What are the most profitable venues for Airbrush Tattoos?

September 20th, 2010

Here’s a small list of venues you could do airbrush tattoos at. Really the list is endless but basically anywhere there are large crowds you will make a decent profit.

School Fetes – These are Gold! especially if the school hosting the fete doesn’t ask for 100% of the takings. Which unfortunately allot of them do. If you can find some that only ask for a donation or a percentage of your takings then this is ideal!

The beauty of school fetes is there are plenty of them, and parents are always motivated to spend money to support their children’s school! So nearly everyone there will be cashed up to spend money on the day!

Markets – Generally I’m not a big fan of markets because I believe most of the people that attend them are either shopping for plants or fruit and vegies or looking for a bargain. Their not motivated to spend money their prime focus is on saving money.

However there is an exception to this. If the markets are based in a high tourist area then you can do extremely well. Tourists have a different mind set. They have spending money and they are looking for something memorable to do and airbrush tattoos may be just that!

Fares/Carnivals – Similar to the tourist markets carnivals can be very profitable. As long as the organizers don’t allow numerous other airbrush tattoo stalls to setup at the same event. This can be ok  if there will be large numbers of attendees expected. It’s also a good opportunity to outshine the competitors with a more attractive looking stall. Full colour tattoo flash and banners are a good start.

Night Clubs -  This would have to be one of the most overlooked venues for making bucket loads of cash with airbrush tattoos and body art. Usually the managers would welcome you to come along and provide entertainment for their patrons. And with the cost of an alcoholic drink these days people will not think twice about getting an airbrush tattoo! There is a ton of profit just waiting to be made at nightclubs.

Another huge hit for night clubs are the UV airbrush body paint that glows under black lights. These look totally amazing!

Youth Days/ Community Events -As soon as your setup for doing airbrush tattoos you should contact your local council and ask for the department that organizes youth and community events.

Let them know you are available to hire as an entertainer doing airbrush tattoos. They are always looking for unique ways to entertain the kids.

They will want to know what your hourly rate is so make sure you have worked this out before you call them. To get an idea what to charge try calling a few entertainment companies and ask them what it would cost to hire a face painter. Generally you could charge around the same price. Usually they charge about $150 per hour with a minimum booking of around 3-4 hrs. But this could vary from country to country so just do your research first. They will most likely ask you for a brochure or some examples of what you do so they can keep it on file. It’s always a good idea to take pictures of every event you do so you can start building a portfolio.

Corporate Events – Same as the last one except corporations have allot bigger budgets! Best thing to do is call all of your local event companies and let them know what you do. Corporate events are also the most fun to do.

Music Festivals - Usually the most costly to attend however they can also be the most profitable. The crowds are usually huge and they have got money to spend so don’t be afraid to put your prices up at these type of events.

Car and bike shows - These can be great if you are able to work off an existing  stand otherwise the cost for your own stand can be quite high and probably not worth doing. If it’s a rally or something along them lines then costs may be lower but it’s something to check out before you commit yourself.

Sporting Events – Usually these events attract large numbers of people. The best thing to do is get permission from the teams  competing to produce their logo into a stencil. We offer a service to produce custom stencils simply send us over an email along with your logo to info@airbrushing-made-easy.com and we can provide you with a quote.

Getting yourself in a permanent venue is ideal as further down the track you can get someone else to take it over and then set yourself up again at another venue. . By doing this you are duplicating your time.

After one job you should have more than enough pictures to put some promotional material together whether it be a printed brochure or a blog, anything to showcase what you do because most people won’t even know what an airbrush tattoo is. It’s in your best interest to promote it as best you can.

Business cards are a must if you want to build up a referral based business. When attending events it’s a good opportunity to promote yourself to the other guests.

You also need to get a good banner to hang at your stall. Something that’s really colorful to draw people over to you.

Feel free to add any other venues that you may have had success at.

Airbrush Cleaning Tips

July 7th, 2009

If you want optimum performance from your airbrush then you need to make it a priority to keep your airbrush clean.

The most asked question I get from people is “Do I need to clean my airbrush in between each use, ie; multiple times a day?”

The answer to this is no. You really only need to clean your airbrush at the end of each day.

There are a few simple steps that you must follow if you want your airbrush to perform at it’s best.

