Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Subject line pretty much sums it up, I'm looking at painting a tattoo on a model in the foreseeable future and figured I'd ask for advice. My sole experience with this has been a fleur-de-lys on a Sister or two, using black paint. Wasn't bad, but looked kind of stark. Then again I didn't paint skin very well at the time either, so I can't even say if it's just the tattoo.

So I wonder if a blue, purple or red base for the ink may be a better way to go or if anyone has a good recipe, method, etc. to paint tattoos.

Advice and sample pictures would be appreciated.

It depends on the look you want. If you want a fresh, well defined tattoo, mix black with a little flesh tone. For faded tattoos use a dark blue grey like dark reaper, or a dark grey green like sons of horus green. This is for blackwork tattoos only.. If you want illustration tattoos like Japanese or traditional, then I just treat it like a freehand. See example of some irezumi tattoos I did a few years back.

Paint the skin as per norm.

Paint the tattoo with whatever colors you fancy. I typically dilute so that they're not 100% opaque.

I then glaze over top with the same color as my skin highlights and shadows to knock back the colors of the tattoo and make it look like it's faded into the skin.

The approach is how I do most of my freehand as well, especially on materials where the pattern is supposed to be sewn into the fabric or more of a natural pattern (fur, markings, etc.) as opposed to a painted pattern on a surface (like tank markings, although glazing your shadow colors helps shade and unify it all together just the same).

Some examples:

In my most recent piece, almost all the freehand was flat colors. I used a diluted (almost water-color consistency) dark green mix for the texture pattern, and the flowers were a combination of White, Red, Yellow, Purples and Blues.

Once I had painted all the patterning, I glazed over with my highlights and shadow tones to shade everything with consistent colors, making it look like the patterns are sewn into and are a part of the fabric.





On this piece, the swirls were painted with flat S75 White Sands. I lightly glazed my tea highlight over the brightest parts and knocked back the recessed areas with the same tones as my shadows helped provide all the shading.

Mind blown! You guys have some insane skill. It's actually ridiculous how well painted the above pics are. You could paint harliquins for days.

Very mind blowing indeed.

Great stuff. Thanks, guys, much appreciated!

I'm going to start simple and small for now, just black (or as explained a variation thereof) letters and symbols.