thing to see. By reservoir action, the individual needle tips, spaced correctly, will hold a nice load of liquid. Too tight and this wont happen…too loose and your gonna get tracer lines, that is, instead of a line youll get individual lines from each needle.

So theres that. Of course it is important to look at each needle you use, before you use it, to make sure youre happy with the tips and spacing. Look out for hooks! They will destroy a tattoo. this also helps you correlate between what you see and how the needle performs.

Before even the needle though, you should think about the skin itself. The skin has to be taught…stretched tight. If its not the needles will bounce right off and things will get inconsistent real quick. Stretch hard!

Of course tube tips are important too, as we move our way up. Ive been really impressed with Alla Primas Sure Glide tips. They are extremely well made, dont feel like plastic like you would expect, keep the needle tips from moving around by being so well designed to fit the particular needle. Check em out: http://shop.allaprimaink.com/category.sc;jsessionid=758715C8E30C75128FCFA792389BB1EE.qscstrfrnt02?categoryId=5

Regardless, your needle tips should not be too large or sloppily machined to the point that you can see the needle jumping or moving from side to side when it is running. Sloppy tubes make sloppy tattoos. Which is why I dont like plastic tubes. They are still too flimsy, at least all the ones Ive tried. Its also my superstition that plastic tubes dont absorb the vibrations inherent in a coil machine, and instead pass them on to your hand and the skin.

So dont get too frustrated if your having some tattoo problems. Just take it step by step from the skin up and think it all through. Experiment, but dont change more than one variable at a time. Happy tattooing!

Gentle

http:www.greatwaveirons.com

 

 

 

Jesus, haven’t posted since February!

But that’s cool. I always mean to start writing more often but I never can seem to keep the ball rolling. Or maybe I do in my own weird sporatic way. I have been doing a lot of great tattoos though and also working on some new and innovative tattoo machine concepts and prototypes.

But for today I just want to share a couple paragraphs from the book by Zen Master Nishijima titled To Meet the Real Dragon. I found it very meaningful and i hope you enjoy them as much as I did! I think it’s a really great summary of what it means to be a Bhuddhist.

“We can never confirm or certify the existence of cause and effect in our real lives. This is because our real lives exist only at the moment of the present, and, at the moment of the present, we have no time to look for cause and effect, no time to consider it. Our real lives are just action-action here and now.

So, your question really brings us back to the problem we have discussed so many times before. That is the problem of point of view. If we look at life as idealists, the universe is something eternal and unlimited. Mind is the basis of reality, and the realities of the mind may or may not conform to the rule of cause and effect. We can be free at any time and all times: in the present, in the future, even in the past.

Materialists, on the other, always study facts objectively and scientifically. For them, all things are finite and bound by cause and effect. They see science as their ally, their principal source of confirmation for their beliefs, and they often refuse to consider such unscientific problems as moral choice or human freedom.

For Buddhists, the viewpoints of idealists, and the materials are both wrong or, at best, incomplete. Buddhists are not seduced by the unanswerable riddles of eternity, nor are they discouraged by the sometimes grim facts of existence on this earth. The problems and ideas which consume the attention of their idealistic and materialistic companions do not distract them from their real concern. That concern is their real life as it appears in the moment of the present. In the moment of the present, they can act, they can do something. Doing something, here and now, is in fact all they can do. It is their life. It is their reality. And so they do act. They choose to do or not do and, in making such decisions, they find real freedom in their lives.

Buddhists do not stop thinking of course. They make their plans for the future and remember the past like anyone else. The difference is that they are no longer so attached to the viewpoints that divide their fellow human beings. They regard idealism and materialism as important modes of seeing and interpreting the universe, but they refuse to be caught in their dogmatic and biased arguments. They take a more detached view, a view that see things in balanced perspective and recognizes the truly important in all situations. So Buddhists do not deny cause and effect, nor do they take a fatalistic view of life. They simply strive to do their best, moment by moment, knowing that they are both free and bound.”

More thoughts on outlining…

 

So I’ve been experimenting with different tube tip styles for outlining lately and feel I have reached some conclusions. First of all, I find the fact that I’ve never really questioned how the tube tip works after all these years is pretty amazing, and fairly stupid. But we can say I was looking at other aspects of tattooing. The only things I’ve ever really considered about tips is the basic shape and the visibility they offer in other words, closed or open face.

