Bang Bang Answers Tattoo Questions From Twitter

Hey, I'm Bang Bang and I'm gonna answer

some tattoo questions on Twitter.

Let's get started.

[rhythmic music]

Do you reckon my tattoo artist will be mad at me

if I have spots where I'm getting tattooed?

Will it make it difficult for her?

How do you get rid of acne on your body, please?

Your tattoo artist, I hope, won't be mad at you.

You can't help blemishes, but in some cases

it can restrict what we can do and it can affect

how it heals, and if you get a tattoo where you don't

have blemishes or acne and you develop it,

it can actually push ink out.

This is what that looks like.

There's a spot here that's missing.

This is certainly from a pimple or getting scratched,

and there's another one right here.

See a dermatologist, see if you can

take care of it, and then get a tattoo.

Whenever there's some question like that,

we'll like see the doctor and see if we can take care of it.

From Little Ink Stain, sounds like we can be friends,

There has to be a better way to practice tattoos

besides fruit and just people.

It's pig skin, isn't it?

Oh, God, that makes me gag.

It will, pig skin doesn't smell good.

My apprentice used to have to go to the butcher

and pick up pig scraps and skin and tattoo it,

and she had to do it quick 'cause we had to get it

outta the store 'cause it was smelly.

There are now like artificial body parts of silicones

that you can tattoo on and fake skin that's really good

for kinda getting your hand used to the weight

of a tattoo machine, drawing with something vibrating,

keeping your depths consistent,

so just warming your hand up to using the tool.

You can't learn how to drive a car in a video game.

Like, you have to get behind the car and drive.

So, first off, you should tattoo yourself

when you're learning so you can

feel what it is you're doing, and yeah,

I mean, if you don't trust yourself enough

to tattoo yourself, why should other people trust you?

So I've tattooed myself a dozen times.

I still tattoo myself.

Yeah, I did my little 14 left handed.

I did my little number two.

It's not that good.

[woman and Bang Bang laugh]

Not a cry for help.

What's the best way to do a stick and poke tattoo?

I've tried in the past and only

gotten two dots that stayed.

Don't do that man.

You don't know what you're doing.

Don't do it.

I don't know how to answer this question.

It's like, how do I go get in a car accident?

Like, don't.

From Mia, Okay, but how do tattoo artists do shading?

Like, I can hardly do it on paper.

How do you do it on skin?

Magic, pure magic.

There's a lot of variables that go into tattooing,

the needle densities, how they're laid out,

depth and pressure, speed of our machine,

and then also how diluted the ink is.

So we use several different tones to make it happen

and we kind of all blend it together.

Let me show you how that's done.

When we're tattooing, we use several different types

of needles, different groupings, different sizes.

One that's most specific to shading is called a mag,

and it's very much like a brush.

This one is 15 needles and they're

stacked on top of each other.

The technique is really to move that across the skin

evenly, consistently without damaging it.

So that's the task.

We use individual grips each time that we tattoo.

So this stuff is all disposable,

and another interesting thing is they don't have to be.

These things can be made out of stainless steel

and cleaned and reused.

In many states you can even reuse the tattoo needle.

So it's really important to ask.

We really recommend people always

use brand new needles every time.

This is the fun part.

What I'm doing right now is not

necessarily like solid lines.

I'm trying to kinda brush in with my liner

to make sure I keep that realism,

because things that are realistic don't have

hard lines all around them, so I have to make sure

I just put the contrast just where it goes

to make sure it still looks realistic.

There's all different kinds of like how sharp it's tapered.

There's different bluntnesses and different sharpnesses

of the needles, different groupings,

how close they are together, the different gauges,

or how thick each needle is.

When tattooing started, there was no companies

making tattoo needles, so you had to make your own.

So the grouping is specific to the artist.

So as I'm shading, I can dilute my inks with water

and I can also move my hand a

bit faster to change that tone.

I can use darker inks and get this area

completely too black if I need to.

I kinda use a sweeping motion,

so it has to be in the skin the same depth and time

in the forward motion as the backward motion.

