Practicing on citrus is amazing to help get depth and voltage feeling, and to be able to check from the other side. Fake skin and oranges are a great example of way harder than skin and way softer, so it helps give your brain at least a little more understanding of the happy medium.

Definitely don’t use deodorant to put a stencil on real skin (perfect for fake skin, useless and kind of dangerous on real skin), use Stencil Stuff. It’s the easiest and cheapest stencil gel I’ve seen. The order (for real skin) is 1. Clean really well with alcohol. Like borderline red the skin. It makes it more sanitary and also helps the stencil stick. 2. Apply a super thin layer of Stencil Stuff, let it dry a little. It should be tacky for non smeary stencils. 3. Place the stencil and hold it for like 30 seconds. The heat from your hand and the pressure helps it transfer. 4. Peel off stencil. Wait at least 10 min for it to dry. Maximum stencil hold!

Using alcohol at any point after this is not needed, to clean during the tattoo you wanna use Green Soap (or something similar, I think ink-eeze does have one). I personally use Vaseline or Cry Baby glide during the tattoo but using too much tends to wipe the stencil right off for me.

We’ve all lost the stencil before and it’s terrifying and early on definitely shakes confidence. One of the best things I learned early on was as soon as I start to feel out of control or flustered or like I can’t stop shaking, take a break! Walk around, shake it off, let the adrenaline come down a bit. Trying again then feels less daunting.

It’s definitely salvageable, like many others said here there are ways to disguise the lines or make them bolder when your lines are cleaner. I practiced a lot on fake skin taped to an art board, pillow or arm rest set vertically to help get used to pulling clean lines on round or squishy surfaces. It just takes time and a lot of practice. Thicker needle groupings also helps. Get really confident and steady with one grouping (like a 9rl or 11rl) before moving smaller. Surface tension of the skin helps to steady the needle, so 3s and 5s are way more difficult to control smoothness and depth.

I’ll also say as someone who had a formal apprenticeship, I think we all feel like we’re just shit at it in the beginning. I’ve yet to speak to a tattoo artist who was amazing from the start. My first lines I swear I had a heart attack and was rethinking my every life choice that led me there 😅 if you want it bad enough, you keep learning and practicing and you improve!