In my thinking about tube tips, there are a few aspects I’ve broken it down to. There is the very tip itself where the needle rides, then there is the reservoir that holds the ink and up from that is a half-moon shaped cutout that facilitates cleaning more easily. The tip and reservoir, which are connected really, are important for ink flow and needle stability.

The tip of a tattoo tube, as far as I can understand, works pretty similar to an old-fashioned quill pen. The effect that allows the ink to be drawn into the tip and held there until it flows out with the needle into the skin is called Capillary Action. It has to do with surface tension of liquid and intermolecular attractive forces which I can’t quite wrap my head around. The amazing thing though, is that this action actually causes the ink to kind of cancel out the force of gravity as far as it is concerned. Because of the situation of a thin round-ish tube and the forces involved between it and the liquid it is dipped into, the liquid beats gravity and is sucked up and held in the tube by its own accord. Pretty amazing!

When we look at it like this, we can see that there are a few aspects that are important. The shape seems to be important, as a wall all the way around as opposed to an open face tube, would seem to be able to hold ink better, and more of it. Also, the larger the interior space of the tip, the more ink would be held in there.

Now I’ve been using very small open-faced diamond tips from for many years. Based on the conclusions I’ve come to by thinking about this stuff, and applying what I learned about the effect of Capillary Action, I’ve recently tried a variety of tips. Even though i think the round tip makes more sense, I still feel like the needle has the tendency to move around, which I find unacceptable. I tried a variety of diamond tips next, with varying interior space and tip angles. I finally settled upon a diamond tip, closed faced, with about a 45 degree angle bevel at the tip. It was listed as a 3/5/7 needle tip, but the spacing is what really counts I think. With a 7 needle in the tip I have about the needles diameter again in space above it, which acts as the reservoir.

I mostly use 7 needle liners in varying tightness. With the closed face diamond tips I settled on, I noticed several improvements. Before, with my tight open face tubes, I was constantly dipping into the black after each line. I think that’s because my needle was “starving” for ink in a sense, being that there was very little reservoir space there in those tight little tips. Also, because there wasn’t a wall all the way around to distribute even pressure, those tips wouldn’t hold very much ink. With the closed face diamond tips I found that I had to dip quite a bit less, I can do 5 or 6 shorter lines before having to dip again. I also found I can pull really long lines as opposed to having to break them up. Everyone knows the less you have to break up your lines, the better.

Of course there are some drawbacks. It certainly seemed easier to see the needle with the open face tips. Also, because the open face tips hold less ink, they tend not to drop that puddle or trail of ink on the skin, which is nice in a way.

So this just goes to show that even if we’ve been tattooing for a little while, we can and should still question our assumptions about the equipment we use. That old saying is baloney ya know, an old dog certainly can learn new tricks!

Thoughts on outlining and ink viscosity…

As a tattooer, I feel that outlining is still a great challenge to me. Everyday I strive for crisp clean lines that will stand the test of time. I suppose you could say Im from the “single-pass” school of thought as opposed to the sculpted line thing some other guys who are more into the new school thing…or whatever theyre calling it these days.

I’ve always thought lines were harder to execute than shading. I think they are less forgiving…especially if you are going for single pass. You pretty much have one chance and if you fuck it up, well that’s how it will stay. You got all these factors going on when your lining. It’s the first thing you do, so if the client is gonna move they’re most likely gonna do it during those first few lines. I also find that those same first few lines is where I’m gauging the clients skin to see if it can handle some abuse or if I will have to be very careful.

I’ve been thinking a lot about lines lately. Trying to break it down into factors that can be balanced against each other and here’s what I have so far: general hand speed, machine speed, ink viscosity, and needle reservoir. I think that the first two, hand speed and machine speed, can be tied together. Maybe they have to be.

