Here are some small to large realistic and semi realistic pieces. These, though they are small, take time to do. The details make the difference between a good tattoo and a GREAT tattoo. Tattooing can be a time consuming task depending on the image and the area of the body it is to be placed on! The ribs, despite having a solid mass of ribs underneath, are one of the most time consuming areas to tattoo!... not to mention painful. (all tattoos below, by Art).
The 3 image painting below was done in stages and each session saw a finished section by the end. Some pieces, especially realistic tattooing, do not have visible outlines like the traditional and Neo traditional images do, so we prefer to do finished sections and leave some guide marks in order to re-stencil the areas to be tattooed in the next session. It's about strategy!! Gotta plan ahead!
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The small details in the images below were done with a tight 3 needle "bug pin" grouping. This term "bug pin" was used to describe the pins used in entomology (the study of insects). We've all seen the boards with insects pinned to them. These pins are made of a finer wire than "standard" tattooing pins. They originally were called 00 gauge. Double ott was the term. These days, 'bug pin' is a general term to label any pin which is 00 or smaller. Theses smaller pins, make smaller punctures because of the fine gauge of the wire they are made from along with the length of the taper so it's rare to see any bloody looking redness around finished tattoos or any horrible looking bruising, in fact, it's rare to get any blood out of clients due to the considerably lessened trauma to the skin which standard tattooing pins can.
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Many clients say that being tattooed with these pins is considerably less painful and healing was faster! It's true!! We all use them here. Not for every technique but for most and all the results are awesome!!
The angel below was a 6 hour sit. The lack of redness or bruising shows how little trauma these bug pin needle groupings cause. 6 hours!! Look at the details. These are details that only small needle groupings made from bug pins can do, or a "standard" long tapered single needle!