The Basics
There are many differnt basics or "fundamentals" that any tattoo artist should know. The reason for this is if they don't execute their fundamentals perfectly, then the tattoo might not come out how the client was expecting, which could be an issue since it is there for the rest of their lives. The fundfamentals of a tattoo can be compared to the basic structure of a website, if something is missing or not done correctly the outcome will not be what you were expecting.
What are the fundamentals?
The fundamentals are the most important part of the tattoo and is something every tattoo artist should be comfortable with. Putting a tattoo down isn't like pencil and paper where you can just erase and try to do it right again the second time. If you mess up on a tattoo you could have just ruinied a part of a clients body permanently. There is a lot of different things that go into the fundamentals of a tattoo; some of the most important ones are line work, contrast, color, and shading. Each one of these fundamentals can play a major part in how the completed piece turns out.
- Line-work: Line work is the most basic and possibly one of the most crucial parts about the tattoo. This is what helps to create the general shape of the entire piece. For a nice tattoo an artist should be able to execute clean straight lines, that could vary in thickness on certain areas of the tatoo.
- Shading: Another crucial part of a tattoo is the shading. Shading is what helps create the depth of a piece and can make the whole piece come to life. Shading is typically done in black ink which really helps to show off shadows and make the piece look more like it is coming off of the skin. Any artist should know how to start a line dark black and get the other end of it to a nice lighter shade.
- Color: The application of color is another fundamental that every artist should have in their arsenal. Not every client who comes in will want a black and grey tattoo. Artists should be able to get the perfect amount of saturation in a tattoo to get it to the perfect shade of color that they want without damaging the skin. They should also know which colors work well together and which colors to use in a piece. Just like creating a website, you wouldn't want so many colors in a tattoo that takes the focus off the overall piece.