EMMA FREEMAN
SPECIALIST PRACTICE
I prepared my designs of the tattoos on photo shop ready for printing. For my application I will find an assistant as I estimate the tattoos to take 2 hours. A medium tattoo took me around 5 minutes to apply. A larger tattoo will take up to 10minutes.
I tested the tattoo on myself and sealed with Ben NYE sealer. I thought the tattoos looked too fresh so I dulled them down with a orange based foundation. I was pleased with these results and feel they look the most effective. In order to print my designs I will create the tattoos in photoshop and print in a laser jet printer.
I would have liked to have tested the whole body for the tattoos, however I wanted to be resourceful with my materials so I tested a few on my skin. I left the tattoos for a few hours to see how long they lasted. There was slight peeling at the sides, but this was fixed with the ben nye sealer which I can do on the day of filming.
I decided to use tattoo transfer paper for my tattoos. As this was used in the indutry I felt it would be the most effective and quickest way to apply the tattoos. As the products advised to use were out of my budget I found a cheaper version on ebay costing £15 with delivery
To alter the colour of the carbon I have practised some editing in photoshop. I have experimented with balancing the different colours to highlight the tattoo, and also adding green to make it look more realistic. The black and white filter completely removes the purple in the carbon paper which works really well. If i shot my final film in black and white then this could be a potential method of applying my tattoos and a cheaper alternative.
At £16 the tattoo pen seemed like a good choice to try out for some tattoos. I did consider the time it would take for hand draw the tattoos so the pen is purely for drawing extra bits onto the tattoos and drawing on small tattoos such as on the hands and fingers
TATTOOS IN INDUSTRY/EXPERIMENTATION
MetrodomeVOD (2014) Siberian education. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHrysumjxRU (Accessed: 12 November 2015).
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Italian film Educazione Siberiana based on Nicolai Lilin’s autobiogrpcal novel about a group of Russian whose tattoos reveal information about their identities
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“The main job is to create tattoos bodies according to the Siberian tradition: drawings with symbols that tell a story of the characters” Nardi explains
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Peter Stormare created the designs for the tattoos in conjunction with Lilin
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“Each symbol is like a letter of the alphabet, which by itself has no meaning. In order to assume a meaning, it has to be related to other symbols in a specific way, in specific place” Nardi explained
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“The body is divided into areas, each area has its meaning for a certain period of life… in the siberian tradition, the body is divided into two parts: the left side symbolizes life and the right one death.
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The central part of the chest, the clavicles and knees are the so-called ‘transition zones’. This determines different ways of reading the tattoos
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After receiving Lilin’s drawings for the tattoos, Nardi transposed them from paper to digital designs using Photoshop, he them redrew them with the correct dimensions and colours, then printed them and applied them to the actors, retouching them with a cream foundation for an aging effect
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“Making the big tattoos, back and chest, was very challenging, because I had to separate the drawing from 3 to 12 parts in order to fit the printing paper and recompose them on the actors body”
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It took two makeup artists nearly three hours to apply full-body transfer on an actor
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The cold temperatures made the tattoos look too red-the solution: touch up on set and that’s it!
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markey, denise (2000) ‘Makeup artist magazine’, (106), pp. 16–17.
TNTforum -> Educazione siberiana (2013) Gabriele Salvatores (2003) Available at: http://forum.tntvillage.scambioetico.org/index.php?showtopic=388098 (Accessed: 1 January 2016)
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Freddie Corbin- one of the most famous tattoo artists in the world
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Continuity pictures-line up on a bone
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For his back tattoo they cover up the tattoo and then use the transfer which is lined up with a freckle
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for the tattoo in the head she has to paint it on as the transfers will not work.
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she paints different colours with alcohol paints to make it look more realistic
-the tattoo transfers directly onto the skin and lasts up to four days
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There is a folder of each actor with details of his hair and makeup and what products are used. The tattoos are enclosed with photographs and designs juts in case a different makeup artist is on set
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She wipes with alcohol first to remove any excess oils
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Tinsely tattoos-uses water to press over the tattoo, saturate it for 30 seconds at least
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Dried with a hair dryer
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Powdered and lasts 5days
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Fox Home Ent (2014) Sons of anarchy- Tig ‘reaper application’. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rJBb8cwGAI (Accessed: 1 January 2016).
