TATTOO SLEEVES: 15 RULES to follow

Mar 1

a good tattoo arm sleeve has a lot of work that goes into it. follow this guide to nail it every step of the way.

So, you want to get a tattoo sleeve. Great! Before we dive straight in with that booking, let's talk through the design, tattooing and aftercare process, after which I’ll give you an insight into how I approach my arm sleeves.

There are many common errors and misconceptions I see from people when it comes to planning a sleeve, so I thought I would share these with you to provide you with insight and understanding when it comes to your own.

RULES FOR THE TATTOO DESIGN PHASE

First thing’s first: don't half-ass this. Do something epic that you will love for years to come. You only have two arms and they are likely on display more often than the rest of your body. They’re perfect for showcasing tattoos.

Don't rush the design process. This is the most fundamental part of the sleeve. If you rush this, you risk looking at your tattoo down the track and wondering, “what was I thinking when I asked for that?”.

Don't enquire about a sleeve when you don’t know what you want tattooed. It really disrupts the design flow of your tattoo if you start with one idea, then wait for the next idea to come into your head to add on to the sleeve later.

Your limb is one canvas, and magic happens when you think big. Envision the entire canvas coming together, not just small components of it. On that note….

Don't choose subject matter that doesn't go together. Your entire sleeve should be in the same theme (e.g. Greek Gods), or at least contain subjects that create good contrast together, such as skulls and roses.

Don't cram 100 ideas on your arm. You don’t want people to look at your arm and just see mess - a pile of grey mush. For me, I like to fill each section with a piece: outer bicep, outer forearm, inner bicep, inner forearm then possibly a filler piece to tie things together.

Don't forget the size of the canvas. With leg sleeves, everyone underestimates the size of the space to be covered. Seriously, look at your leg - it's probably 3 times bigger than your arm. This will obviously require more sessions and larger pieces than an arm sleeve.

With arms, everyone forgets about the part they can't see: the back of the bicep. This is actually a large area too!

Don't find photos of other tattoos done by a famous artist unless you have the same budget and dedication as the client in that photo. These tattoos are serious money and time involved - if you’d like something similar, I’m all in! But I’ll need the same level of commitment from you. You get what you pay for, and time is needed to create great work.

Don't start with an inner-forearm piece. This is one of the most detrimental things you can do. When looking at a sleeve, you're looking at the outside of the arm, which makes that area your prime real estate - what you do here will make up the major body of your sleeve design. So when placing a forearm piece first, you are infiltrating valuable real estate on the outside of your forearm. You can see this yourself: grab a pen and draw a circle on the inside of your forearm where a piece would be. Now turn your arm back and let it rest by your side. See how that circle you've drawn is now visible and extruding onto the outer forearm? Any piece done now done on the outer forearm would need to be tailored to work around and with that circle, whereas really, considering people will be viewing the outer forearm rather than the inner, it’s a much smarter design approach to have the outer forearm piece the foundation from which the rest of the sleeve grows.

If you're uneasy about committing to your outer arm, then you’re likely not ready to commit to a sleeve full stop.

With leg sleeves, it's starting with shin pieces that tend to infiltrate the prime real estate of your calf.

Don't ignore your skin condition. If you're out in the sun laying bricks all day for work and your outer forearm is sun-damaged, then it’s likely that a highly detailed piece won’t work well on that area - creating tight detail on sun-damaged skin risks looking messy. If you do have sun-damaged areas, then we would look at creating tattoos here that are less detailed, more open, and highly contrasted.

Hands and knees can be other troublesome areas. Some knees don’t hold tattoos well.

Don't design against the shape of your body. Your body isn't a flat piece of paper or round pipe. All those gains you're getting done in the gym are defining your muscle tones. So when you're convinced you’d like that girl's face tattooed in the middle of your arm, let me assure you that due to where her eye line would sit across your muscle, she’ll probably look cross-eyed. Not ideal.

Don’t go cheap. Don’t go cheap on something you’ll have for life. Imagine that the first car you had was the car you were stuck with for life. Surely you wouldn’t want to drive around in that $5000 piece of junk forever? Think of your sleeve the same way. If you can’t afford that Range Rover just yet, hold off, save up and commit when you can.

Rather than having your sleeve done in dribs and drabs, I recommend holding off until you have enough money to get it done in multiple back-to-back sessions. It’s much more efficient and effective.

RULES FOR THE TATTOO EXECUTION PHASE

Don't change your mind mid-sleeve. Your commitment to this project is vital and once we have a plan, it’s not practical to go back. Think of it like building a house: if your home is 4 weeks away from completion, you wouldn’t contact your builder and ask for an extra bathroom and a walk-in-robe. The same applies with tattooing.

Don't finish your sleeve short. Arm sleeves that don’t go to the top of the shoulder don’t look great. Any lower and it just looks unfinished. A point of warning when you do get your shoulder tattooed: this area bleeds a lot and will probably hurt more than you were expecting. Sorry to break it to you, but I promise it’s worth it!

Legs are a little different, by which you can get away with stopping short on your lower leg or just up to your short line.

RULES FOR the healing phase

Don’t skimp on the aftercare. You’ve just gone through that pain and money - you’d be crazy not to do great aftercare. The tattoo is an open wound, so you really need to be on point with how you take care of it. Find my tips on the subject on my blog.

Don't leave it too long between sessions. Continuing a project a year or two later isn't recommended. The existing tattoo would have faded and therefore you’d need to spend more money on giving it a second pass so it matches your fresh additions. To be honest, as a tattoo artist it’s not as exciting to work on a project started so long ago.

Now that you’ve got your rule book down pat, I’ll give you an idea of what you can expect during an arm sleeve project with me.

How I create arm sleeveS

Now that you’ve got your rule book down pat, I’ll give you an idea of what you can expect during an arm sleeve project with me. Arm sleeves are just that - a project - so I approach them like one. A lot of thought, planning and collaboration go into each individual project I take on, to ensure an immaculate end result.

Firstly, I will book my clients in for consecutive days where possible. 2, 3 or 4 days are preferred. If my client hasn’t been heavily tattooed before, and is unsure about how their body will react, I suggest a two-day session.

Day 1 is started with planning and finalising the design for the outside of the arm. I like to have this whole space work as one, with either two subjects interacting with each other, complimenting each other or creating contrast, or just as one giant piece. This is my chance to create a pleasing arrangement and what will pull the sleeve together as a full body of work.

Once the design is applied to the skin with a stencil we can get started on the project.

For an arm sleeve, on day 3 or 4 we will be getting up onto the shoulder which tends to bleed. If my client is only doing a 2-day session, we definitely won’t start this area until they return for their third session so we can tattoo this area fresh, rather than off the back of a multiple-day session. If we’re doing a leg, it’s the thigh that can get a bit spicy.

Usually it will take me 3-4 days to tattoo the outside of an arm and 2 days to do the outside of a lower-leg. Timing always depends on the design detail, skin condition, and size, so obviously if we are doing something highly detailed and/or in colour, it's going to take longer.

Ready to start planning your sleeve? Send me a booking enquiry and let’s start making it happen.