How To Apply A Tattoo Stencil

Video Transcript

"Now that we've got our gloves on, that is the most important thing here; safety first. I want to introduce Mitchell. We are going to do the tattoo on him today and it is going to be in the small area on the shoulder here. So the first thing we are going to do is apply the stencil and we are going to prep the skin first which only takes a minute so bear with me here. Take a little bit of green soap and apply to the paper towel and we are just going to clean the area up a little bit. Take a brand new razor and whether there is hair or not, it is just good measure to get all the hair, fuzz all of it. Pretty good there. That is pretty much it. Clean it up real good. Now we are ready to apply our stencil. Now that we've prepped the skin area for the tattoo, we are going to be working in this area. We just want to make sure it is dry. There's nothing on this paper towel. Make sure it is dry. What we are going to use and this is been used as long as I can remember, it's called Speed Stick. It is just the regular unscented deodorant. You can't use any other type of deodorant for this. What it does is it helps apply the stencil to the skin. It is known throughout the tattoo industry and has been for many years that this is how you do this. So make sure it is Speed Stick regular. Just apply it liberally to the skin and you can go beyond to where you are going to be at. Just make sure that it is on there real good; cap back on. Get out stencil. Now remember which side is which. It is pretty obvious; one side is purple and one side is blue, black or red. Put your arms straight down. This is important whenever you are applying a stencil to have the person stand up because when the body moves it contorts and it won't look proper. It is just good measure. Double up on this just to make sure because if you don't get it down the first time, it can be difficult. Move this way a little bit. Right on front of the shoulder. You apply it you want it to be real steady and get a center point. It will start to stick. Just work it down, hold it still. Once it is on there evenly, just press it down. Make sure that it is set. You need to leave it on there a couple of seconds. You do this, just slowly pull it back and there is what we are going to be working on. I am going to leave it on for a few minutes to let it dry. Otherwise, it will rub off fairly easy; maybe 3 or 5 minutes. then you are going to want to take a paper towel with nothing on it. What you are going to want to do is pat it, not rub it to get any excess deodorant off of there and you are going to take a small amount of Vaseline, just a dab and rub it over it. This is over a 5 minute period of applying the stencil and from that point, we are ready to work. "