The depth is really important.

That's how you can kinda create one tone of pigment

over a really large plane is move your hand

the exact same way for several hours in a row.

My tattoo is starting to peel

and a piece of completely black skin

just came off of it in the shower, help!

Yeah, it's normal, you'll be fine.

It's not skin that came off,

it's dried plasma or, you know, your scab.

Your body is regenerating and you have seven layers of skin.

We're putting ink in between the third

and fourth layer if it's done successfully.

You'll shed your top layer, it's totally normal.

How do you fit a skull, rainbow,

and a black rose on one tattoo?

It's really like the balance you need to find

in any design that'll make it timeless.

I feel like almost any subject matter you can piece together

as long as you can make sense of it.

You know, when you're old and gray,

you're still gonna have your skull,

black rose, and rainbow tattoo.

How do we make it pleasing to the eye?

This is how I would do that.

So first, I'll pull the client's body part into Photoshop

and then organically laying each image on

to see which one's, you know, gonna kinda be the dominant

image and which ones are gonna be backgrounds.

I wanna work with the client to make sure

they feel comfortable in the design,

and people aren't gonna just understand

when I tell 'em what I'm gonna do

so I wanna give 'em a visual representation of it.

Almost every larger tattoo I make

I will work in Photoshop with people.

Not everything that I try I like,

so this is very much the sketch process.

So if we wanna do any really fine detailed stuff,

we'll do all that by hand really close.

If I wanna add any motion to that,

that's all something that I can add

just with some of my smudge tools

and we can carry some of that

background to fit the body part,

and this is all something that I wouldn't necessarily map

for myself before I tattoo it,

but it's something that helps clients get an idea

of what I'm going for on their skin.

So now we're really close.

I can just put a filter on these

that will make it look like a finished tattoo,

and then I'm gonna pull that rose just in front

of that rainbow, and I think that's gonna do it.

Brighten that rose up a little bit, and there you go.

There's a rose, and a rainbow, and a skull.

It doesn't always work, but I think it's pretty cool.

I thought it would be worse.

[laughs]

Yeah, I wanna make that tattoo, so holla.

Tattoo myth or fact, color ink hurts more than black ink?

Certain techniques hurt more than other techniques.

Sometimes color needs more effort from the artist.

Skin needs to get beat up a little bit more

for that color to put as much

pigment into you skin as possible.

If a pigment is thicker, it's going to take longer

and be a little tougher to get into your skin.

So different colors have different consistencies

through different companies of brands that make them.

White hurts because we're drilling it.

We're trying to get as much in there as possible.

Tattoos at the insanely itchy stage.

Can't decide if best technique is blowing, tapping,

itching around it, or distraction through alcohol.

Sounds like we can be friends.

Yeah, slap it, that's the best one.

If you itch it, you can force off scabs or affect it.

If there's no scabs on your tattoo,

go for it, itch away, enjoy.

If you have little scabs or it's still healing,

very fresh, within the first, you know,

10 days or two weeks, don't itch your tattoo.

Your nails are also gross, so, you know,

if it's killing you, like, smack it.

Ice helps, you can put ice on it.

Friends with tattoos, I have a question.

What's the best way to wrap a fresh tattoo?

My Saniderm fell off and it hasn't been a full 24 hours.

I got a significant amount of color done

and I'm worried about leaking plasma

and my tattoo scabbing, attaching itself to clothing.

It is on your tattoo artist to make sure they educate you

when your tattoo is done and that they're

there for you when you do have questions.

When I do a highly rendered full-color tattoo,

it's more trauma to skin than any other style

because it's very densely tattooed

trying to make color very solid.

Your tattoo will ooze more, it will scab more.

Wash your tattoo.

All that plasma and gross [bleep]

that's gonna come to the surface and leak

should be washed off gently with warm water and soap,

and let it get air.

I wrap tattoos for two to 24 hours.

Your body really does the healing.

The things you put on top of your body

are not going to heal you.

Your body's gonna heal you.

There's things that can promote healing

and there's things that can kind of restrict healing.

Let me demonstrate that.

