Tat Time: How to Make Your Own Temporary Tattoos with Your Photo Printer

Whether you're practicing for the real ink or just trying to freak out your mother, spend a rainy day making your own tattoos! You can design your tattoo with anything--snag clip art from Microsoft, scan and manipulate photos in Photoshop, draw original artwork in Illustrator... you get the idea. Just remember, you need to print a mirror image--this is especially important for "Sally 4 Eva" and other text--so if your printer doesn't support mirror image printing you will have to reverse your art in the software. We'll describe the process below but also check out Crafty Computer Paper's demo.

You'll need ink jet tattoo paper--make sure to store it in a plastic bag, safe from humidity. Set your ink jet to "plain paper" setting. Do yourself a favor and run a few test prints on plain paper so you're sure you like the color and have the mirror image thing under control. Once you've printed onto the tattoo paper, let it dry thoroughly (five minutes). Then you place the adhesive paper over the printed images--be sure to squish out any air bubbles on a hard surface. Then you can cut out the tattoo to a more manageable size, peel off the adhesive layer (this leaves a sticky film over your image), apply to your skin (clean and dry skin of course) and press down, rubbing with a damp paper towel for about a minute. Wah-lah! Now send us a photo of your new tat! (via Databazaar)

August 12, 2008

Tat Time: How to Make Your Own Temporary Tattoos with Your Photo Printer