Why Aspiring Tattoo Artists Should Use Tattoo Practice Skin
Did you know that tattooing has been a beautiful and meaningful art form for thousands of years? Even to this day, people all around the world love getting works of art tattooed on their skin.
Such a permanent and admired art style should always be approached with care. That’s why aspiring tattoo artists need to hone their skills as much as possible before ever putting ink to skin.
One of the best ways to keep up with your techniques is by using tattoo practice skin.
Never heard of it? Not sure why it’s so good? Keep reading as we explain why you should use synthetic skin for all your tattooing exercises!
Realistic Textures and Shapes
The best thing about fake tattoo skin is that, although it’s synthetic, it’s designed to be as real as possible. It’ll feel strange the first time you ever interact with the material because of how life-like it feels to the touch.
The texture works even better than other conventional practice materials. Gone are the days when tattoo artists could only work with honeydew melons or pig skins to get their daily practice in.
The most common variety of tattoo skin is a flat sheet of synthetic material, varying in size. However, the cool thing about this is that you can easily wrap those sheets around a friend’s arm or the leg of a chair to get it to have a more realistic shape.
Prefer to practice alone? There are even synthetic skin props made to look and feel like feet, hands, or arms. The weight and texture of these objects are about as real as you’ll ever get without involving another person as your guinea pig!
Simulate the Real Tattooing Process
It’s not only the texture of the skin that makes the experience feel real. It’s also how the needle of the tattooing machine interacts with the skin.
As you apply ink to the synthetic material, it’ll have the same kind of supple elasticity as you’d expect from real skin. You can’t get the same reaction from other practice materials.
This makes it the perfect tool to get used to the tattooing process as a beginner. It’s a much better simulation than drawing on skin with markers or applying ink to fruit. The way skin reacts to ink and needle can be jarring for beginners, which is why fake skin is perfect for artists learning how to practice tattooing.
When it comes time to begin your first real tattoo, you don’t want it to be your first time dealing with a skin-like material!
No-Stakes Practice
There’s something freeing about being able to practice without worrying about mistakes. It allows you to focus on improving your skills and perfect them without fear. This ideal is even more important when it comes to tattooing.
Tattooing real skin is an invaluable experience for every tattoo artist, but even a little mistake can have big repercussions for a newbie. That one mistake makes it difficult to try again next time and you begin to doubt your skills.
The problem is that fear of messing up again causes you to make even more mistakes in the long run.
Having fake skin available for practice purposes gives newer tattoo artists the confidence they need to succeed. While practicing on other materials has certain benefits, nothing gives the same realistic experience as synthetic skin.
Different Skin Tones
One of the biggest troubles many beginners have when they practice tattooing is knowing how to work with different skin tones. When you become a tattoo artist, you need to know how to make designs look gorgeous on all kinds of skin colors.
With various fruits and animal skins, you don’t get the right kind of color practice. If you practice only on one type of skin tone, you’ll never know how to make your designs pop when a customer of a different skin tone shows up at an appointment.
Synthetic skin eliminates this problem.
There are fake skins available in all the different tones under the sun. This gives you a chance to ready yourself for any customer who comes into your shop. You won’t ever be caught off guard because you’ve already tested your designs on different skin tones and you know how to make them work.
No Smell or Mess
If you’ve ever attempted to practice with fruit rinds or animal skins, you know how messy the process gets. Fruit juices are sticky as they dry and can even clog the machine if you’re not careful. The stickiness also makes it tricky to clean the machine without missing some areas.
Animal skins are often unpleasant to deal with. They also tend to have a foul smell that fills the room as you work.
With synthetic skin, you don’t have to worry about any of these things. Instead, it’s a dry material that carries no real smell on it. You’ll get to practice without needing to spend a long time cleaning up afterward.
Plus, even if you don’t use up the synthetic skins right away, they won’t rot or grow stale as you focus on other things.
Affordable and Versatile
Although it’s possible to create DIY fake tattoo skin in a pinch, high-quality fake skins aren’t too expensive on their own. Students won’t have much trouble getting their hands on a good amount of this material.
A great tip is to use the backside of the synthetic skin as well to make sure you get to use every inch. This way, nothing ever goes to waste.
Since you can bend and shift the sheets of fake skin, you don’t have to splurge for the limb variety to practice with awkward contours and angles.
Hone Your Techniques
Tattoos require a lot of complicated techniques to look great. From shading to linework, there’s always some technique you’ll need to work on. Even veterans need to keep their skills in check or else they’ll begin to lose the trust of their customers.
Fake skin gives you all the time in the world to figure out how to execute a tricky technique.
Can’t quite get the hang of portraying lighting in your designs? Struggle with getting your lines smooth? Practice tattoo skills on fake skin over and over until you can do them in your sleep.
There’s no limit to the ways you’ll improve with the help of synthetic skin!
Improve Speed
Tattoos take a long time to draw upon a person’s skin. It’s part of the process and customers usually know this when they walk into the shop. However, that doesn’t mean that they want to sit around for multiple hours at a time.
Improving your tattooing speed is a great skill that you’ll only ever acquire with lots of practice under your belt.
As your confidence and experience increase, so will your speed. Fake skins allow you to keep practicing at all times so that you’re able to deliver beautiful artwork without customers getting antsy. Soon your confidence with the process will get your designs onto real skin in no time at all.
Both your customers and your equipment will rejoice at your agility with the tattoo machine!
Explore Your Creativity
It would take a stroke of luck for you to find a human being who’s open to the idea of you doodling on their skin. Trying out new styles is a big part of expanding your skills and finding your creative voice, but it’s tricky to do that as a tattoo artist.
That’s why synthetic skin is a great asset for someone who wants to test a new style or technique.
You’ll get to doodle, shade, and design to your heart’s content without needing to commit to anything permanent. You’ll play with the inks and the style until you find something that excites you.
It’s the best way to find new inspiration as an artist.
Showcase Your Designs
Have you ever had an awesome practice session and wanted to show off your tattoo drawings as part of your portfolio? Does that amazing piece of art exist on the side of a honeydew melon and is already starting to go bad?
Fake tattoo skin lets you display your masterpiece while also having the realism of skin as the background. It’s a perfect way to provide customers with a realistic idea of what you’re capable of, what to expect, and what the final result looks like.
This is also a great way to share your designs with fellow tattoo artists at conventions and galleries!
Use Tattoo Practice Skin to Feel Confident as an Artist
There’s nothing quite as beneficial to artists as feeling confident with their chosen craft. When your craft involves something as permanent as ink on human skin, it’s even more important to hone your skills. With the help of tattoo practice skin, you’ll have the chance to practice as much as you want.
It’s an invaluable tool that no tattoo artist can ignore!
Looking to take your skills to the next level? Check out our essential tattoo courses to get a head start in making your artistic dreams come true!