Posted on January 19, 2012 - by admin

Tattooing safely with Airbrushes

One of my new year’s resolutions is to focus on my creative side and develop those skills through practise. I have a keen interest in tattoos and body art! I decided that a good start would be to purchase an airbrush and practice developing my skills safely on my friends and myself, without the permanent results of tattooing and potential of blood poisoning.

I bought myself an airbrush, complete with an airbrush compressor, art colours and various stencil designs to get me started. The stencils were all standard tattoo designs. My plan was to start of practising with these and then create my very own stencils for my custom tattoo designs that i have been sketching. It is a good way to gain exposure for your designs and also make some side money.

As I opened up the airbrush I was rather impressed with the design. It looked rather professional with its sleek dimensions and chrome looking finish. I also felt very comfortable in my hand. Before I got started on my sisters new body art design, I had a look through the various body art stencils. I thought that I would start with a simple shape and practise my colour blending. I chose the rose design stencil. As for inks, I would do a red, green and black combination.

I plugged in the compressor and connected up the hose to the iwata-airbrush I had bought from GraphicAir.co.uk.  The airbrush is operated by a compressor. It compresses air and forces it up the hose and into the airbrush, where it sprays out a fine jet of ink onto your skin.

I cleaned the area where the design was to be applied, then wiped it with an alcohol swab. Next I peeled away the backing of the stencil and carefully placed the stencil on her arm, ensuring that it was straight and in the correct position. From there you simply start spraying and blend the colours as you please. It started off with the red and green and used the black ink to add a shadowing effect to the rose. I was rather impressed with my artistic creation. Once the ink has dried I put on some setting powder and it was done. the tattoo should last between two and five days and special care should be taken to avoid as much contact with water when showering.

My sister was very happy with her new rose tattoo. Having successfully finished my first design I’m looking forward to making my custom stencils like this one on the Graphic Air Website.