Has anyone tattooed leather

[wizard41681]

I am new to leatherwork but have been playing with the tattooing on leather. I find that if you soak it and get it soft then put supper sheen or something like it on it I use two layers let it dry and then put the petroleum jelly you tattoo and wipe of the extra ink little harder than skin and will dull the needle but it works great I am doing a piece tomorrow I will throw a pic up when I am done

[Mokosh]

I know this is an old topic but I thought you guys might be interested to hear my friend and I tried this. She's a phenomenal tattoo artist but the results we got were pretty lame. We both joked about how it ended up looking like the worst prison tattoo we'd ever seen. The tattoo ink didn't want to fully penetrate the leather's surface and just smeared all over the surface. We couldn't properly clear the smears off afterwards.

[Bastiaan]

And another year later..

I hope i can get a little bit of new life in it.

Let me first introduce my project:

I've always been facinated my Berluti shoes: Shoes that have been tattooed or pierced. However, since i've been a student these $2000 shoes are way out of budget. Than the idea came up to tattoo my own shoes. These shoe became the main inspiration:

I contacted a small shoemaker in Mallorca (Spain), which was able to make shoes in raw vegano calf leather for me. A few weeks ago they arrived:

Last week i visited a Tattoo artist with 5 worked pieces of (calf)leather. The first piece (stage 1) was raw unfinished leather. The last piece (stage 5) was fully worked (Dye, renovateur (to feed the leather), crème and wax). The stages in between where partly worked(only dye/dye with renovateur/ dye with renovateur and crème).

Since i’m not known to tattooing at all, and the tattoo artist wasn’t known to tattooing leather, the main goal of the visit was to look if the the tattoo ink would stick on the leather, and if so, at which stage would it stick the best.

The answer on the first question: Yes, the tattoo ink sticks on/in the leather (like expected). According to the tattoo artist, it almost felt the same as on a human skin.

The answer on the second question (at which stage): It doesn’t mather at which stage. You can tattoo your shoes at each stage. The results where the same. Ofcourse i’m not sure yet if the durability of the tattoo is the same at each stage, but at the moment I don’t have any reason to assume there is a difference. After one night I tried to work the tattooed parts with crème and wax (to seal them). Despite of some ink that came of, the tattoo looked the same after the treatment.

During the tattoo process sadly one issue occurred. When you look closely to the pictures you’ll see dark spots around some of the tattooed parts (close uo below). At those parts it looks like the leather soaked too much liquid (dye or maybe water, used when colouring). Different techniques, needles, and depths (of the needle in the leathers) didn’t solve this problem. We couldn’t find a direct cause of the appearing of the spots (when they do and do not appear).

It almost looked like the spots appeared at random, cause at some tattooed parts the spots hardly appeared. My theory is that some of the leather parts are more dry than other parts. These dryer parts absorb more liquid with the spots as a consequence. But like i said this theory is based on my own science ☺. Any other view though is welcome! I new in leather.

My question: How can we reduce the spots when tattooing? Should we work the leather first with something else (maybe some kind of oil?) in order to reduce the spots while tattooing? Or should we use different ink? Now we used the same ink as used for human. Let me know your thoughts on it!

[Beaverslayer]

Well all, I just stumbled upon this topic.

I've been away from my leather work for a while now, but have recently decided to get going with it again.

My oldest son owns his own tattoo parlor just a few blocks away from where I live, and he has graciously allowed me to set up my shop inside his tattoo shop. He keeps watching me do stuff with my leather, just the same as I watch him doing his tattoo work. Then he takes bits and pieces of scrap and asks me if I need this or that. He'll then come back a while later and show me what he's made. He's done a few things, they need a bit of finessing, but he has the idea down.

The other day he asked me if anyone has tattooed leather, and I told him that there were people out there doing it, but they are very secretive about how it's done. So he took a piece of veg tan 2/3 oz and tried to tattoo it just like you would a human. Wiped the area with vaseline (by the way, the vaseline is used to lubricate the needles as they puncture your skin. If you tattoo without the vaseline, it tends to hurt real bad.) then proceded to tattoo.

It seemed to work pretty good until I took a closer look at it. The lines he tattooed into the veg tan actually cut the leather a bit too much. He feels that the reason it did this, was because when you tattoo, you hold the gun on an angle so the needle goes in sideways so to speak. The ink did wipe off clean and no smearing occured.

I'm thinking that the tattooed leather is not done with traditional tattoo ink also, possibly some sort of paint, but not spirit dyes as they would most likely stain as you wiped the excess away.

