The three dials
Machine speed (often 100–150 strokes/sec for lips) sets puncture frequency. Power/voltage sets how forcefully the needle drives and resists being pushed back by the skin — too low and it 'bogs down' in the lip, too high and it digs. Hand speed is how quickly you traverse an area.
Fast machine + fast hand + light pressure = fine, sparse pixelation (build in layers). Slower hand or more passes over the same spot = denser colour, but also more trauma.
Reading feedback
The artist listens (a smooth consistent tone, not a strained one), watches the fluid (clear-to-lightly-tinted lymph, not running blood), and feels the drag. Excess bleeding, grey 'bruised' colour appearing, or the skin going shiny and swollen all mean back off — lighter, faster, fewer passes.
Lips are not brows
Lip tissue is more vascular and more forgiving of shallow work but less forgiving of over-working. Most beginner mistakes are too much: too many passes chasing saturation that will only appear after healing anyway.