Fox Home Ent (2014) Sons of anarchy - ‘Tracey Anderson - behind the ink: Jax Tats’. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dac_OX32Vxw (Accessed: 1 January 2016).
Team, M. (2012) Creating temporary Tattoos - HAIR AND MAKEUP ARTIST HANDBOOK. Available at: http://hair-and-makeup-artist.com/creating-temporary-tattoos/ (Accessed: 1 January 2016)
ENQUIRING FOR TINSLEY TATTOOS
I have researched into using tinsley tattoos for my tattoo transfers as they look the quickest and most effective to use. After enquiring about a price range it was obvious the tinsely tattoos would be too expensive to cover a full body. I will research an alternative method or a cheaper transfer paper.
MAGIC TOUCH TRANSFER PAPER
Temporary tattoo transfer paper (no date) Available at: http://www.themagictouch.co.uk/acatalog/Temporary_Tattoo_Transfer_Paper.html (Accessed: 1 January 2016)
Welcome to TheMagicTouch.tv (no date) Available at: http://www.themagictouch.tv/ (Accessed: 1 January 2016).
The magic touch transfer is cheaper than the tinsley but with delivery charge of £10 would be too expensive
MAKEUP PRODUCTS
CARBON PAPER
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I wanted to include a lot of detailed tattoos for my model which would take too long to do by hand, I asked a tattoo artist what he uses (Uzzi Canby) and he told me to try carbon paper to get the stencil you want. I traced a detail drawing of a catherdral and a skull to experiment with this. I found it very difficult to adhere to the skin, online I found that the Speed stick deodrant works best to apply to the skin before transferring. As this is an american brand I used right guard as this still contained glycerin as an alternative. The carbon still did not transfer with this, I tried vaseline and moisturiser which still did not transfer the carbon. After watching some tutorials on tattoo transferring I came across this tattoo artist who uses ultra sonic jelly. The closest production I could find to jelly was a lubrication, below you can see how this has transferred the tattoos perfect. The colour is more pigmented so looks darker. I am apprehensive about the purple hint it has, however, if I paint on top with black I could cancel this purple out
expertvillage (2008) How to get a tattoo: How to apply a tattoo transfer. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD8FFj8AJE0 (Accessed: 2 January 2016
I tried to combine the carbon paper and the tattoo pen but the results were not effective. The pen was difficult to shade with as you can not create light and dark shading. The purple from the carbon paper also came through too strong
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 Screen Shot 2016-01-02 at 13.31.01 |  Screen Shot 2016-01-02 at 13.30.18 |  Screen Shot 2016-01-02 at 13.29.37 |
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 Screen Shot 2016-01-02 at 13.28.10 |  Screen Shot 2016-01-02 at 13.26.32 |
To try and practise my shading and shadowing techniques I have experimented using an airbrush and alcohol paints to make these cathedrals. I drew these on free hand with greasepaint with a brush. Before airbrushing I practised using different pressures. To fill in the small areas on the tattoo was quite difficult, I tried to change the pressure of the airbrush but did find it difficult to create a small airbrush mark. To remove the excess I used alcohol on a small brush. Some of this took away too much fo the shading.To improve this technique use smaller brushes for more detailed pieces and practise getting the balance right for building the colours and taking away. Possibly soft sponges with alcohol could help to remove any excess without creating any harsh lines
Practising using different pressures with the airbrush
I tried to paint over the carbon print with small brushes and grease paint but this ended up looking too messy, I preferred the tattoo before adding any grease paint onto it. In terms of timing the transfers were very quick to transfer (although not so quick to create but this can be done prior to the day of filming). It will take a long time to colour all the tattoos so I will research an alternative method.
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Eyes on the chest indicate that this prisoner sees everything or that he’s watching over something
The walled-in cathedral indicates that this prisoner is a safecracker, and the number of domes on the cathedral correspond to the number of times he’s been convicted.