Fake Skins / Pig Skins/ Human Skins! The Differences!

[Kaz]

OK so currently I'm practicing on fake what I presume to be plastic skin. I have been struggling to produce good clean lines. I have found that if I slow my hand down I can produce cleaner lines but wonder if the fake skin is the best alternative to practice on. What are peoples views on this plastic skin compared to pig skin. And how does both of these skins relate to human skin...bleeding aside ofcourse!
Also I previously washed off the skins with dettol. This took alot of the ink out of the plastic. Has anyone else found this. I ran out of dettol and washed another skin ( the one I slowed down on!) with just soap. So did they look better because I didn't remove as much ink or because I had improved!

 

[akka]

i found the practice skins to be a nusence to work on and never really got on well with them
switch to piggy mate its far more close to working on human skin and a lot cheaper if u get friendly with a local butcher
the only problem wih the piggy i find is streching it but that can be remedyed by nailing it to a board
i can go hard if not defosted proply mind

hope this helps:thumbsup:

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[oultimer]

Hi Kaz' I found that i can get reasonable results on the fake skins 'they are rubber by the way'when i turn the voltage up a little more and adjusted my hand speed to suit'the best way to keep them clean is to apply some vaseline to the stencil then dab each line as you do it and clean of with a little more vase'dont use dettol or water!The only problem with this is that the tube and needle needs regular cleaning as it gets blocked with the vase'but keep a spray bottle of dilute washing up liquid for this and then rinse in a glass of water'Obviously pigskin is better to practice on providing you can get a good bit with few cuts on it and it is closest to human skin.:thumbsup:

 

[WilD]

Hi Kaz,
personally I didn't like using the synthetic skins -so contacted the butcher in my local farm shop. He keeps the shoulder skin for me every few weeks so I just roll it up in cling film and freeze it. When defrosted, rinse in warm water and give it a scrub with a liquid hand soap - I find it softens it and makes it easier to work on. Some butchers score the skin - if you can buy it without its better. TBH it doesnt really compare to real skin, its often tough or stretchy - but prob closest you'll get for practice. Just apply stencil using dettol liquid (I use savlon - it works for me) and apply thin layer of vaseline before you begin lining. It cleans up well with baby wipes I find!

 

[j3rz3y1]

rubber practice skins suck

to expensive an hard to clean, I went to grapefruit when i first started out better results then rubber for sure an cheaper in season . Now i find human skin much easier to tattoo with proper streching alot easier but you still have different kinds of skin some are easy some are medium an some are hard but learning human skin is quick an easy as you go along you will see. :thumbsup: Ed

 

[inkstar]

OK so currently I'm practicing on fake what I presume to be plastic skin. I have been struggling to produce good clean lines. I have found that if I slow my hand down I can produce cleaner lines but wonder if the fake skin is the best alternative to practice on. What are peoples views on this plastic skin compared to pig skin. And how does both of these skins relate to human skin...bleeding aside ofcourse!
Also I previously washed off the skins with dettol. This took alot of the ink out of the plastic. Has anyone else found this. I ran out of dettol and washed another skin ( the one I slowed down on!) with just soap. So did they look better because I didn't remove as much ink or because I had improved!

when i first started tattooing my boss told me to tattoo myself ,you soon no whats to deep or what took a long time to heal, so you no not to do it like that also you no what was done right and healed fast and looked good
pig skin plastic skin isnt the same as human skin .human skin moves and heals what looks good on fake skin might have ripped human skin to bits or find some one who has bad tattoos and ask them if you can have a go at fixing them

 

[bdahyrt]

I was using honeydew melons, very much a pain to get the stencils on. Better to go freehand on them. I am done with all the "fake" skins! I am going to buy all new equipment(didn't keep my practice kit stuff clean) and setting up a room in my house for tats and moving on to my legs for practice.

 

[DocJones]

this site is a godsend! been struggling like mad with these skins, what works on them has no effect on my own legs and I was getting really frustrated. Time to speak to butcher

 

[cymek74]

this site is a godsend! been struggling like mad with these skins, what works on them has no effect on my own legs and I was getting really frustrated. Time to speak to butcher

Fake/pig/human, they are all different. What I found was that fake skin is the hardest to get the ink into, I'm definitely not applying as much give when shading and lines have to be done very slow and deliberate. Pig is slightly easier, but is twice as hard to clean as real skin, no matter how careful I am, it just gets muddied. The biggest problem I had with real skin was the stretch, it doesn't come into it with the fake, and not much with the piggy. I like the fake skins from a practical point of view, and when you are learning, it's easier to throw it in the bin when you mess up, rather than your leg. I know some stuff I've done a fake would have drilled a hole in real skin, but just adjust your machine and time in the skin to compensate when you do the switch over.

 

[toetoe62]

i much prefer fake skin than pig skin, if you use Vaseline to get rid of surplus ink you can get them clean but it has got to be the thicker stuff not the cheap thin stuff, that really is a waist of time, if you have a look at some of the members albums you will see some really nice work on pig and fake skin, it's just a matter of getting used to what you are using.

 

[angelH]

+1
:icon_razz:

 

[tubboo]

hi ive only been tattooing about 6 mths but could not get on with fake skins so i tattooed my legs its the best way to understand how to strech or how deep to go i now tattoo family n friends conferdence is every thing i never charge them i just thank them for lending me there skin and they have all come back for more