I'm going to do one final wash of his tattoo.

I'm gonna apply some ointment.

I'm gonna put plastic on top.

We're gonna make sure the tattoo

is really clean before we wrap it.

After we wrap it, we'll go through the next steps.

In a couple hours, this will all be absorbed by the skin

and when he takes his bandage off he'll wash this all off.

Ointment is not helping your tattoo heal in any way.

It's just keeping your skin protected

or moisturized so your body can do the work.

So I'm gonna use your chest first.

I personally don't use Saniderm.

It's essentially a little bit thicker

plastic wrap with glue all over it.

It's applied to the skin and it

sticks on almost like a secondary skin.

So you can touch it similarly to this,

but it won't come off, you don't need to tape it on.

The healing properties are gone within 24 hours,

so you really need to remove that, wash the area,

and you can reapply Saniderm.

It sticking to a tattoo is not the best for what I do,

so I use plain plastic wrap,

and I think it works pretty well.

For example, if the shirt he wore into this store,

if there's any sweat on that shirt,

there's bacteria in that.

We don't want that in contact with his tattoo.

If when he gets home and he takes that shirt off,

that brand new tattoo gets scratched by his nails,

his watch, even the shower curtain as he's entering,

we wanna keep it really clean.

He's gonna get in the shower, he's gonna remove this,

he's gonna wash his hands, wash his tattoo,

pat it dry with a freshly cleaned towel

and let it get air, let it breathe,

and if your tattoo's breathing, your tattoo's healing.

What's your favorite tattoo on Justin Bieber?

I got to tattoo his torso and fill in a bunch of gaps.

That was really fun.

He had a son of God written on his stomach,

and it looked like it said send food.

So I text him right away, I was like,

Man, we need to work on this.

He had so many tattoos on his stomach

of so many different varying subjects.

It was like, how am I gonna tie

this together and make this one story?

So he had a big cross, send food,

an eagle, a bear, and a lion, and it was like,

alright, well how do we tie all this together?

So we used some reference of old Renaissance paintings,

of religious works, trying to tie a story

of religion and spirit, treating these animals

like they are his spirit animals or his protectors,

and then treating the rest of his torso

in the subject of religion.

That was challenging.

I wish that I could have a blank slate

and tattoo him without all the obstacles,

but like, I kinda like the challenge.

So I think that's my favorite.

He's got a bunch of crummy ones and he knows it.

So do I.

When you have a bunch of tattoos and you're kind of

a little loose about it, you're gonna get some crummy ones.

How do tattoo artists learn and practice their craft?

That's a really good question.

There is no standard format or education for tattooing.

The traditional method to getting into tattooing

is to find a great tattoo artist

and have them teach you, so an apprenticeship program.

It's tough work.

You have to draw, and draw, and draw

until you don't wanna draw anymore.

Your art has to improve and you have to show that person

who's teaching you you are worth their effort

and that you deserve to be a tattoo artist,

that you love tattooing so much

that you'll work your fingers to

the bone to become a great one.

Hopefully someday there'll be a format to tattoo education.

Do tattoo artists ever just refuse

to do a horrible tattoo idea because

they know the client will regret it later?

I will refuse a tattoo if I don't

think it's gonna be a great tattoo.

So if I can't see it in my head or if the idea isn't there

for me, it's certainly not gonna be good once it's on you.

If I'm not confident in it, I'm not gonna make it for you.

People don't design tattoos for a living, I do.

If you're coming to me, I'm not just making your sandwich

the way you like it, I'm gonna make the tattoo

the way I know it'll be great, and unique,

and fit you and your person, and if I'm

not feeling it I'm not making it.

My favorite client in the world is Rihanna.

Several times she's come in with ideas

I didn't think were gonna work.

Google real hard, you'll find her walking around the streets

of New York City in 2007 with a stencil of a guitar

broken in half with a pair of

underwear hanging off it on her arm.

It's because we went really far on this design

and I wasn't feelin' it, and I didn't like it,

and I told her like go home, and live with it,

and we'll talk about it tomorrow

and see if you're still feelin'.

