Next time you see a beautiful tattoo, take a second look. It may be completely temporary.
Temporary tattoos are appearing everywhere, and when applied correctly, look identical to their more permanent siblings. But they are completely removable after a few days.
This type of Body Art is often seen on TV shows or movie screens, when well know celebrities need a bit of body color for their characters embellishment.
More and more “Average Joes" are sporting them as well. People wear them as a temporary fashion statement. Others like to “test drive" a tattoo, before applying the real thing. Cheerleaders, pep teams, and teenagers, enjoy them for a temporary chic look. And they are always a hit at childrens parties, and school fairs.
Temporary tattoos come in a few different application styles. The simplest and most well known are the peel off water stickers commonly sold as children party favors. You can hand paint added accents, and glitter onto these products, creating many beautiful special effects.
Other options are skin safe paints or inks painted directly onto the skin. Either freely by hand, or with the use of stencils. Hand painting can be done with a paint brush, special sponges or daubers, or an airbrush for artistic use. Stick-on outlines/guides are available to help for freehand painting.
Paints come in a collection of styles, Neon, Black light reflective, Glow In the Dark, and special Long wearing varieties, are just a few
The simplest designs can be easily applied and finished in 5 to 10 minutes. The more elaborate and detailed freehand painted works of art, which can cover an entire back, may take hours to create.
Many fairs and public events now have at least one airbrush tattoo both, where skilled Artists, apply temporary tattoos with special body paints, which can last from 3 to 10 days, before fading away.
For the less artistic technician, the stencil based tattoos work beautify. With minimal talent, one can still quickly create stunning designs.
When using an airbrush, look for a double action style of airbrush for the most versatile options. A double action brush allows you to adjust spray coverage, by adjusting the air/paint ration, on the fly, from the finger activated trigger. This allows you to easily create gradients of color, and other special effects. You should also have a compressor or CO2 tank, which includes a regulator and pressure gage, which will easily allow you to adjust you air flow pressure or PSI. (Pounds per square inch)
Mobile compressors are the preferred option for nightclubs, and small events, like parties, school fairs, proms, etc.. But if you find yourself doing many all day events, like trade shows, carnivals and fairs, you will probably find investing in a larger, though less portable compressor is a better option.
This allows you to attach multiple airbrushes, simultaneously. You can have multiple spray technicians, or multiple spray brushes, each holding a different paint color or type.
At a minimum, try to have a black paint airbrush, or two, that are separate from your colored paint airbrushes. If you use a lot of white, have a separate brush for white only, as well. You can have other airbrushes, one per color, or only a one or two extra, changing the paint filled cup for alternate colors.
These can all be attached to one compressor with a manifold, available from most airbrush supply sources. These allow multiple airbrush connections to one compressor outlet.
If the compressor is not a larger powerful model, you will not be able to spray multiple gun simultaneously, so be sure to purchase the appropriate compressor, or air tank, for your situation.
If you prefer to use a single airbrush for all your tattoo colors, you will need to change bottles of paints between color changes, or use a top feed cup on your brush, and change the paint color in the cup as you go. Top feed options are only feasible for small parties or a few clients at a time.
ALWAYS use light paint colors first and dark colors last. Start with white, then yellow and ending with black. This prevents paint mixing in the cup or brush, which will muddy your design tints. Black is extremely difficult to remove completely from the cup, and airbrush passageways, without completely cleaning your brush. If white is applied after any other color, it tends to be off-tinted, and less bright.
You can spray a brush cleaner or rubbing alcohol through the brush between color changes. (Spray into a cloth or rag, or a large drip container, designed for this purpose)
For large fair and party events, either do tattoos in all black, or keep multiple paint cups available, one for each color.
For the serious tattoo artist, you can also purchase specialty Color Bars which can mount onto a wall or stand. This holds all your paint colors on one rack, and allows you to quickly change colors with the turn of a dial. You use one airbrush for all application colors, dialing in the replacement colors as you go.
Tattoos paints come in a large variety of colors and product quality. The higher pigment products, though more expensive, will produce longer lasting and more opaque tattoos, requiring less product application per tattoo. When first learning you may want to invest in the cheaper and thinner tattoo paints, or water based body paints. Then as your skill improves, you can purchase the better quality paints.
Water based body paints, though perfect for hair painting and short-term body art events, are not the best option for tattoos, because they fade very quickly, and are water soluble. Make sure you purchase tattoo paints made for temporary skin tattooing. These products will need to be thinned or cleaned using special cleaners or alcohol. If you use water to clean your equipment you will have a big sticky clump of paint stuck in your brushes. This is very difficult to remove, and will prevent your spraying, until brush is thoroughly cleaned. Always use the appropriate cleaner for your paint type.
