HOW FINE CAN FINE LINE GO?

WHERE DOES FINE LINE TATTOOING COME FROM?

It’s become popular in recent years to a huge extent, but the roots of fine line tattooing actually go way back to the 1970’s, when inmates in jail used sharpened guitar strings and electric razor motors among other materials to make contraband tattoos with. Pioneers like Jack Rudy, Charlie Cartwright and Freddy Negrete later brought the style into tattoo shops by developing single needle liners and monochrome water shading. This is now generally referred to as Black and Grey style.

IS MODERN FINE LINE TATTOOING THE SAME AS BLACK AND GREY TATTOOS?

Even though the line quality and shading are similar, aesthetically they’re very different. The newer fine line work is more akin to the cosmetic and beauty professions, which in my opinion is why it’s so popular with females, it’s more akin to jewellery than black and grey, which is illustrative realism for the most part.

DOES IT LAST IN THE SKIN LIKE OTHER TATTOOS?

If it’s executed properly within the limitations of other tattoo styles, no reason why not. However, there is a further subdivision of fine line tattooing called micro tattoos. They are, by and large, not built to last in the long run, even though the level of technical skill may be very high. Below are some examples….

THEY LOOK FINE TO ME! WHAT’S WRONG WITH THEM?

In short, skin ages at different rates according to various factors, and tattoos have to have certain intrinsic factors to make sure they have longevity. For example, lines have to be a certain distance apart to allow the ink to spread and still maintain the legibility in the long term. Excessive amounts of detail in too small a space will lose calrity and eventually become a fuzzy blur, all of the above tattoos are guilty of that.

SHOULD I AVOID ALL FINE LINE TATTOOS?

Absolutely not! If you want to get a fine line tattoo, you can get some amazing work in this style if you want to, but I’d say AVOID tiny micro tattooing, as it’s built to fail, and no matter how sophisticated and cool the studio looks, or how many celebrity clients they may have, you will be wasting your money, and have to spend more getting it covered up in the future.

JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN DO SOMETHING, DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD!