As you know, art is a subjective beast; there is no right or wrong. Two master tattoo artists could use the same equipment in different ways - both with amazing results. However, here's a few basic tips that will give you hints as to when and why you might choose to use bug pin tattoo needles (or not).
First, what ARE bug pins anyway? Tattoo needles have a gauge, or thickness of each individual needle. This typically varies from 08 to 12, but sometimes smaller or larger. A 12 gauge needle is the standard size and is 0.35mm thick. Anything smaller than that (08 and 10) is considered a bug pin.
So, when should you use a bug pin?
You want to do line work or full colour realistic rendering that requires tattooing over the same spot many times to build your shapes, tones and saturation. If this is the case, you might want to try switching to bug pin needles. Bug pins are thinner than your standard gauge needle, so the idea here is that if you want to go over the same spot many times, a thinner needle will cause less damage to the skin, allowing you to build those details slowly.
If you do neo-traditional, traditional, or bold saturation of colours like cartoon or tribal black. You might want to stick to standard gauge needles; they are thicker than bug pins, thus creating larger 'punctures' making it more efficient to get rich boldness in one quick pass.
Check out our needles range here.