First Timer Stencil Problems

Well I tried to do my first practice today and never even got to ink. I am using pig skin without the little skits all over it. I thawed it out all the way. Scrubbed it with dish soap and a scotch brite scrubbing pad getting all the oils and stuff off. dabbed dry till both sides were completely dry.

Traced my design out in pencil, then pulled the, protective sheet out of the transfer paper. Put it in a clip board with ink side and paper down, with design on top of it. Retraced it with ink pen pressing somewhat hard to get good contact through the sheets. Cut stencil out and looked great other then being backwards from picture. Im guessing you need to trace it backwards and I didnt. Or am I using the transfer paper wrong?

But anyways the transfer paper looked perfect. I applied "Stencil-Pro" to a paper towel and dabbed the skin till it had full coverage for size of design.

slightly folded the stencil without creasing it and layed the center down then the sides. Lightly smoothed it out and let set a little bit then lightly pealed it off by a corner. Next to NO stencil on skin.

Cleaned skin off with alcohol, but what did go down did not come offf all the way. Redid stencil with different piece of transfer paper. Tried again using green soap, letting it dry a tad to get tacky then applied new stencil......same thing.

Retried whole process with "Stencil-Pro" again and again same result. Finally wadded skin and everything up and threw it away as I was losing patience and figured wasnt no point in continuing in that frame of mind. Even tried making the transfered image go onto a piece of printer paper instead of the paper in the transfer sheet.

Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong. I got out my manual I printed from here, my book I got as well as the black book I downloaded and from what I understand from all 3 I am doing it according the the way they say. But its not working at all. All my tattoos Ive gotten and seen done the stencil is very prominent on the skin. Mine you could barely see and wasnt even all there. I did a search on here and read the threads but seems I tried everything in them with no luck.

Hi reading what you've done it seems one major reason why you have no stencil could be a low quality carbon paper or even an old sheet of carbon paper, spirit paper always seems to do the trick and i apply exactly how you described

Stuff like "Stencil-Pro" is crap IMO.

Use Green soap, Speedstick or Dettol.

Im using brand new Spirit transfer paper I just got in. Opened the pack of it today.

Like I posted...tried green soap on 2nd attempt

try it with dettol mate it is really good for stencils, how long are you leaving stencil on before pulling it off, and are you applying firm pressure?

The backwards part is what threw me... i

thin "tracing paper" sheet
protective sheet
"ink" sheet

remove the protective

If you lay your design over the tracing paper sheet your pen pressure will put the design on the underside of the sheet.This will make your stencil face the exact same direction as the original. You will cut the tracing paper and use the side with the black lines on it for your stencil application. I've never had one come up backwards. I'm looking at a half used sheet right now.

Oh...you don't have to hold it there. It's on instantly as long as the skin has not been wiped completely dry. It should still be moist.

Hope that helped.

Mark

I looked for dettol at pharmacy but couldnt find it. Ill look at a couple more places. Id say about a min or so. The books say dont need to leave it on long. Is that not long enough? The first time I tried light spreading pressure, the 2nd time it really pushed on it thinking maybe that was it, neither worked. Maybe I am just doing something wrong somewhere. maybe ill try again later tonight or tomorrow when im not so irritated.

try drawing a little design like a circle on a piece of paper and then put your carbon paper under the paper with the design on it with the carbon facing up and draw around the circle, apply a small amount of your stencil pro on to your arm and press the stencil on to that area, if it works then it is something to do with the piggy.

take a second and grab your spirit paper.

remove the protective sheet

scratch your nail on the corner...the bottom of the see through piece should have a very dark line on it.

try to apply, with that line on the skin, and see what you get.

Mark

TexasPT said:

The backwards part is what threw me... i

thin "tracing paper" sheet
protective sheet
"ink" sheet

remove the protective

If you lay your design over the tracing paper sheet your pen pressure will put the design on the underside of the sheet.This will make your stencil face the exact same direction as the original. You will cut the tracing paper and use the side with the black lines on it for your stencil application. I've never had one come up backwards. I'm looking at a half used sheet right now.

Oh...you don't have to hold it there. It's on instantly as long as the skin has not been wiped completely dry. It should still be moist.

Hope that helped.

Mark

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Ok I am doing that backwards then. Im laying my design on the yellow side which touches the non ink side. I was thinking I needed to push the ink down to the transfer paper. Maybe im not getting "enough" ink onto the paper doing it that way. I just tried it the other way (like you said) and words came out right way. I already threw skin in trash so Ill try with real design later or tomorrow with new piece of skin. I bought 30 pounds of pig skin so wasnt a big deal to throw that little piece away lol.

toetoe62 said:

try drawing a little design like a circle on a piece of paper and then put your carbon paper under the paper with the design on it with the carbon facing up and draw around the circle, apply a small amount of your stencil pro on to your arm and press the stencil on to that area, if it works then it is something to do with the piggy.

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Ok tired that doing it the right way like Mark said and it worked. So Ill give it a shot again on a new piece of skin. Thank you guys so much, it had me frustrated to no end. I was yelling at myself "IT CANT BE THIS DAMN HARD JUST TO DO THE F'IN TRANSFER!!!" lol Dogs were looking at me like I had went insane lol Im very proud of my circle on my arm now hahaha

Hi Fella

try neat detol.

