The Tattoo Dictionary: Vocabulary to Help You Navigate the Tattoo World

Have you ever encountered a word in the tattoo world and wondered, “what the hell does that mean?” Well, you’re in luck this month! We’ve accumulated some of the many words that you could hear in the wild world of tattooing, and put them here for your education, and enjoyment!

BLOWOUT

A blowout occurs when a tattoo artist unintentionally injects ink into the fat below the top layer of skin, causing the ink to spread in an uncontrollable manner. As this ink spreads, it begins to distort and misshape the lines of the tattoo. Unfortunately with tattooing, there’s no undo button, or way to extract the ink that was misplaced with ease. Fixing a blowout can be extremely difficult, especially if the tattoo is very reliant on linework. An artist must either add additional ink to fix the misshapen lines, or attempt to cover the blowout area.

VIRGIN SKIN

Skin that hasn’t been graced by the hands of a tattoo artist yet.

ECO-TATTOOING

Tattooing with the environment in mind! Though it may sound like it, eco-tattooing has no effect on the appearance or application of the tattoo itself; only the materials used in the tattooing process! Artists that participate in eco-tattooing replace a selection of single-use materials, such as razors, gloves, and ink caps, with biodegradable versions in order to cut down on waste.

TATTOO GUN

A forbidden term used to refer to a tattoo machine. If you use this in a sentence around any tattoo artist or enthusiast, you most likely will be corrected faster than you can blink.

TATTOO MACHINE

You probably guessed it: the CORRECT term for that thing tattoo artists use to cause you pain, but also make your skin look amazing and beautiful.

FLASH TATTOOS

A pre-drawn tattoo design that offers little-to-no customization on the client-side. Typically, flash tattoos are created with a common theme in mind, such as pop culture references, objects, or even holidays; and combined with other designs to create a flash sheet; or it could just be a single design that the artist wants to tattoo someday!

CUSTOM TATTOOS

A tattoo design that's created based on what the client wants.

INK CAPS

Those cute little cups that artists put tattoo ink in! Need we say more?

PATCHWORK TATTOOS

A term used to describe the overall placement of tattoos on the body. Patchwork occurs when tattoos are placed with the intention of standing alone on the skin, rather than physically connecting to nearby tattoos. As you can probably guess, the name is a direct comparison to patches that are sewn onto clothing, and how they are typically placed.

COVER-UP TATTOO

A healed, usually older tattoo that is covered up with a new piece of ink in order to “remove” it from the skin. It may sound simple, but cover-ups are arguably the most difficult thing to master when it comes to tattooing. Factors such as the size, shape, and ink color change the way the tattoo is designed, and placed onto skin.

SECOND SKIN

A nickname for tattoo bandages that adhere to a fresh tattoo. These bandages are completely clear in appearance, and when applied, you can hardly tell them apart from your actual skin; and when it comes time to remove the bandage, it looks like you’re peeling your skin off. It’s a morbid comparison, but also the most accurate!

INK SAC

A plethora of rejected ink (and bodily fluids) that accumulates inside of a “second skin” bandage, creating a sac that droops off of the tattoo. While it may sound gross, this combination of fluids actually assists the tattoo in its healing process, along with providing people with an oddly satisfying thing to touch. The phenomenon of ink sacs is largely covered by users on TikTok, commonly via videos moving the liquid around inside of the bandage, or removing the bandage to set those tattoo juices free. Like we said before, oddly satisfying.

LINER

A tattoo machine that applies a single stroke of ink into the skin, creating the overall outline for the piece. Liner tattoo machines are made up of one or more needles, situated in the shape of a circle.

SHADER

A tattoo machine that applies gradients of ink into the skin, more specifically color gradients, to create shade and dimension in a piece. The appearance of a shader tattoo machine is similar to that of a comb, with all needles in a straight line with some space in between. While a liner machine requires swift, one-off motions, the shader involves more movement and motion to get those gradients.

BODYSUIT

No, we aren’t talking about what we wore to work today. In the tattoo world, bodysuit refers to a body that is fully covered in tattoos, whether it’s one cohesive piece, or multiple tattoos formed together through connecting backgrounds. To put it simply, there is no naked skin visible, which gives the appearance that a person is wearing a suit made of tattoos!

LINEWORK

A way to refer to the lines in a tattoo, or describe the quality of them. Hopefully, you’ll never hear “bad” and “linework” in the same sentence when someone’s talking about that new tattoo you just got.

PRIVATE STUDIO

A tattoo studio that is privately owned by one artist, with that person typically being the sole resident artist. With some private studios, their specific location is also kept confidential until you book your appointment.

TATTOO STATION

A surface; typically a small, portable table that tattoo artists utilize to keep all of their supplies together, easily-obtainable, and free from any possible contaminations while working on a tattoo.

APPRENTICE

A tattoo artist in training who is being mentored by a specific tattoo artist, or a few of them.

SKETCH

A digital or physical drawing of a tattoo design that an artist creates, and later presents to their client before they begin tattooing.

PLASMA

Clear or yellowish liquid that oozes from a freshly-applied tattoo until the tattoo begins scabbing. While it may be gross, plasma actually helps your tattoo heal and keeps it moisturized if you’re using a second skin tattoo bandage.

BLACKOUT TATTOO

A tattoo style that has risen to popularity recently, and is arguably the most time-consuming regardless of how big or small the area being covered is. Blackout tattoos involve covering the entire body or a large area with solely black ink. In some cases, people will incorporate naked skin to add contrast or additional shapes to the piece; blackout tattoos are also commonly done to cover up other tattoos.

NUMBING CREAM

A lotion-like cream that numbs the area of skin that you apply it to, in order to eliminate or lessen the pain of getting a tattoo. Numbing cream is quite the polarizing topic in the industry, due to the negative effect it can have on skin consistency, and its ability to cause allergic reactions. Because of these factors, numbing cream should only be used with your artist’s knowledge and consent.

TATTOO CONVENTION

Think Comicon, but for tattooing. Tattoo conventions happen all over the world, hosting a variety of artists and tattoo-related brands under one roof for everyone’s enjoyment! Shopping, tattooing, fun — exactly what heaven sounds like!

SHOP GIRL

An older, outdated term used to describe a woman that works at the front desk of a tattoo shop.

GREEN GOO

Goo? No thank you…Unless you have a new tattoo of course! Green Goo produces a fan-favorite tattoo aftercare product, which is known for both its name and quality!