Many people have always wanted to get a tattoo, but found that their fear of having a messed up tattoo was far greater than their desire for a piece of expressive art. In the past, a tattoos final look was largely subject to the ability and interpretation of the tattoo artist, which may be great for tattoo collectors who love accumulating tattoos that fit a variety of different styles and that can be clearly identified by their unique looks, but can be pretty intimidating to a person getting their first tattoo or who has wanted a tattoo for years but has always been too afraid that they will not like it once they have it. Fortunately, now there is a solution. Tattoo stencils help you work with your tattoo artist to get the perfect look and the perfect tattoo in the perfect location on your body. Tattoo stencils take the guesswork out of tattoo art, which is precisely what many people want when it comes to permanent ink on their bodies.
Of course, in order to use a tattoo stencil correctly, you need to know a little bit about them. A tattoo stencil is a transfer that a tattoo artist applies to your body in the location that you want to get the tattoo. That transfer is a line image of your tattoo, and it is often extremely detailed. Tattoo stencils are used by a tattoo artist to guide the formation of your tattoo and help them stick to the image that they designed or that you selected and purchased from a portfolio of tattoo flash. A stencil can help a tattoo artist insure that their rendition of a tattoo design is identical to the image of your dreams.
In order to use a tattoo stencil to the best effect, you should follow some simple guidelines:
Make sure that your tattoo artist is okay with tattoo stencils.
Some artists feel that their tattoo designs are so personal and intimately associated with their art that they cannot be guided by a tattoo stencil and create an acceptable tattoo design. An artist who feels this way obviously will not feel good about working with your pre-selected stencil, so make sure that your tattoo artist is comfortable with the tattoo stencil that you have selected and with tattoo stencils in general. If they are not, then consider selecting another tattoo artist so that you can have a good and reliable tattooing experience. This is a matter of personal and artistic taste, so you must not take it personally if the artist feels that they cannot in good conscience use a tattoo stencil. However, if your heart is set on a certain tattoo design, then you need to make sure that design is what you get. You owe it to yourself and the part of your body you are permanently decorating to be sure you get exactly the look you want.
Always use an artist-approved, original tattoo stencil.
Many people try to trace designs so that they do not have to purchase a tattoo stencil. Even if you plan to alter the image of the stencil slightly yourself or have it customized by your tattoo artist, you should always start out with the original artwork by the original artist. This keeps the integrity of your tattoo design intact and also helps insure that the tattoo design has all of the details that attracted you to it in the first place. If you attempt to replicate or trace a tattoo stencil, then you will likely find yourself sporting a second-rate tattoo that does not meet your expectations.
Get a color guide.
Tattoo stencils are great, but those that come without a color guide are kind of like only having half of the directions to a destination. A color guide that is designed by the original tattoo artist and that comes with a tattoo stencil will help a tattoo artist not only get the lines right, but achieve the same patterns and shading that make your tattoo so special to you. While every artist is a little different and your tattoo will definitely be unique to you because of the way that the ink interacts with your skin tone and because of the interesting personal reasons for getting it, having a color guide will help insure that your dream tattoo and your real tattoo are the same. For example, photorealistic tattoos are nearly impossible to replicate without a color guide, as are most other even slightly delicate color schemes and palates.
