Set up & Materials

Tattooing requires a lot of set up and preparation to ensure a quality tattoo. Choosing the right size needle is very similar to choosing the right paint brush for a painting. Different styles of tattooing require different techniques, but it is up to the artist to determine how they execute them.

To set up my station properly for this project, I first had to print out the desired design and find the correct placement on the arm. After finding a satisfactory placement, I used a stencil marker to mark small lines on the arm to keep track of where the tattoo will be placed. I then cleaned and wrapped everything according to the tattoo sanitation guidelines. Next, I prepared my spray bottle of green soap & water to wipe excess ink and debris. I am now ready to begin the stencil process. To make a stencil of my desired design, I ran my printed design through my thermal printer with stencil paper and thermal ink. I can now prepare the area on the arm by washing it with green soap (and shaving with a disposable razor if on a real person) and apply stencil primer to the area. After placing the stencil, I pressed and held it down to ensure it fully transfers onto the skin and let dry for 10 minutes. Now that the stencil is prepared, I used Vaseline to stick my ink caps onto a popsicle stick to keep them in place and layout my color pallet or grey wash depending on which tattoo I was working on. The last thing I had to do before getting started was putting a machine cover over my tattoo machine and wrapping it with grip tape for control and comfortability.

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Below is a list of materials that I used for this project

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• Tattoo machine

• 3RL Needles

• 5RL Needles

• 7RL Needles

• 9RL Needles

• 5RS Needles

• 7RS Needles

• 9CM Needles

• 15CM Needles

• Thermal printer

• Stencil primer

• Transfer paper

• Fake skin

• Fake arm

• Ink + caps

• Grip tape

• Latex gloves

• Green soap

• Sterilized water

• Razors

• Spray bottles

• Vaseline

• Cling wrap