How do you shade with a magnum needle?

Answer 1

Mags are generally the only needles that one would want to use on a tattoo for coloring, although Round Shaders can be used for saturation nicely. For most graywashing you would want to use a round shader or a mag, but it is up to you as the person doing it to make that determination.

I tell apprentices that I teach to think of tattoo needles as paintbrushes, and the rest will follow. You wouldn't use a fine detail brush to fill in a large area of a painting, and that is doubly true for tattoo needles. One of the biggest things that you need to learn when starting is that you really have to pay attention to the amount of trauma you are putting on the skin. If you are just grinding and grinding away at an area because you are trying to color an area of skin that needs a large mag with a round shader, you will be wasting your time and your clients because it will take a long time to heal, there will undoubtedly be scarring, and a good deal of the ink that you are putting in will come out.

But with mag needles, generally you may have to turn your power supply up just slightly higher than you would have it for a smaller needle, but depending on how well your machine is tune, this is not always the case. Best of luck.

Answer 2

always have the eye loop at the top of the needle bar with the hook facing left