Pendulum Shading

Category

shading

Visual traits

“What it does : Gives you a dark mark on the skin with lighter gradients on either side.” The source names the edge quality: “This leaves a smooth gradient in the skin with a “feathered edge.””

Scale behavior

Needs width to swing across, so it suits larger fields than whip shading. “Used with mags.”

Execution notes

“How to do it : Begin shading by swinging the needle back and forth.” “Move the needle down at the center of the swing motion and up at the ends of the swing motion.” Passes must overlap: “The lines you create with this method need to overlap slightly to make sure there’s no patchy, empty space.”

Tattooability notes

Feathering out to skin tone is done by re-running the same motion in a weaker dilution: “you’ll use the same motion with a lighter gray wash (~3 drops black) to build off the darker shading”

Conflicts or cautions

Two-sided falloff, not one-sided. The T101 styles page pairs it with whip shading for one effect - “Using whip shading and pendulum shading will help you create gradual feathered edges.” - which is a claim about the pair, not about either alone.

• Tattoo Shading Techniques: How to Shade a Tattoo for Beginners (opens in a new tab)

  Tier 2

  Tattooing 101

  Professional tattoo-education page and the densest single source of execution detail found for this batch. It organises shading by hand motion rather than by look: “The three most common tattoo shading techniques are based on the type of movement the tattoo artist makes when putting ink in the skin.” It supplies a how-to sentence for packing, whip, pendulum, stipple and brush shading, plus the healed-value figure “Black and gray lightens up 30% when it is fully healed.” IMPORTANT LIMIT: this is a Tier 2 trade-education source selling a paid course, and it supplies no historical, cultural or attributional claim. Every row citing it takes execution mechanics only.

  professional tattoo source · retrieved 2026-08-30

• A Complete List of Tattoo Styles (And Their Rules) (opens in a new tab)

  Tier 2

  Tattooing 101

  A tattoo-education platform's style reference. Gives per-style rules for ten styles. American Traditional/Old School: thick bold lines, one line weight, yellow/red/green/black, 2-D. Neo Traditional: 2-3 line weights, thinner for detail, muted palette, ultra-smooth blends, realistic proportions, Art Nouveau/Deco elements. New School: bright colours, 3-D graffiti effect, exaggerated features such as big eyes and big teeth. Black and Grey: black and grey wash only, grey from gradients, grey wash heals about 30 percent lighter than fresh. Realism: no hard outlines, soft undefined edges, 3-D image, recreates photos, shading marked on stencils. Watercolor: keep some line work so the design stays readable, soft-looking edges, whip and pendulum shading. Geometric: break designs into basic shapes, shade by light direction. Blackwork: black ink only, brush shading for lighter areas. It also lists Japanese and Tribal as styles with rules - a treatment this corpus deliberately does not follow (see T11.10).

  professional tattoo source · retrieved 2026-08-28

No relationship in the corpus touches Pendulum Shading. The graph is sparse; the type listings carry browsing.