Clean the skin as you did apply neat detol to the surface larger than the tattoo wait until tacky then apply stencil this should work fine ive been doing this for years only problem i have is cleaning a misplaced stencil off lol.

when doing your stencil dark purple side up for the stencil paper.

And what ever your design is this should also be facing up draw directly over the design. You should now have the stencil correctly.

Hope this helps

glad you got it...might as well tattoo a circle now. :icon_lol:

most british people have grown up with dettol but it doesn't seem as common in other countries, i have used stencil pro and it worked fine, i don't think that is your problem.

Lol Ill pass on tattooing the circle on my forarm lol. Thanks to you also mick. I was doing the stencil paper wrong. Least tracing on wrong side. My cirlce was much darker when doing it how you and Mark said. Lesson learned thanks to you guys.

I have another couple pharmacies by my house Ill check for some dettol. Ive never heard of it before reading the tattoo books and on here. Might give it another go after I eat some dinner.

Lol Im half british and grew up with a full british mother but never heard of it

No worries they do sell dettol over in the states ive seen a couple guys using it

check out some of my posts, i use skin ALL THE TIME. Make sure they are room temperature (very important), next use speed stick, best advice I can give you!!!!!

Viper65 said:

check out some of my posts, i use skin ALL THE TIME. Make sure they are room temperature (very important), next use speed stick, best advice I can give you!!!!!

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Only problem is CC with speed stick. I dont want to get into a bad habit. In everything else Ive learned I found it best to practice how you will really do it.

Flying Monkey said:

Only problem is CC with speed stick. I dont want to get into a bad habit. In everything else Ive learned I found it best to practice how you will really do it.

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correct, BUT, shouldnt be a problem at all as long at your only using it on piggys. I use stencil Magic on everything else so no worry's about CC. I dont think youll have any bad habits with using it ONLY on pig skins. Put some tape on the front that say: PIG ONLY. problem solved.:icon_biggrin:

Viper65 said:

check out some of my posts, i use skin ALL THE TIME. Make sure they are room temperature (very important), next use speed stick, best advice I can give you!!!!!

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Seriously, nothing works better than Speedstick....too bad its not sanitary.

Is the speedstick available in the uk ??? would like to try it !!!

i would assume you can get speedstick in the uk its a deoderant stick ( anti presperant) and as far as yall saying it is unsanitary dont use it people because of cc and such. i have heard of artists using the trial sizes (really small) and then throwing them away. i feel like that would get expensive though

skinpix said:

Is the speedstick available in the uk ??? would like to try it !!!

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Well it doesnt have to be real Speedstick. Just about any clear/translucent deodorant will work.

I actually melt the deodorant in a microwave and mix it with green soap. It works better than any stencil stuff Ive got from the net, but not as good as rubbing the deodorant directly on the skin.

i don't think it's worth the time and effort if you live in the UK, it's like trying to buy dettol in the US, you can get it but is it worth it, it looks like both of the products do a very good job but with dettol you can spray it on and it kills every germ you can think of, so i think i will stick with it.

Well have now went to every pharmacy around here and not a single 1 carries dettol or any pharmacist even heard of it. Maybe its cause I live in the south lol

http://www.google.com/products/cata...=UxHyTr35CdDAtgf52oDRBg&sqi=2&ved=0CGUQ3QswAw

i get it from the super markets, and we have a 1 pound shop in town and they sold it when they first opened but they don't do it any more, i'm really surprised it's not sold all over the world, it seems to of dropped off a bit now but not so long ago most homes, schools and even hospitals used it in the UK.

Not available anywhere near me. Im sure Ill do fine using what I have.

Flying Monkey said:

Well have now went to every pharmacy around here and not a single 1 carries dettol or any pharmacist even heard of it. Maybe its cause I live in the south lol

http://www.google.com/products/cata...=UxHyTr35CdDAtgf52oDRBg&sqi=2&ved=0CGUQ3QswAw

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Same.

I dont think its available in US unless you order it online.

skinpix said:

Is the speedstick available in the uk ??? would like to try it !!!

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Only way i have found to get it in uk mate is ebay you have to order it from usa
Here is a link

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/200448942449?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

When doing the pig skins try this.......just use you photocopied pic right on top of the stencil paper, purple side up and draw directly on the picture, you should get a nice dark copy. And yes, deodrant works best on pig skins.

Flying Monkey said:

Ok tired that doing it the right way like Mark said and it worked. So Ill give it a shot again on a new piece of skin. Thank you guys so much, it had me frustrated to no end. I was yelling at myself "IT CANT BE THIS DAMN HARD JUST TO DO THE F'IN TRANSFER!!!" lol Dogs were looking at me like I had went insane lol Im very proud of my circle on my arm now hahaha

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Are you still doing tattoos? Probably really good now..a decade later!? I’m in GA and starting tattoo art, might you have any advice for a newbie?

Brandyz said:

Are you still doing tattoos? Probably really good now..a decade later!? I’m in GA and starting tattoo art, might you have any advice for a newbie?

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Hi Brandy, it's not only a decade he's been tattooing by now - it's also almost a decade since he showed up here at the forum ?