So when I say hand speed, I mean the general pace that you pull your lines. Do you pull them really fast, really slow, or somewhere in between. This is a very relative factor and you really have no way of knowing without comparing yourself to other artists around you. I’ve experimented with both ends of this scale and feel that I personally fall somewhere between the middle and the fast end. I find that if I line slower I shake more and that’s obviously not so good. So the second factor, machine speed, is relative to this first one, hand speed(which is also relative). As far as I can tell, 140-150(no load) Hertz or cycles per second on you meter, is the average top end speed on liners. So if you line really fast you’re gonna want your speed somewhere in that range, depending on what feels right for you. I find that the very low-end of lining machine speed is about 120 Hz or CPS. So if you tend to line really slow, you’re probably gonna want to be closer that end.

So basically adjust your machine speed relative to your hand speed. What you don’t want is a fast hand being held up by a slow machine.

I forgot something in here…what I call machine pressure or “hit”. I wont tell how to adjust it, you have to figure that one out on your own. But it is important. If a machine hits too hard it will blow out your lines, too soft and they will grey out.

Next two factors are even more subtle! Ink viscosity is basically the thickness of the liquid pigment you are using to tattoo with. So a lower viscosity is very thin, like water, while a higher viscosity is thick like honey or toothpaste. Actually, a thicker tattoo pigment always reminds me of a milkshake or melted ice cream! It is my perhaps far-fetched theory that the lower viscosity or thinner an ink is, the faster it will flow into the skin. But this must be balanced out. The pigment, while it can be fairly thin, needs to be concentrated enough to saturate the skin and not fade when it heals. On the other hand, thicker pigment will saturate more but at a slower rate. Different pigment colors seem to saturate at different rates based on the color also. But here I’m talking about black.

So black ink, in my opinion, has a higher flow rate, and therefore can be lined faster, when it is thinner, or has a lower viscosity.

I think this is generally the reason that outline machines run at faster speeds than shaders…because black ink tends to be thinner than color.

Last factor, needle reservoir. To me, when I say needle reservoir(not that I ever say it in public) I mean the little gap in between the individual needles in a group…in other words, the space inside of the circle made of individual needles in a liner grouping. Take a liner needle sometime, and dip it in some water, then look at it closely with an eye loupe. You will see, if you look carefully enough, a bead of water sitting in the center of those needles. This, I believe, is where the ink flows from when you are lining. The amount of ink able to be held there is determined by how many needles are in the group and also by how tight the needles are or how close together the tips are to eachother. Looser needles tend to hold more but they after a certain point they are too loose and not longer make a line, but show a series of “tracer” lines that tend to fall out after healing.

So the amount of ink that a needle can hold is determined by how tight it is. Too tight and it won’t hold much, too loose and you’ll get tracer lines.

Whether the actual tube reservoir, the open space behind where the needles ride, has any bearing on ink flow or not, I have no way of knowing. I’m curious whether it does or not, but can’t seem to think of a way to verify it one way or another. Of course it must have a purpose, or else it wouldn’t be there, right?

Ok, so we’ll tie it up nice and neat here. When it comes to lining, you have a few factors, all relative to eachother. General hand speed, machine speed, ink viscosity, and needle reservoir. Hand speed and machine speed must be cooperative, that is, the faster the and the faster the machine speed should be. Thinner viscosity ink tends to have a higher flow rate. So the faster the machine and hand, the thinner viscosity the lining ink should be. The larger the needle reservoir, the more ink the needle can hold, but the needle must be tight enough to make a crisp line with no tracers.

I think if all these factors are balanced with eachother, better lines will be the result.

An alternate understanding of The Four Noble Truths

 

The Four Noble Truths     

The first noble truth is commonly described as the truth of suffering. The actual Pali or Sanskrit word that was originally used is Dukkha. Although Dukkha can be translated into our modern English as “suffering”, it is probably better described as “uneasiness”, or “unsatisfactory experience”. The first noble truth translated as suffering leads us to a very nihilistic view of life; from this many people believe that what the Buddha was trying to say is that life is suffering. But the Buddha never said, as best as I can tell, only that there is dukkha or an uneasiness. Perhaps he meant only to point out that this uneasiness is a major facet of our experience as humans.

 

Brad Warner in Hardcore Zen, points out that it is his understanding that the first noble truth represents the idealistic viewpoint, and when you look at things from that perspective “everything sucks”, because reality can ever possibly live up to our expectations and our ideas about how things ought to be. Instead of experiencing whatever is, from an idealistic point of view we compare our experience to our ideas about our experience and this is our first mistake. In other words, by comparing our ideas about what is happening to our experience of what is happening, we create our own suffering.