We'll talk about it in a week.

We didn't make it and I'm glad

that I kinda pumped the breaks on that.

Cara Delevingne has a really

iconic lion tattoo on her finger.

When I met her she wanted the word lion,

L-I-O-N, straight down her finger.

Your skin on your finger's really inconsistent.

It's very hard to tattoo fingers in general

let alone moving through different

types of skin in a very small area.

I want tattoos to be visually appealing.

I think it would be hard to read

the word lion down her finger, number one.

I think it would've been inconsistent

if we'd done that text, and so I kinda made

the recommendation that we treat it like a piece of jewelry

and do, very similar to what I have on my fingers,

and make it more of a ring, more of a decoration.

Let's make an actual lion's face,

and credit to her, she was like, Yeah, I'm down,

and it was cool, I've seen that tattoo all over the world

in big billboards, and she's really like kinda transcended,

you know, modeling and bridged that gap

between fashion and tattooing as much as Rihanna has.

Yo, what happens if you a big ass tattoo on your thigh

or something and you lose a bunch of weight

and your thigh is super tiny now?

Your tattoo's gonna be super tiny now.

A tattoo's gonna move with your skin,

so if your skin changes shape, size,

your tattoo will do the same.

Often times the reverse thing

happens if someone gains weight.

Your tattoo can grow or it can migrate.

Based on where the skin stretches from,

the tattoo will move.

If your tattoo is on a point where

your body is stretching from, the tattoo will stretch.

This happens on pregnant women on their stomachs,

and sometimes it can come back to normal and be just fine,

and sometimes it won't.

Stretch marks can move through a tattoo

and really distort the image.

Do artists at Bang Bang know how

to tattoo colors on brown skin?

Because I'm looking through IG

and all I see is white people.

I get this a lot, and I would say look harder.

We live in New York City.

The minority of our clientele are white.

People are from all over the world,

and tons of skin are really hard to see

when you're shooting just an arm.

We often de-saturate a photograph

to take away the redness of a fresh tattoo,

and that changes the tone of the photo.

When you're seeing an arm from here to here,

you can't tell that person's ethnicity.

Don't assume that every client

you're looking at has white skin.

It's really not the case.

We tattoo a ton of athletes, celebrities.

Forget ethnicity for a moment.

Think about your tone of your skin,

'cause that's how we see it.

So if you're gonna draw a picture and you take

a white piece of paper and you wanna draw on it,

it's gonna show a lot, and if you take a darker piece

of paper and you use yellow marker on it,

it's not gonna come through, but if you use a darker tone

like a red, blue, and some cases greens,

they come through a lot more.

So based on the hue of someone's tone

we kind of pick which colors are gonna work best.

This question always upsets me because I feel like

people feel left out, and you're not at all.

I think you just can't tell what

ethnicity people are in our photos.

So, yeah, don't feel that way.

Sorry it comes off that way.

What's the worst tattoo you have ever seen?

So many celebrities are running

through my head that have bad tattoos.

Like, I don't wanna be that guy.

I think my least favorite tattoo that I've seen,

just a really big tattoo of huge roses,

larger than life, on someone's whole butt.

It's not super attractive.

From Laura, How do tattoo artists draw perfect circles?

With extreme difficulty.

Tattooing's very stressful.

There's nothing that shows imperfection like a circle

or two circles right next to each other.

It's like really easy for the eye to see mistakes.

We do it really carefully, really slowly,

and we kinda dive in and hope.

At the end we're like whew, alright, I made it.

Tattoos, do you have any?

If you do, what's your favorite one?

I have a bunch but mine would

have to be some of the faces I have.

I've always really loved my hand tattoos.

They're all really special milestones for me.

I got the Statue of Liberty tattooed on my hand

when I had tattooed in New York for 10 years,

and I got the Empire State Building tattooed on my hand

when I thought that I had opened

the best tattoo shop in New York,

and I have Mickey Mouse 'cause I like Mickey.

I hope I've answered your questions,

I hope you've learned something,

and I hope you go get great tattoos.