How To Make A Stick And Poke Tattoo?
What is a stick prick tattoo? – Also known as a hand poke tattoo, stick and poke tattoos are created by dipping a needle into ink and poking the skin with it manually. While the technique is certainly more suitable for beginners than machine tattoos, that doesn’t mean it’s any less legitimate – they’re just as permanent and have a style all their own.
Icon, a 31-year-old part-time tattoo artist in the USA, told me: “I do think hand-prick tattoos look just as good as machine tattoos. ” Last year, when the country was under embargo, she got her hands dirty and recently opened her studio.
Icon likens hand-stamped tattoos to ‘drawing on a piece of paper’ and machine tattoos to ‘drawing on an iPad’. While machine tattoos may give a cleaner look, she believes that both offer different effects. What are the best design for the first DIY stick and poke tattoo? “I think anything is easy,” says Icon, whose first DIY stick and poke was a little lightning bolt.
“I think it was a really good idea for the first one because it [had] very clean lines. There’s not a lot of detail. ” 29-year-old Malaysian tattooist Chua Yi Min drew a kitten on her inner thigh, her first DIY stick and poke.
However, she advises beginners to opt for small, simple designs consisting of straight lines. “A word is always good,” says Patrick, a 29-year-old London-based tattoo artist who writes on Instagram @european. son. 420. The first tattoo he gave himself was a small “X”.
“When you first start, you want to take your time, especially if you’re not very familiar with the technique,” says Icon. “Since hand tattoos already take much longer than machine tattoos, start small. ” Where on your body should you put a stick and poke the tattoo? “It depends on your priorities,” says Icon, who suggests using the forearms and thighs to reduce the pain.
Finding an area where the skin has been stretched works well for the first tattoo, and Vivien says she did her first tattoo on her ankle, although it was a “very painful spot” simply because that part of the stretched skin was easier to poke through. Patrick also recommends getting a thigh.
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How to practice stick and poke tattoos?
You can practice stick and poke tattoos using different materials : fruits, pig skins and silicone are commonly used. Eager to try tattoo practice skins with a stick and poke technique, we found two inexpensive products on Amazon. One is a practice skin made of borosilicate glass and the other one of silicone. At first glance, both products are very similar. However, while tattooing, we were quite surprised to see that each product behaves differently.
Differences also appeared when removing the excess ink. The borosilicate glass tattoo practice skin is flexible, but more breakable than the silicone one. It feels more porous than the silicone and is harder to clean even with alcohol.
Having a clean sheet might not be an important point for practicing your work but, if you want to show it with pride to future receivers, keeping it tidy is nice. The silicone tattoo practice skin is soft and flexible. It accepts ink similarly to real skin.
- It is easier to clean than borosilicate glass;
- Silicone exists under different forms (even in body parts such as hand, but those forms are quite expensive);
- Sheets are the more affordable option since they cost less than 10$;
Our preference for practicing stick and poke tattoos : although borosilicate glass is more fun to poke, silicone is a much better option to practice stick and poke tattoos. Before trying it, be sure to read our article on how to use tattoo practice skins to get the best out of your purchase.
Where can I buy stick&poke tattoo ink?
Preparing the Stick and Poke Tattoo Equipment – 2. 1 – Wash your hands with water and soap. Cover wound you may have with a plaster and put on medical gloves. 2 – Prepare the area and the tools you’ll need for your stick and poke tattoo. First, make sure the surface on which you are working is uncluttered and clean.
I use a household bleach solution (1 part of household bleach to 9 parts of water) as a disinfectant. Then, lay out paper towels or a medical tray cover to place the rest of your material. Have few pair of gloves nearby but outside of your work area in case you need to change them during the process.
3 – Shake your stick and poke ink for about 1 minute and fill the ink container. Close the cap tightly and wipe the excess ink. Pour rubbing alcohol into another container. Remove the ink and rubbing alcohol containers from your work area to prevent cross contamination (your hands touching the tattoo and then these bottles is cross contamination).
If you have to refill ink during the tattoo process, you should throw away the ink container with your gloves and then prepare a new one, outside of your working area, after putting new gloves on. If you want to successfully complete an amazing Stick & Poke tattoo, having the right equipment is essential.
That’s why we always suggest Single Needle. Not only do Single Needle stock a huge range of Stick & Poke Supplies, everything they sell had been certified by professional Hand Poke tattoo artists around the world. Single Needle are also the exclusive seller of Hand Poke specific Stick & Poke Tattoo Ink. .
Why choose single needle for stick&Poke tattooing?
Preparing the Stick and Poke Tattoo Equipment – 2. 1 – Wash your hands with water and soap. Cover wound you may have with a plaster and put on medical gloves. 2 – Prepare the area and the tools you’ll need for your stick and poke tattoo. First, make sure the surface on which you are working is uncluttered and clean.
I use a household bleach solution (1 part of household bleach to 9 parts of water) as a disinfectant. Then, lay out paper towels or a medical tray cover to place the rest of your material. Have few pair of gloves nearby but outside of your work area in case you need to change them during the process.
3 – Shake your stick and poke ink for about 1 minute and fill the ink container. Close the cap tightly and wipe the excess ink. Pour rubbing alcohol into another container. Remove the ink and rubbing alcohol containers from your work area to prevent cross contamination (your hands touching the tattoo and then these bottles is cross contamination).
- If you have to refill ink during the tattoo process, you should throw away the ink container with your gloves and then prepare a new one, outside of your working area, after putting new gloves on;
- If you want to successfully complete an amazing Stick & Poke tattoo, having the right equipment is essential;
That’s why we always suggest Single Needle. Not only do Single Needle stock a huge range of Stick & Poke Supplies, everything they sell had been certified by professional Hand Poke tattoo artists around the world. Single Needle are also the exclusive seller of Hand Poke specific Stick & Poke Tattoo Ink. .
Why is my stick and poke tattoo bleeding?
Completing the Stick and Poke Tattoo – Remove excess ink with a make-up remover pad imbued with rubbing alcohol (or ideally a green soap solution). You can then continue your stick and poke tattoo, removing excess ink as you go. The skin might swell at some point, and will therefore be too inflated to retain ink.
In this case, striving to complete the tattoo is useless; you should therefore stop and continue when the skin is completely healed. Once your stick and poke tattoo is complete, clean it one last time with rubbing alcohol and apply a bandage on it.
About rubbing alcohol : this product is hard on the skin and dries it excessively. Instead of using rubbing alcohol to clean (but not sterilize) the skin during and after the tattoo process, professional stick and poke tattoo artists typically use green soap mixed with distilled water (1:8).