The second noble truth moves on to point out the origination of that suffering, that our real experience can never quite live up to our ideas about our experience. Our common understanding of the second noble truth is that craving or desire is the cause of all our suffering, yet in the real world we can’t get rid of our desires. It isn’t possible. And there is nothing wrong with that. Desire is fundamental in our experience as human and there is no reason it shouldn’t be acceptable to us. Like other negative concepts ie. evil, sin, badness etc., it cannot be isolated and destroyed and attempting to do so often only serves to make it stronger. The Buddha had already tried to be an ascetic( a person who refuses to satisfy any desire with the aim of awakening), and found it to be too extreme and ineffective, so why would he recommend a path that he himself rejected, in his own core teachings? So perhaps the Buddha really meant that the desire to want things to be other than they are in our experience of the moment, leads to suffering.

So in this alternate understanding of the four noble truths, the first and second noble truths simply point out that from an idealistic viewpoint, we are setting our selves up for suffering, because our ideas about how things should be never quite match up to the way they actually are.

The third noble truth is commonly understood as saying that the cessation of, or freedom from suffering is accomplished by giving up our desires. It seems that we can easily think about stopping all our desires, but in reality there doesn’t seem to be anyone who actually has done it. This leads me to believe that this common understanding is not what the Buddha intended. So if he did not intend to say that stopping all desire is what leads to the end of suffering, perhaps he meant that if we can accept the way things are we will suffer less. In other words, do what you can with what you have and accept the situation of the moment as truth, or at least as your temporary truth. Again, it is impossible to abolish all our desires, as our experience can easily show us if we try, but it is quite possible to not want our situation to be different from what it is.

Of course that makes it sound like if we are in a bad situation, we should just accept it, and not try to make changes to lead us in a better direction. I don’t think the buddha was saying this at all. Of course we should take action to better our situation. But to the extent that we can drop our idealism, and our desire for the moment to be different from what it is, we can experience less “uneasiness”.

The fourth noble truth is the path leading to the cessation of uneasiness. This path described is called the eightfold path. The eightfold path is: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration. The path, as you can see, is fairly vague and open to interpretation. The common understanding is that if we do these eight things right, we won’t suffer anymore. Another impossible task. Even if we knew what the Buddha meant by “right”, it would just be another form of idealism, trying to make our experience match up with our ideas.

If instead, we consider that instead of “right” the buddha actually meant “real” or “actual”, it may lead us to a better understanding. Besides, the Pali or Sanscrit words actually used was samma and samyanc , and can also be interpreted as completion or coherence, respectively. So maybe if we have a more thorough “completion with” or “coherence with” our “real” or “actual” view, intention, speech, etc. we can lessen our experience of unsatisfactoriness.

So to sum it all up, our alternative understanding of the Four Noble Truths of the Buddha goes like this:

1. That there is a facet of our experience that can be described as unsatisfactoriness.

2. That this unsatisfactoriness comes about because of our idealistic viewpoint.

3. That the amount of unsatisfactoriness that we experience is directly proportional to how much we compare our ideas about how our situation should be to how it really is.

4. That the practical way to focus on reducing our unsatisfactoriness is to follow the eightfold path being: to see directly and not turn away from the reality of our view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, concentration and in general our experience as it occurs in the moment.

Gentle’s Blog

I really don’t know what this blog thing is all about. Like most people of my generation(born late 70’s) I’m confounded by how fast technology is changing the ways that we express ourselves and only pretend to totally understand it to prevent me from looking as stupid as I sometimes feel.

Also I must say that I’ve never been really good with following through, especially when it comes to writing. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and have done lots of it, but have finished very little. It’s a major character flaw really…I start things but don’t finish them.

So we’ll call this blog my challenge: I’ll try to write regularly, say every other day, and we’ll see if I can break this habit of not following through. I do love words.

As to the what, well, I’ll write about what I know: zen, tattoos and the business of tattooing, tattoo history and how it’s changing, and anything else that I might be interested in at the time.

Happy reading!

Gentle, Nov 2010, Erie Pa