When using stencils, there are two main types to choose from. The cheapest options are the self adhesive paper type. These are made to be single use products, one per customer, per tattoo. Do not reuse these, as the adhesive backing, will transfer dead skin, and debris between clients. This is very unsanitary, and unprofessional. These are very flexible, and can be easily applied to curved body areas. They are very inexpensive, because of the single use aspect, but you will need multiple copies of your popular styles.
Non adhesive plastic or metal stencils. These are more expensive, but can be used over and over multiple times and last for years. Plastic stencils tend to be more flexible then the metal types and some can still be very stiff. So check the stencil material flexibility, before ordering to many. One advantage, you will never “run out" of your most popular stencil.
Clean stencil thoroughly between clients with rubbing alcohol, or other sanitizer.
If you have difficulty holding stencils in place, you can use a skin safe spray adhesive, made for sports wraps, or skin/stencil use. Another option is an aerosol hair spray product, sprayed lightly onto the stencil before adhering to skin.
Some technicians prefer a small amount of surgical tape, applied around stencil edges to anchor the design guide.
Do practice learning to use stencils without adhesive when possible, this will save you time in cleanup, and allow you to do multiple clients more rapidly.
Before using stencils on another client, be sure to wash and sanitize thoroughly, and remove all adhesives. If you have multiple clients keep a few duplicates of you most popular stencils, so you can have clean ones always available. Clean the used ones later, when you have more time.
Prior to tattooing any clients, question them about allergies or skin reactions from alcohol, paints, markups, surgical tapes, etc.
Never apply tattoo paints to any irritated, injured or broken/open skin.
Clean application site of skin thoroughly with a brisk scrub using 70% medicinal rubbing alcohol, or other skin sanitizer. (Please use skin safe products only) After skin dries, lightly spray stencil with adhesive if needed, and press firmly to skin.
Begin spraying inside the center of the stencil. Start from the lightest color to the darkest, with a low PSI, around 10 to 15 holding airbrush spray tip close to the skin. Spray directly down onto stencil, not at an angle, which can cause edges of the stencil to lift allowing seepage of color.
Fill in all pale skin areas, overlapping with alternate colors as you go. Try to keep all spray within the stencil boarders. Spray design lightly, over application can slow drying, and cause seepage.
If client has darkly pigmented skin, and you will be spraying a bright or neon color, lay a coat of white paint/ink down first. After the white paint dries, then re-spray the white areas with the neon or bright colors, this will give you a clear bright color on darker skin tones.
When layering color, or gradient effects, apply light colors first, paint the dark paints onto to lighter paints. (Light paint applied over a darker paint surface will not show up)
Special glosser or opalescence finish tints can be applied last over the entire design.
Gently but quickly peel away the stencil.
After spraying paint, you can lightly dust wet tattoo with glitter, or hand paint glitter, opalescence, or other specialty accents. Now is also a good time to add stick on crystals or other stick on effects.
Hand painted effects such as stars, swirls, puff paint effects can be added with a small paint brush and the appropriate tattoo paints.
Any smudges or seepage can be cleaned from skin, using a cotton swab dipped into rubbing alcohol or mineral or baby oil.
To finish tattoo, lightly dust with a fine baby powder.
Advise client to dust tattoo two to three times daily with a non medicated baby powder. Pat dry after showering, and dust again with powder. Don’t scrub, scratch or scrape tattoo.
Don’t apply lotions, soaps, or oils to tattoo surfaces. Water submersion should be avoided.
Some company’s that sell body paint products for show and theater work, also carry sealer sprays. These are spray products that can be misted over a fresh tattoo after drying, and can help preserve tattoo for a few extra days.
Tattoos placed in areas where clothing elastic rubs will fade much faster. Tattoos placed on oily skin areas, such as face, chest, and upper back also fade faster. Tattoos on hands and feet tend to fade quickly.
Painted skin art lasts an average of 3 to 10 days, depending on body placement, after care, paint quality, thickness, etc.
When tattoo begins to look faded and patchy, it can easily be removed by scrubbing skin with Mineral oil, baby oil, or rubbing alcohol.
They have proven to be helpful to many messageboard users, and are very willing to answer any question in the Body paint field.
Vicki Mayhew is a professional consultant for the Sunless Tanning Industry. She has accumulated over 20 years of experience in the sunless tanning field, and currently volunteers on the consumer non-profit advocacy messageboard http://www.sunless.com .
Vicki has authored many on-line articles, including feature articles on Sunless.com. She is also credited with over 17000 messageboard posts, assisting messageboard users, both professional and consumer in their sunless tanning adventures. She is co-author, with Clara Pettitt, of the Industry training manual “Airbrush Tanning Secrets of the Pro’s, currently available for sale, and distributed worldwide. ( http://www.airbrushtantips.com )
Disclaimer: All information on this site is provided for informational purposes only! By no means is any
information presented herein intended to substitute for the advice provided to you by any health care or other professional
or organization.
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