Tattooing is just a different way to draw art on a different canvas. You have to first pre-think how the tattoo is going to flow, as in muscle structure, which you need to incorporate in your drawing on paper. Sometimes, you will take your outline from the paper and draw that on the body and draw a few guidelines where there is muscle movement. When you draw the outline on the body, you will have a better sense of the flow of the muscle structure itself and the natural flow of the body, movements of the body. But, once the outline is drawn on paper, and then placed on the body to make sure it fits right, then a stencil needs to be made, applied to the specified body area, and then this is when the tattooing starts.
Becoming an apprentice to a professional tattoo artist is highly recommended over using practice surfaces such as oranges, grapefruit or what’s called ‘practice skin’ that can be ordered online. Becoming an apprentice requires months if not years of watching and practising drawing on paper, or on canvass, how ever you do your art. There are also actual tattoo schools, if being someone’s apprentice doesn’t suit you, just be prepared to pay more to hone in on this craft.
You’ll also need to become familiar with the tools of the trade. For instance, the Arm Rest, which is used to rest your arms. There is a full-spectrum lamp, which breaks down the prismatic colors, just like the sun, basically, the full-spectrum lamp helps the tattoo artist see how the color will look in the sunlight. The inks and the different qualities in inks, ink caps, sharpies, skin preparation materials as in Vaseline, which lubricates the skin and helps with stopping the blood flow. You’ll need to have a good working understanding of the electric tattoo gun, which rapidly moves the needle up and down as it dips into the attached ink cartridge and all the various speeds of the gun, which is regulated with a foot paddle. The most important tool for a quality tattoo artist is in all the sterilization equipment; a sterile environment is utmost important when it comes time to tattoo a person.