So You Want To Understand What Makes Her Work Stand Out
Sarah Jakubasz's tattooing isn't about flash or gimmicks. It's about precision in places most artists gloss over. I've been working in this industry long enough to know the difference between someone who can draw a line on paper and someone who can translate that onto skin without it looking like a watercolor that gave up halfway through. What she does differently is the underdrawing phase. Most tattooers skip or rush this. Jakubasz treats the stencil like a structural blueprint, not a starting point. The stencil is where 90 percent of mistakes get locked in permanently. I learned this the hard way on a cover-up client in 2019 who had heavy keloid scarring from an old surgical incision. The stencil kept shifting over the ridge because of the uneven surface. What I did was switch to a semi-permanent marker and draw directly on the skin after applying a light barrier layer of Vaseline, mapping the design around the scar tissue rather than over it. Took longer, but the ink stayed consistent and healed properly.
The Unparalleled Tattoo Artistry Of Sarah Jakubasz Why Shes Dubbed The Best Ink Master
Her work is frequently compared to fine-line botanical illustration and geometric dotwork, but calling her technique "fine-line" undersells it. She uses a custom-modified rotary machine with a lower voltage setting than standard, around 3.5 to 4 volts, which gives her more control over needle depth. Standard machines run closer to 7 to 8 volts. This slower penetration means less trauma to the dermis and a tighter line definition, especially in areas with thinner skin like the inner forearm or ribcage. Another thing that isn't talked about enough is her needle grouping. She prefers smaller configurations—usually 3RL to 5RL for linework and 9ML for shading. Most artists will push a 7RL or 12RL everywhere because it's faster. That speed trade-off shows in healing. Larger groupings create wider channels in the skin, and when the channels are too wide, ink disperses more during the healing cycle. What looks sharp on day one can soften noticeably by day fourteen. Jakubasz's smaller groupings mean the ink sits in tighter, more defined channels, and the healed result retains its original clarity. The color palette is another tell. She avoids pre-mixed commercial color sets and instead uses single pigments layered individually. Black isn't just one black—she uses at least two different concentrations depending on whether she's doing soft gradation or hard silhouette work. The same goes for color saturation. A single pass of saturated red will heal lighter than a single pass of concentrated black, so she adjusts her machine speed and voltage accordingly rather than relying on multiple passes that damage the skin more.
Her process timeline is also unusual. A typical full-sleeve that an average artist might break into three or four sessions, she often structures into five or six, with each session lasting around two to two-and-a-half hours instead of three to four. The shorter sessions mean less trauma per sitting, which translates to better healing and more accurate color placement. Clients sometimes complain about having more appointments, but the trade-off is almost always worth it. The finished piece looks like it was done in half the time, which is ironic because it took more time to achieve. I've seen other artists try to replicate her approach and fail because they focus on the visible techniques—the machine settings, the needle type—without adjusting the foundational skills. Skin tension alone takes months of deliberate practice. If you're pulling the skin taut incorrectly, your needle angle shifts, your depth varies across a single stroke, and the result looks uneven even if your machine setup is identical. Jakubasz's tension work is methodical. She repositions her non-dominant hand between every few strokes, not at the end of a section, because skin elasticity changes as you move across a curve or joint area. There are downsides to her method, and they're worth acknowledging. The slower pace means longer booking windows. Clients who want a full backpiece done quickly will be frustrated, and some artists have tried to speed up her process and ended up with blown-out lines and patchy color. The smaller needle groupings also mean more repetitions for the same coverage area, which increases the chance of client discomfort during longer sessions. It's not a method suited for quick flash work or temporary commissions where turnaround time matters more than longevity.
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If you're looking to study her technique, there's no single official tutorial that covers everything. What helps most is watching her session videos with sound off so you can focus purely on hand positioning and machine angle. Pay attention to how she grips the machine during detailed linework versus broader shading sections. The grip changes are subtle but consistent. Her approach doesn't work for everyone. It requires a higher baseline skill level, more patience from the client, and a willingness to accept longer timelines in exchange for precision. Beginners should not attempt to copy the machine settings or needle choices without first mastering basic skin tension and consistent depth control. Without those fundamentals, the results will be worse than using standard techniques with proper foundation work.
