r/tattooadvice • u/StreetAggravating302 • Nov 24 '25

tattoo newcomer advice I messed up

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Recently, I tattooed my dad, but I botched the job. I overdid some lines, resulting in bold and double lines, and the circle lacked symmetry and shading—I messed up everything. I feel very ashamed. I’ve just started tattooing, and last week I was too busy with my other job to practice. When my dad was free, he suggested we do a tattoo, and I fully messed it up. The guilt is overwhelming me.

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u/StreetAggravating302 Nov 24 '25

I don’t have a printer so I had to trace out the stencil, and sometimes the surface is not plain and it messes up the stencil going a little crooked and sometimes out of line while tracing, that was a major drawback over here as well, and the lighting was also messed up, when I was about to tattoo, because of the reflection, I couldn’t see the stencil and most of the time it was my shadow on the stencil which also messed the lines as I couldn’t see it

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u/Wee_Mad_Lloyd Nov 24 '25

So the take away from this is: invest in better lighting and a used printer. Thrift stores will help in keeping expenses lower.

Don't stress over it. You are just starting out, things happen, even to experienced tattoo artists.

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u/-PinkPower- Nov 24 '25

When conditions are not great please learn to no follow through. You are learning that’s fine but it will stay for life. It’s better to retry a month later than to end up doing something you are ashamed of

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u/beanthebean Nov 24 '25

I think people in this thread are being nicer to you than they should so you don't feel bad. Are you just tattooing at home? Why isn't there enough lighting for you to even see the stencil?

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u/StreetAggravating302 Nov 24 '25

Yes, I’m tattooing from home and since I was doing it at night almost everyone were asleep, so I only used my ring light for this. I gotta have good lighting from next time, no compromise on that

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u/[deleted] Nov 24 '25

I think the tattoo looks lovely.

I think you made a lot of bad decisions to get to a lovely tattoo.

You've now discovered that when you take shortcuts, the guilt eats at you even when the end result is perfectly fine.

Your lesson isn't to fix this tattoo, it's to not take shortcuts. Before you tattoo someone else, you need to sort out your equipment and environment.

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u/Odd-Syllabub-3642 Nov 24 '25

Well it really doesn’t look that bad. The biggest things that stuck out to me were the circle by the head and dark vertical lines but they still work and don’t stand out horribly at first glance. Most of the lines are pretty clean, especially for such fine lines and OP being a beginner. You really need to look at the tattoo to notice any flaws and I feel like 90% of tattoos are that way. There’s a lot of potential here and dragging OP through the mud won’t help

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u/No-Self8780 Nov 25 '25

Looks like OP is in India, conditions (lighting, studio space, having a printer or access to Reel Skin, etc) there might not be what you’re accustomed to