What solution to use:

To start with you need to know what to clean your airbrush with. This depends on what paint you have used in your airbrush. If you have used a water based paint then you simply clean your airbrush with Water. If you have used a solvent based paint such as automotive paint then you would clean up with a solvent product such as Thinners. If you are using an alcohol based paint such as body paints then you would clean up with Iso Propanol Alcohol or Metholayted spirits.

NUMBER ONE RULE: Never soak your airbrush in  solvent based chemicals.

All airbrushes are made up with lots of tiny rubber seals and if you soak them in a solution such as thinners or metholayted spirits you will ruin your airbrush and you may as well throw it in the bin.

NUMBER TWO RULE:

Always follow the manufacturers instructions.

It is a good idea to refer to the parts listing that would have come with your airbrush to see how your airbrush is put together. So when you remove certain parts for cleaning you know how to put your airbrush back together. Your airbrush may have also come with instructions on cleaning and maintenance so be sure to check them out.

Here is a clip we put together a few years ago showing you exactly how to clean a suction feed airbrush.

Step by Step Airbrush Tribal Tattoo Design

May 18th, 2009

tribaltattoo1

Before you apply your stencil ensure that you clean and dry the skin with iso-propanol alcohol and a clean cloth.

Then position your stencil in place.

tribaltattoo2

Instead of painting the entire tattoo design black I am just going to paint around the outside edges to give it an embossed effect.

To do this I paint around the edge of the stencil and allow the overspray to drift onto the skin.

tribaltattoo3

To add a really cool effect I am using a different type of stencil commonly used in airbrushing called a shield. – This one is called Skull Mania. All I have done is used the small skulls on the shield and painted a few here and there.

This will aslo add to the depth of the design and make it really look like it’s stamped into the skin.

tribaltattoo4

When you’ve added enough detail remove your stencil and place it back onto the backing sheet for re-use.

You can get the idea of how effective this simple technique really is.
You can add any detail that you like. There are many different shields available that will add a wicked twist to your tribal tattoo designs.

www.airbrushingmadeeasy.com

step by step airbrush flower tattoo design

May 18th, 2009

flower tattoo

This frangipenni flower tattoo design is always a hit with the ladies and looks stunning on tanned skin. And the best part is it’s very easy to do.

flowertattoo1

Firstly clean the skin from any dirt and oils with isopropanol alcohol.

flowertattoo2

Ensure the skin is completely dry before applying the stencil

flowertattoo3

Position your stencil in place. Always make sure you follow the natural contours of the body when positioning your design.

flowertattoo4

Apply a good even coverage of white body paint to the entire design.

flowertattoo5

Here I have used Fluoro Yellow body paint just in the centre of the design and applied a blend half way up each petal.

Tip:
Remember to always test your airbrush on the stencil first.

flowertattoo6

Using Fluoro Orange I have painted a large dot in the centre of the design. I do this by starting close to the surface and then gradually bring my airbrush further away. This creates a soft blend up into the yellow.

flower tattoo

How beautifull does this look? And you seen how easy it was to do. You can also do this tattoo design using different colors, like Fluoro Pink body paint and Fluoro Purple body paint. Experiment with all of the fluoro body paint colors, you will be amazed at how effective they look!

Kasakhstan getting tattooed

May 15th, 2009

One thing I love about having an online business is getting to meet people from all over the world. Sometimes I get orders from countries I didn’t even know existed!

The other day I received an order from “Kasakhstan”. For those of you who didn’t know Kasakstan was a real country I’m letting you know it actually is, and it’s situated between Russia and China

If you have seen the movie Borat then you will be familiar with Kasakhstan.

The gentleman named Gulnar who placed the order was kind enough to fill me in a little bit about Kasakhstan. He told me that it is one of the richest countries in the world for  both variety and quantity of its minerals, especally its oil.

He said Kasakhstan is very multinational. They can speak russian and kazakh languages.

As for the movie “Borat”  he claims to have never seen it.  But he said his government has taken it as an insult to kazakh people. Anyway he said “thanks to this movie more people in the world have learned about Kazakhstan.”

So there is a little bit of trivia for those of you who are interested learning about other countries and their people as I am.

And if you ever visit Kasakhstan keep an eye out for our friend Gulnar the tattooist!

(11 year old) Jonathan’s day at the Fair and how he made $590 profit!

