Creating and Applying a Stencil

Before you can ever begin a tattoo you must first create a stencil that will be transferreed onto the skin of your customer. The stencil will contain the outline of the tattoo design that you will use as a guide when shading and completing the tattoo. Creating a stencil is not a difficult task, but does require some practice to get them just right, and also to apply them on the skin. We are going to cover the basic steps you will take to create a stencil.

A tattoo stencil could be anything you want to design, or that your customer brings to you to tattoo on them. You will need a few things like regular drawing paper, transfer paper, carbon paper, deodorant sticks and scissors. From here on, we will take it stepwise.

Step 1

Draw a tattoo or design on the drawing paper. Take your time to draw it nicely and review every aspect of the drawing in depth so that the shading, lining and colors are exactly to your liking or that of your clients. It is important as this drawing will be the one that will ultimately be tattooed permanently.

Step 2

Choose a flat surface like table and place the transfer paper on it. Now place a carbon paper with its ink side down on the transfer paper.

Step 3

Now carefully place your design on top of the carbon paper. Wrap the three sheets with a tape accurately so that that the design is exactly in its place and will not move around.

Step 4

With a pencil, trace the design on the transfer paper. Apply ample pressure along the lines so that the design is transferred completely. Don’t worry about the details or shading, you will only be tracing the major lines of the design, which will later be tattooed using liner needles.

Step 5

Use the scissor to cut the design traced on to the transfer paper. Leave a margin of 2 inches.

Step 6

Before you can transfer the design on to that part of the skin where you will be putting the tattoo, some preparations need to be done. You will have to moisten that part of the skin where the tattoo will be placed. So use a glycerine based deodorant to moisten the skin. Rub the deodorant nicely all over the surface. This step is very essential as it ensures that the design from the transfer paper sticks on to the skin.

Step 7

This step needs you to be very cautious as you will have to transfer the design on to the body. Hold the cutout of the design from transfer paper. Place it gently over the moistened part of the skin. Press it but with tenderness so that the design does not move on the slippery surface of deodorant. Rub the transfer paper to transfer the design to the skin.

You are now ready to start tattooing the design.

There are a few precautions that you need to take while following steps to ensure that the tattoo is exactly as you wanted. Always press hard enough on the outlines to transfer the outlines perfectly on to the skin. Also, you may have to repeat this process several times to make sure you get the image positioned exactly the way your client wants it. You must be patient with them because they will have to live with the tattoo on their body forever, so it needs to be done to their liking.

Following these steps you should be able to transfer a tattoo design from paper onto the skin of your customer.