I've seen quite a few pictures on the net of tattooed leather, and I'm thinking that none of it is veg tan. I'll get a few different types of leather together and I'll get him to have a go at it again. If we do come up with the proper leather, method and desired results, rest assured I will share it openly and maybe even make a tutorial on how to do it.

For me and the type of leather work I do, this could greatly increase business, as well as my sons tattoo business, and seeing as some here have said they also tattoo, it would most likely help you out as well.

The whole spirit of this site as long as I have been here, is to share out knowledge with whomever asks and to help others learn and increase their own knowledge base of leatherworking. So, hopefully over the next week or so, my son and I can figure this out, and it will be shared with all of you.

Edited October 23, 2012 by Beaverslayer

[Bastiaan]

Thanks for your quick response! Thats very interesting.

About the dye/ink. I'm think about using the same ink for tattooing as i use for dying my shoes. Its Called Teinture Francaise from Saphir. Saphir is considered as one of the best shoe-care brand on the market. The dye looks pretty the same as the ink used for human tattooing but it's based on alcohol instead of water. Maybe this will pretend the ink from running out.

About the damage to the leather: I'm not known to tattooing at all, but this happend also to some parts of the leather pieces i used. According to the tattoo artist it happened when she put the needled deeper into the leather, and also when using different techniques (i believe the angle of the needle is included in the technique).

Finally about the leather: I'm not sure if Veg tanned leather isn't suitable for tattooing, since the tattooed shoes i saw on the internet where (as far i know) all veg tanned. But I can be wrong with this one.

I'm curious about your future expierences

Edited October 23, 2012 by Bastiaan

[silverback]

Can tattoo ink be used to colour leather or is it a different composition.i know nothing of tattooing and wondered if the inks were different ie;water based,alcohol or whatever

Edited October 23, 2012 by silverback

[Beaverslayer]

Can tattoo ink be used to colour leather or is it a different composition.i know nothing of tattooing and wondered if the inks were different ie;water based,alcohol or whatever

silverback,

Tattoo "ink" is more a "pigment" than paint, dye or "ink". It does dry out, if left out in the open like paints and dyes.

I was up till 4:30 this morning surfing the web, trying to find as much information on this prior to testing at the tattoo shop. I found a very interesting site regarding a French artist, who covered a Ferrari with leather, then tattooed the leather. It hangs on a wall in his gallery....must be nice to have that kind of money.

I've e-mailed him asking if he could share some knowledge on how he tattooed the leather and what kind of leather it is. My thoughts were, that him not using the process as an income source like the others I found on the net, is that he may be willing to move me in the right direction.

The Ferrari looks like it is covered in some sort of soft leather, as it actually looks like it came out of the factory that way, so my thoughts are it's not a veg tan. I did find one person who tattooed veg tan quite successfully. What he did, was spray the leather with a shellac type product...he did not mention what type or brand...then he totally soaked the leather in warm water and tattooed it just like a human. It looked okay, but he wasn't a tattoo artist by any stretch of the imagination.

There is a company called "Electric Solo" who does solo bike seats and tattoos them. He professes that he spent five years perfecting the process, and will not reveal any secrets. Quite a few of the seats he has done, are on "White" leather, so again this leads me to believe that it's not veg tan, as we all know just how hard it is to dye veg tan white.

I also found another place that tattoos leather furniture, again white leather, and a leather that looks exactly like what is on the Ferrari. And I don't think furniture would be very comfy if it was made from veg tan.

So, back to researching, and tomorrow we'll be at the tattoo shop and try a few things out....wish me luck....

[Beaverslayer]

here is some pictures of the Ferrari. The French artist name is Phillipe Pasqua.

[silverback]

That is art.Good luck with the quest.i was wondering about the tatt inks because a local craft/office supplies store has some tatt inks from China pretty cheap and i wanted to know if they worked as a normal dye on leather as in belts etc.the owner could not tell me but i suppose i should just buy some and try it on some scrap.I was more worried about longevity and fading over time,the colour choice is quite extensive so it could pay to experiment.Being on the west coast of Australia makes it expensive to obtain items so when opportunity knocks you have to grab it.

[Beaverslayer]

silverback,

I'm not sure about using tattoo ink as a dye on leather, and I know for sure I wouldn't let anyone sink Chinese ink into my skin...Tattoo ink tends to be a bit thicker than most dyes, more like a hobby paint, it's longevity would depend on how it was sealed over afterwards.

[Beaverslayer]

Well, regarding tattooing leather, we seem to have figured it out quite quickly.

We tried pigskin....didn't work.

We tried Chrome Tan Calfskin...didn't work

We tried Garment Lambskin...didn't work

So, we tried cased Veg Tanned...work, but the Vaseline kind of screwed it up.