May 1st, 2008

I received this email from a customer recently and I thought I’d share it here.

Hi Larissa, Thought you might like to know Jonathan had a fabulous day at the school fair and he made $590 PROFIT!!!  (He paid $30 for the stand)  The fair went from 11am – 4pm.   He donated 10% back to the school. It was a perfect day and we priced the tattoos at 3 levels. Small $2Medium $3.50Large $5 It worked really well as it catered for the kids that came along just with a gold coin and was mostly a $2 coin. At first I was hesitant of charging only $2 but it proved to work really well and then lots of others took the medium and large ones.   Jonathan set all the airbrushing things up himself as soon as we got there and he did from 11am – 2pm airbrushing, then he taught Troy to do it (So Jonathan could go with his friends and have some fun at the fair) and Troy did an hour and a half then Zane took over and did another hour.  Then right near the end we did only $2 ones and there were heaps of people lined up so I said to Jonathan that he needed to take over as he was much quicker than Zane or Troy and he just got through them like anything until the Fair people cut the power off!! The sheet of small tattoos were used so much and some of  the medium ones, that a number of them are no longer sticky so we will have to let you know which sheet and get a new sheet of them. I was there all day (thought I might have had time to read a book every now and then) but I was literally on my feet taking money ALL day!!   It was the most popular stall there! So everyone is very happy with the result.  Just thought you’d love to know how he went. J HugsLorna

what is the best type of airbrush body art paint to use?

April 21st, 2008

When choosing airbrush body art paint the main thing you need to make sure of is that it’s safe to use on the skin. You should always ask for a MSDS which stands for – “Material Safety Data Sheet” from the supplier to make sure it has been formulated to the highest industry standards. The last thing you want to happen is someone getting a reaction to the paint. If you do your research properly you should not have to worry about this ever happening.

Mot people like to start off with just using black airbrush body art paint but to make your temporary tattoos look more realistic you can mix black with navy blue or green airbrush body art paint

If you really want to gain attention with your body art then you can’t go past flourescent colors. They really jump off the skin and look fantastic especially under flourescent lights. You will need to put white airbrush body art paint down as a base coat when using flourescent colors.

The temporary tattoo below was painted using the following flourescent colors; Flouro Blue, green, yellow, red, green, and violet

airbrush body art paint

What is the best type of airbrush body art stencil to use, adhesive or non adhesive?

April 16th, 2008

When choosing an airbrush body art stencil you will come accross a group of people saying the plastic mylar type of airbrush stencils are the best to use and then you will get others saying that the adhesive type of airbrush stencils are the only way to go!

Well there are pro’s and con’s with both types of airbrush body art stencils. I have been in the airbrushing industry for the past 15 years and personally my choice are the self adhesive airbrush stencils because of a couple of reasons. One being that they allow you two free hands to add multiple colours to your temporary tattoos and second the designs can have allot more detail in them as there’s no problem with the small peices sticking up (like with the plastic type of airbrush stencil) Therefore they look more realistic.

As you can see in the picture below these tattoo’s were painted on my back using an self adhesive type of airbrush stencil.

airbrush body art stencil

Now I’m not saying you should only use the adhesive type of airbrush stencil like some other companies will tell you simply because that’s what they sell. I’m just saying that’s what I prefer to use myself and I usually tell all of my customers to try both types of airbrush stencil and make the choice themselves. 

Can anyone really make money doing airbrush body art?

April 10th, 2008

A question I get asked time and time again is “can anyone really learn how to airbrush and make money doing airbrush body art ? ”

Well the simple answer to this is Yes! Because your only using an airbrush stencil it doesn’t take much skill to apply the designs. Your basically just painting between the lines and the stencil does all of the work for you. Saying all that it does take a little bit of practice to get the hang of using an airbrush if you haven’t used one before but you should find that this will only take a couple of hours of practice. I usually tell people after your first event you should be an expert!

Going to shows and making money with airbrush body art really is alot of fun. It’s especially a great money spinner for teenagers.  My two daugters who are now 13 and 15 have their own body art kit and for them making an extra $300 in half a day is just fantastic!

Here’s a picture of my youngest daughter Emily when she was just 11 years old at a school fete.

Emily doing airbrush body art

It’s also a great confidence booster for them. Especially when they know their making more money than their school teacher!