How to Set a Suitable Depth for Tattoo Needles

The depth of tattoo needles will decide both the appearance and attraction of the designs and the level of pain, cleanliness and healing. How to set a suitable depth for tattoo needles is your first lesson if you want to do tattooing. Here are some initial tips for you.

To know more about tattoo needles is the first thing you should do. The best ways are: learn from the experienced, work an apprenticeship and search the Internet, among which, apprenticing with an experienced tattoo artist is highly recommended as he will teach you how to set the depth of tattoo needles hand by hand and you have more chances to observe each step. What's more, skills about measuring the layers of the skin will be taught and you can practice under instruction.

Then you should inform yourself of the work of tattoo needles in advance. When do penetrating, tattoo needles are working on the first layer of skin, which is known as epidermis. Remember never let the needles go deeper than the dermis, the second layer of the skin. The depth between the two layers differs according to various persons. To determine the thickness of the skin is very significant. Take out a dime and a nickel to measure the thickness and record that. One-to- two deep between those two is your needed depth. Tattoo needles should stick out of the tattoo gun between 1/16 and 1/32 of an inch. For outlining, the depth of the needles should be 1.22mm, almost the thickness of a Canadian dime, while shading, set that at 3/32" on a 10-wrap tattoo machine, 1/16" on an 8-wrap machine.

The next thing you should do is to test. Unlike experienced tattoo artists who can know whether the tattoo needles' depth has been properly set, starters should test it on something similar to the thickness of human skin, or you may cause excessive bleeding. I see someone testing on grapefruit. When it shreds, he got the perfect depth for tattoo needles.

Another suggestion from tattoo artist: taking your tattoo machine apart and then put it back together. You should repeat it several times, which helps you know the visual depth and be more familiar with your machine as when tattooing, you can know the proper force to enact, or you will run into troubles even if you've set the depth of tattoo needles right.

Set the Depth of Tattoo Needles

Everybody can give a tattoo, but the difference is only the tattoo given by a well equipped tattoo artist is called art. To create that art, you need preparation, the first step of which is to enrich your knowledge like how to set the depth of tattoo needles. The more you know, the better your tattoo will be.

Why should we set a proper depth of a tattoo needle?

You should know that tattoo needles are used to insert tattoo ink into a person’s skin to color the tattoo design to make it looks more exquisite and vivid. All the penetrations are done on the epidermis, which may be more acceptable if being called as the first layer of skin. The needles go no deeper than the dermis, the second layer of skin. The depth of tattoo needles decides the appearance and attraction of the tattoo designs as the ink can’t be penetrated right with a wrong depth and colors can’t be shown to the full extent. Also, the level of pain is also determined by the depth. If the needle goes too deep, it may cause excessive bleeding then, which affects the cleanliness of the skin and makes it more difficult for the healing of the skin.

So, how to set the depth of tattoo needles right?

For an experienced tattoo artist, it seems to be a piece of cake. They can eyeball the needle and tell whether the depth is suitable or not. But a novice should do more steps.

To know all the trifles of tattoo practice is a must, which helps you get more familiar with the tattoo equipment involved in tattooing. Then you should measure the thickness of human skin, which varies from person to person. Usually the thickness will be 1-to-2 deep between the thickness of a dime and a nickel and slightly less shallow than a hair follicle. The measurement will be much easier after some practice.

The depth of tattoo needles differs according to your purpose. For outlining, the depth should be set at around 1.22mm. For shading, set the needles to be at 3/32" on a 10-wrap tattoo machine, 1/16" on an 8-wrap machine. Then don’t forget to ride the tube to keep the depth consistent.

After setting the depth of the needles, remember not to enact on the skin immediately as you may make mistakes when just get started tattooing. Try the depth on grapefruit at first. If it shreds, you have got a great depth for your tattoo needles.