Learn to Tattoo Yourself at Home With a Tattoo Gun

If you’re new to tattooing and Ink Fanatic Tattoo Studio wondering how to learn to tattoo yourself, it only takes a few minutes of research to realize that the process is more complicated than it seems.

However, making sure you know how to keep yourself safe and learning the correct technique is much easier if you have a guide.

Know the Difference: Tattoo Machine vs. Tattoo Gun
professional tattoo artist holding tattoo machine
Now, the title of this article was a bit of a trick. Your tattoo machine is not a gun by any means. Any time you’re talking about tattoo machines, make sure you are calling them machines.

Saying “Tattoo Gun” Can Cost you a Job or Tattoo Apprenticeship
Some artists won’t care if people say “tattoo guns.” But a lot of tattoo artists out there will get offended by it. In fact, if you’re trying to get a job or tattoo apprenticeship in a studio, and you say “tattoo guns,” they’re going to show you the door really quickly. Generally, the term is just frowned upon in the tattoo industry.

Who to Tattoo First
The appropriate way to learn to tattoo is to begin on practice skin, then tattoo yourself, then tattoo other people. Tattooing yourself first before you ever tattoo another person is considered a “rite of passage” that every professional tattoo artist goes through.

Tattooing Yourself First Protects Your Reputation
Tattooing yourself first also keeps you from doing a really bad tattoo on a client. For example, if you try your first tattoo on human skin on yourself and it turns out bad, you know that you need to go back to practice skin and learn more. If it turns out great, then you can be confident tattooing another person. However, if you jump right to tattooing a client, you’re risking your reputation on something you’ve never done before, tattooing human skin.

Prepare to Tattoo Yourself
Your first tattoo isn’t something you want to do without planning it out in advance. Here’s the three things you need to do to prepare for your tattoo:

PREP 1
Get Your Bloodborne Pathogens Certification

The first thing you want to think about before you start tattooing any real people – including yourself – would be whether you have the knowledge to do it effectively and safely.

If you haven’t taken a blood borne pathogens course, you should do that before touching a tattoo machine at all. There are lots of courses you can do entirely online in just a few hours. It’ll teach you a ton of things like how to keep everything safe, how to appropriately go about sterilizing equipment, and other info you need to know before you begin tattooing.

Even if you have done research on how to tattoo safely or had safety training in a tattoo school, you still need to take a blood borne pathogens course. If you plan to work in a tattoo studio, they will need to see the course certificate as proof that you took the class.

PREP 2
Decide if You’re Ready to Move to Real Skin
professional tattoo artist using tattoo machine
To become a tattoo artist, you have to eventually take the leap to tattooing human skin. However, a lot of new artists get excited to try it out – and end up doing a bad tattoo because they weren’t ready yet.

If you can do clean lines and clean shading on fake skin at the right needle depth, then it’s probably time to try it out on your own skin.

PREP 3
Pick a Tattoo Design
For new artists, we recommend sticking to very small tattoo designs. Two inches by two inches is a good size. Going larger can make the tattoo more stressful. It will take much longer, and you’ll be nervous, so you might be dealing with a lot of shaking and nerves.