Some tattoos just look better than others. But why? As a beginner tattoo artist, it can be hard to figure out what makes or breaks a tattoo...especially when you’re staring at a blank page, trying to draw.
Tattoo artists know that designs that work with the body will always look good...even if they aren’t tattooed perfectly. On the other hand, a poorly-designed tattoo will always look bad, even if you have perfect tattooing technique.
Luckily, learning how to draw tattoos that work with the body isn’t too hard once you know a couple tricks. By the end of this article, you’ll know how tattoo artists create drawings that look great on skin…and how to draw tattoos yourself.
This post will cover how to:
- Identify the “flow” of the body
- Draw tattoos that flow with the shape of the body.
- Develop your tattoo drawing skills
- Master one style that will allow you to begin tattooing faster
Make sure your tattoo designs age well on the client
Table of Contents
Drawing tattoos that “Flow” with the Body
Fitting Designs Within the Body’s Shape
How To Practice Drawing Tattoos
How To Sketch In Stages
How to Draw Long-Lasting Designs
Become a Professional Tattoo Artist with the Artist Accelerator Program
Drawing tattoos that “Flow” with the Body
What is “flow” in a tattoo?
Human bodies are not made of straight lines and edges, but rathermore organic, curved shapes. Because of this, every part of the body“flows” in an S-shape.
Why does flow matter to a tattoo?
Working with the flow of a client’s body means creating a tattoo design that goes along with the lines and curves of their body. This makes the tattoo look more dynamic (because it “moves” with the body) and gives it a stronger aesthetic (because it “fits” that part of the body. It also ensures your design doesn’t get warped over different bones and planes of the body.
How working with the flow improves a tattoo: Just like well-fitting clothes, a tattoo that works with the lines of the body is more pleasing to the eye. A tattoo that is not warped by the planes of the body not only looks better, but makes the overall design more attractive. While designing a tattoo, try to place elements in a way that moves along those curves of “flow.”
A good design that flows with the shape of the body will still look good, even if it is not tattooed perfectly. In the same way, a poorly designed tattoo that is also placed poorly will stand out much more and be far more difficult to repair later when your skills improve.
Pro Tip: Identifying Flow
The way the muscles are placed under the skin is what gives the body "flow". If you'restrugglingto identify the "flow", try to imagine how the muscles wrap around the body.
Fitting Designs Within the Body’s Shape
What does “fitting” a tattoo mean?
Fitting a tattoo with a person’s body shape simply means aligning your design elements with the “outline” of the person’s shape, whether you’re working on their arm, leg, torso, etc.
Why is fitting a tattoo important? While a design might look great on paper, a 3-D human body is a different matter. If your design is trying to wrap around an elbow or reach around a shin bone, it’s going to look stretched on the client.
Show A Knowledge of Tattoo Design
If you’re looking to get a tattoo apprenticeship, then having a strong portfolio that shows you understand how to make designs that fit and flow will make a good impression.
Note: Most tattoo designs are long and skinny for this purpose.
While you can wrap simpler background elements around the body (for example, letting a few leaves or waves reach around the back of the arm to extend the tattoo’s coverage), you do not want to do this with the key elements of the tattoo (like faces, animals, intricate linework, etc.).
How to make sure a tattoo fits a body part correctly:
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Print an image of the body part you are designing the tattoo for. Screenshot an image if you are using an iPad.2
Place your tracing paper over the image of the body part. Upload into Procreate if you are using an iPad.3
Outline the body part on your tracing paper (remember to use a separate layer if you are on an iPad). All the main parts of the design should fit within this border.4
Add a dotted line just outside the outline of the body part. This is the part of the design that is allowed to wrap around the body part. Make sure that only background elements like leaves, clouds, waves, etc extend into this section.5
Draw your design.
Pro Tip: Faces Look Forward & Inward
Images of faces always look forward or inward. When the face is on the side of the body, it should face forward and should not appear to be "looking back".
If the face is closer to the center line of the body (inside of the shin, inside of the upper arm, torso, ribs, chest, etc.), the face should always be looking inward toward the body's center line.
How To Practice Drawing Tattoos
How do you create tattoos from scratch? The best way to learn how to draw your own tattoos is to first replicate other artists’ tattoo designs without tracing them.
Generally, traditional tattoos are easier to draw because they:
- Are 2D
- Use only one line weight (14 RL)
- Use “flat” colours (no complicated shading)
This makes them the perfect style to begin practicing on.
Why You Should Practice Drawing Other Artists’ Tattoos
Drawing other artists’ designs instead of trying to come up with your own from the start lets you learn how to draw much faster because:
- You’ll be able to learn by osmosis. Drawing designs created by professionals will help you pick up on how they create strong designs that flow with the body without having to take the time to figure it out on your own.
