For novice tattoo artists, the world of tattooing might be intimidating and a bit scary. After all, if you screw up, that’s a permanent mistake — and one that’s connected to your name forever.
But how do you practice without slapping an eye-catching conversation piece or intricate detail work on some willing volunteers?
One game-changing tool that’s entered the industry to help is synthetic skins. In this article, we’ll take a look at:
Our Favorite Practice Skins
Understanding Tattoo Practice Skin
Synthetic skins are meticulously designed to simulate the texture and characteristics of human skin. These artificial canvases come in many different shapes and sizes. This allows you to practice tattoo techniques and offers a dedicated practice as close to a real client as you can get.
Beginners can turn into successful tattoo artists by using tattoo practice skin. It allows you to experiment with different tattoo styles and figure out your own equipment preferences before hopping onto real skin.
Tattoo practice skin also prioritizes safety and hygiene, meaning you can practice without compromising cleanliness. Further, synthetic skins for tattoo practice are reusable and affordable, offering a budget-friendly canvas for practice.
Although synthetic skin is created to mimic real skin, it’s worth noting that there’s nothing exactly like the real thing. Synthetic skin doesn’t quite move or stretch like regular skin. It will be a good simulation, but there will be a few differences between fake skin and real skin that require a few adjustments.Advantages of Synthetic Skin for Tattooing
The main benefit of using anatomical tattoo practice skin is that they provide a platform for you to continually work and grow at the craft.
Choosing the Best Tattoo Practice Skin
Selecting the right tattoo practice skin is vital. It would be best to consider variables such as quality, durability, and realism.
Obviously, you want it to resemble human skin as closely as possible. Look for reputable brands and suppliers such as Frankenskins and A Pound of Flesh.Note:
Quality fake skins are thick enough to resemble real skin. A lot of the practice skins that come with tattoo kits are not thick enough to allow you to practice getting the right needle depth.
Tattooing on Anatomical Tattoo Practice Skins
To get the most out of practice skin, you should treat it just like you would treat any real tattoo.
When you are done, check to see how the fake skin looks. Is it torn up or sliced? You might have gone too deep, made too many passes over the same area, or your voltage is too high for your hand speed.
Tips for Tattooing on Synthetic Skins
Now that you’re ready to use practice skin, what should you keep in mind?
The most important thing to remember is to just do it. The beauty of synthetic skin is that you can screw up without the risk of angering a client. The only one preventing you from practicing is yourself.What to Expect When Tattooing on Synthetic Skins
Practice skin is a little different than real skin. Because of this, it requires its own considerations.
Synthetic Skins Versus Other Tattooing Practice Methods
Yeah, Sailor Jerry loved to tattoo potatoes. And that’s still a pretty cool way to experiment. But how do other tattoo practice methods compare to synthetic skins?
Potatoes or Fruits, Like Oranges or Melons
Unlike synthetic skin, fruits offer a way to measure the depth of your needle. A lot of new tattoo artists like using them because you get a good feel for how deep you should be putting the ink in.
(Not to mention buying fruit is cheap and there’s basically an endless supply!)
However, they’re small, so practicing larger-scale tattoos to develop your own style is basically impossible.
Pig Skin
Many tattoo apprentices in the past were only able to tattoo pig skin for practice. While we do not recommend this route, some people do like to try it out. It’s very affordable, and your local butcher will probably sell you some pig skin for cheap — or maybe even for free — because no one typically buys the stuff.
Pig skin does a great job simulating human skin, because, well, it’s “real” skin. But because of that, you have to treat it delicately:
Prepare for a Tattooing Career with the Artist Accelerator Program
Working with fake skin and getting some real practice tattooing is an exciting step in your journey, but it can also be pretty eye-opening to how difficult tattooing can be. Tattooing requires focused practice with the correct technique. Without that, it’s impossible to level up your skills and become a professional tattoo artist.
However, many budding tattoo artists know that finding the straightforward information you need to progress is difficult. And with so much out there online, it’s hard to avoid picking up bad habits from incorrect and outdated resources.
This is one of the biggest struggles new tattooers face, and too many talented artists have given up their goal of getting into tattooing because of the years it would take to unlearn their bad habits.
That’s why aspiring artists are learning to tattoo with the Artist Accelerator Program’s structured course. As a student, you learn every step of the tattooing process from professional artists with the experience and advice you need to build your skills and create incredible tattoos.
With the Artist Accelerator, you can stop wasting time searching through incorrect information. You just get the clear, easy-to-understand lessons you need to start improving fast… along with support and personalized feedback from professional artists in our online Mastermind group.
Over 2500 students have already gone through the course, with many of them opening up their own studios. If you want to join them and learn the skills you need to become a successful tattoo artist faster…
Click here to learn more about the Artist Accelerator Program.
