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.

How wicked does this look? You will totally blow away your mates if you have this tattoo design plastered on your arm. They will definalty be fooled into thinking this is a real tattoo.

It’s a little bit more of an advanced techniques however with some good instruction and a bit of practice anyone can pull this off.

Can you imagine the look on everyones face when you start pumping these types of tattoo designs out? This is one way you can get the edge over your competition. No where else will you find step by step instructions on how to create these cool tattoo designs.

As usual clean and dry the skin thoroughly with isopropanol alcohol.

Then dry the area with a clean cloth.

Instead of using the negative part of the stencil we are going to use the positive section. So start by postioning your tattoo stencil in place.

To begin with I simply paint around the outside of the tattoo design. I do this by painting along the edge of the stencil allowing the overspray to drift onto the skin.

This is where the real fun begins. I am going to add some wicked skulls around the outside of my tribal tattoo design.

I am using a shield called Skull Mania.

To emphasise the tribal tattoo design I am going to paint around the edge of the entire stencil again. This will make it reall pop out and make the skulls look even deeper.

Carefully remove your stencil and palce it onto the backing sheet for re-use.
Then watch everyones jaws drop in amazement!!

To purchase skull templates visit www.airbrushingmadeeasy.com

Then position your stencil in place.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

Ensure the skin is completely dry before applying the stencil

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

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

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.

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.

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!

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!

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

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

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.

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. 

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.

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