- It’ll increase your output. Instead of running around in circles trying to figure out what to draw and how to draw it, you’re simply recreating another artwork. Getting rid of all the extra decisions means you get to focus solelyon improving your drawing ability.
How to Develop Your Drawing Skills Quickly
Organizing your practice and creating a drawing calendar will help you stay on track and start drawing better designs fast:
- Find a good tattoo artist you admire (or a few, if you’d like). Save pictures of their work (we recommend saving images in a Google Drive folder), and create a drawing calendar so that you have five references that you plan to draw each day.
- Draw five designs each day over the course of 12 weeks, you’ll have a strong grasp on tattoo design, which means you can start creating your own designs from scratch.
- Getting into this habit of drawing will make it easier to get the creative juices flowing when it’s time to draw new pieces for clients because you’ll feel comfortable with the basic building blocks.
How To Sketch In Stages
Drawing in “stages” means that you build up your design in layers instead of trying to draw the final version of your image right away. This is important because it allows you to map out your basic shapes and get the right proportions from the start.
This saves you time and keeps you having to erase a whole design because one piece is off or doesn’t flow well with the body.
To draw in stages, we recommend using a red pencil to build up your basic shapes. You can use a blue pencil to fill out details and finalize your design. We recommend using a black pen to go over your design and create perfect line work, since you’ll use this final version as the stencil for your tattoo.
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Tracing Sheet One: Draw basic shapes and outlines. | Tracing Sheet Two: Build up shapes and muscle memory. | Tracing Sheet Three: Add details and darker outlines. | Flash Sheet: Strong, steady outlines and add color if using color. |
Pro Tip: Drawing Hands & Faces
When working onphotorealism design (particularly with faces and hands)
trace your design from a reference photo. Tracing reference photos will save you time and ensure your version of the image looks realistic.
For example, if you need to tattoo an image of a hand in a specific position, take a reference picture of your own hand in the position you need and trace that. From there, you can add details to make it unique, whether you widen the eyes of a face or add stacks of rings to a hand. Tracing isn’t cheating; it gives you the framework you need to create a stunning tattoo.
How to Draw Long-Lasting Designs
Skin changes with age, which will affect their tattoos. When you’re creating a tattoo design, you want to make sure that it will age well with the person’s body.
What causes designs to blur?
There’s a variety of reasons that can cause a tattoo to blur overtime. Some of them, you as the artist can cause:
- Placing the ink too deep
- Too much detail in a small area, leading the lines to blur together
However, many of these will be caused by the client and the regular wear-and-tear of the skin:
- Sudden weight loss or gain
- Pregnancy
- Body-building
- Sun exposure
In these cases, the skin is getting stretched or the collagen building blocks of the skin are breaking down. This causes the ink to shift. However, a tattoo that has been applied correctly can keep most of its sharpness long-term.
Why is it important to take aging into account?
As a person ages, the ink under the skin will spread and all the lines will triple in thickness. If you don’t take this into account when you design your tattoos, in five years the lines will close up together, and the tattoo will look like a messy blob on the skin.
How to prevent tattoos from aging poorly:
The best way to know that your tattoos will stand the test of time is to ensure your designs can be shaded with 7 mag needle. If a 7 mag is too large to shade your designs, you’re in danger of the design blurring together after a few years.
Pro Tip: Placement & Blur
If your client is particularly concerned about a design blurring, you can suggest either
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Placing the tattoo where the skin does not stretch as much ( like the shoulder, as opposed to the abdomen).2
Placing the tattoo in a place that is almost always protected from the sun by clothing.
Become a Professional Tattoo Artist with the Artist Accelerator Program
Having a career in tattooing is not only fulfilling, but it’s also the most stable way to make a living as an artist. However, for decades, the process to become a tattoo artist has been notoriously difficult.
The apprenticeship process requires aspiring tattoo artists to work 50-60 hours a week without pay for 2-4 years. That, combined with the toxic culture of abusing apprentices, makes getting into the industry almost impossible for newcomers.
That’s why we created the Artist Accelerator Program. Our online course provides a simple, structured way of learning to tattoo that has been proven to work by over 2500 successful students, with many of them having gone on to open their own shops all around the world.
Inside the program, we’ll take you through every step of the tattooing process in 9 clear, easy-to-follow modules and support you along the way within the Tattooing 101 Mastermind online community.
In the Mastermind group, you’ll collaborate with other students, get answers to your questions, and receive personalized video feedback on your artwork and tattoos from professional tattoo artists. With this friendly community of both new and experienced tattoo artists, you’ll never be stuck again.
When you join the Artist Accelerator Program, you’ll have instant access to the full course and the Mastermind community, as well as our 30-Day Flash Challenge and recorded interviews with tattoo artists from all over the world.
Click here to learn more about the Artist Accelerator Program.