So, what I did was to take a piece of 2/3 oz Veg Tan, put 3 coats of Super Sheen on it.

Once the Super Sheen had dried, I soaked the leather in hot water, until it worked its way all the way through. Had to do this by running hot water over the backside of the leather, as the water would not penetrate the Super Sheen.

We let it sit for about 30 minutes, the proceeded to tattoo just like you would a human. The only step we didn't do, was to use Vaseline. After spending a bit of time adjusting the needle depth and power supply voltage, it worked quite well. The needle on the gun is adjusted for a very short stroke, but the power is cranked up to give a very "Heavy" hit.

The needle we used was a single needle liner and regular tattoo ink. Depending on how good you are with a vibrating tattoo gun in your hand, and making it stop and start with a foot pedal, your results will most likely vary quite a bit. Myself, I don't like the vibrating gun in my hand, it tends to put my fingers asleep because of nerve damage in my arms and hands.

I'm going to invest in a nice rotary tattoo gun, as these do not vibrate like a standard coiled gun does.

Next I want to try tooling something, then tattooing it so it has finer highlights and faded coloring. This could open up a whole lot more options to our wonderful world of leather.

Well below is a picture of what I tattooed, please remember I'm not a tattoo artist so it's not real fancy, but you get the general idea.

[silverback]

Good on you mate,starting to get there!I love it when a plan comes together.

[cem]

Thank you Beaverslayer for the info, I'm still not sure if I'll ever get the time to have a go at it but at least I know how it looks to be done now.

Cheers,

Clair

[Beaverslayer]

cem,

This is only the beginning. Ever since I posted the picture, it's been a constant brain drain about tattooing leather. The Ferrari has me just stumped.

There is no way the artist sealed that entire car, then cased all that leather. Also, the leather on that Ferrari does not look like veg tan.

My son and I (the tattooing son) were at Marks Work Warehouse this evening, and he had picked up a work boot that had the nicest suede type leather on it. He found me and asked my what kind of leather it was, so I told him I thought it was cowhide suede of a very good quality. He then asked me how would we tattoo this leather, because if we put that sealing stuff on it would wreck the leather.

Well, this again started the old brain draining. So, its off to the leather supply store tomorrow to see if we can't find a bunch of scraps of a whole bunch of different kinds of leather, then back to the tattoo shop. I'm going to figure this out, one way or another....

[cem]

Cool, the Ferrari has me stumped as well as it's the best example out there. There was another thread here that I posted on with a lot of links showing examples but as it was fairly old I checked them just now and most have gone and some of these were done by established tattoo artists used to the vibration of a tattoo machine and the Ferrari is still the best.

The Ferrari guy has some brilliant artwork but there are no other examples of tattooed work that I saw, either on leather or people and he doesn't seem have any tattoos himself so I'm just not sure about it without seeing the car in person or at least some better close up photos.

I've seen some other examples of artwork on leather that's being called tattooed just because it's in that style not because it's actually been tattooed by a tattoo machine not saying it is definitely the case here but it could be a possibility. I'd be surprised if any info ever came out on it as fine artists can be even worse that tattoo artists when it comes to trade secrets.

Hope you can find a way to do it, I know once I latch on to something I'm going to get it too work and bug the hell out of everyone until I do family members usually try to make themselves scarce when this happens ha ha ha.

[Beaverslayer]

cem,

Here's a few that are especially good work tattooing on leather. I know "Don't believe everything you see on the internet" but I'm pretty sure these are real.

Undoubtedly artistic, this hand tattooed leather chair is made by the Mama Undoubtedly artistic, this hand tattooed leather chair is made by the Mama Tried studios, run by Scott Campbell, a very renowned tattoo artist.

Here's a solo bike seat by Electric Solo. He states on his website that he spent 5 years developing the method to do this.

Here's a picture of him tattooing a seat. Notice how all the bottles and stuff are all turned so the labels are not shown?

The real nice thing about family in this case, is that family owns the tattoo shop and he wants to figure this out as much as I do.

[MBOGO]

Have to say thank you for really taking the reigns on this Beaverslayer. Though don't see myself buying a gun, and going to town, stranger things have happened and I can see the potential in this.

My thoughts on leather, have you tried one of the waxed upholstery leathers?

On dyes, you said you were working Tattoo dye, have you tried acrylic paints, Tandy cova is marketed to the leather working community, but I know Liquatex is more aimed at the art/painting demo, and is known for density of pigment, and consistancy. There would be a different learning curve with handling, and effects, but I could see where it would be good from a working, and colorfastness standpoint.

Just a couple of cents..

[cem]

Yep I've seen both artists before both do great work, I mentioned Alex (Electric Solos) a bit further back in this thread. The ink he is using is called Stable I only know of it cause they have a distinctive bottle and I had a subscription to the Gnomon Workshop (art video tutorials) for day job stuff at one time and one of the tattoo artists there used it before he made his own brand. Never used it or seen it in person but I've read it's thicker than the other well known tattoo inks which might be a factor in using it for leather.

There is a couple of videos floating around for Scott Campbell and it looks like his stuff is laser etched, for colour stuff laser etched then the coloured ink is rubbed in.

I reckon with your family history you'll definitely figure it as I can see it being a lucrative side business for you guys.

[janaka]

i'm thinking if letting a sheet of veg tan on a steamer where the wrong side continue being moisten without wetting the whole leather, will this help extend workable time for tooling.

[yourmessagesir]

So, I've been following this thread for a couple years now and have been trying to figure this out as well.

I'm studying design right now and for a special class were doing i'm choosing this tattooed leather (I'll use the laser method if I can't figure it out. But based on what I've read here and tried myself I have a huge head start to this.

I'll be getting a few different types of leather as well as treating my own hides then trying out all the methods I have written down ( There's a lot..)

I'll post here what I find out and if I make any progress. Let's hope we can figure this out!

[cjdevito]

Can tattoo ink be used to colour leather or is it a different composition.i know nothing of tattooing and wondered if the inks were different ie;water based,alcohol or whatever

Old post, but I recently talked to a friend of mine who's a tattoo artist about this very question. Turns out most tattoo 'ink' is actually composed of metal oxides. I have to wonder if these would (over time) discolor veg tan in much the way vinegaroon does. If applied as a dye you could expect little to no penetration, the color would just sit on the surface and would be prone to getting scratched off.

I was specifically curious if white tattoo ink might work as a form of white dye, but after talking to my friend it seemed like the results wouldn't be anything worth pursuing.

[yourmessagesir]

So this is what I've done so far with leather and tattooing it.

I figured out how to tattoo it, it doesn't fade, i sealed it. Made my own inks, and right now I'm making a homemade tattoo gun specially for this.

I'm working on tattooing softer leather so that it will work on upholstery and accessories but I think i have that sorted too.

If you know how tattooing human skin works and how the inks work with flesh, as well as knowing how different oils work with leather, it's really quite simple to figure out.

2 weeks of constant trial and error have given me the basics, but I still need to test the fine details and perfect it.

I added a photo of my early attempts.They are really messy compared to what I'm doing now. But it gives an idea of what it looks like

[cem]

Heres someone else having a go http://www.puncturedartefact.com/, looks pretty good to me. After nearly four years this thread has been going it's been great to see what people have been coming up with and that there is still an interest in it here.

[Greybeard]

Wow, what an interesting thread.

yourmessagesir: would be interested to hear the details...

I will give my opinion on the subject....

I am both a Tattoo Artist and a Leather worker (Scrimshander too).

Leather is similar to human skin but it is dead. When doing a tattoo the artist tries to deposit the ink in to the 3rd layer of skin later to be healed over by the body. The tattoo is then visible Under the skin. If you go too deep the lines (ink) will be carried from the point of origin, this is referred to as a a "blow out". If you go to shallow, parts of the ink will be removed during the healing process.

Leather is Dead. There is no healing process, and it is not translucent, so when you puncture the skin for the most part it the design will only be visible at the point of penetration. Most Veg tanned leathers I have worked with have been dried out during the tanning process and need to be oiled. If the leather is dried out then the Ink would spread or seep from the point of origin. This would also allow staining from the wiping process.

I would think that leathers that have been tanned using wax in the process would be a good source, such as harness leathers, etc..

-Pause-

I just tried some Mop-n-Glow on a piece of veg tan (1 coat) with A&D ointment lightly smeared on top. Did a blot test to see if I could wipe without staining the leather, Good. Then tapped a needle thru another blot and wiped, Good.

So, I will try to Oil the leather let it sit for 24 hr, top coat it with Mop-n-Glow, apply A&D and try a simple tattoo.

[dentat2]

im a tattoo artist and i have tried tattooing leather. i used veg tan and to keep the ink from staining the leather i used beeswax mixed with mineral oil and rubbed it in really well then tattoo'd the leather just like i would skin. while its alot tougher than human skin i found i could do a pretty tight design with no problems. as for the ferrari not sure, that looks like alot of work and lots of time.

the tattoo ink in the bottles from the picture above is stable brand ink. its the only tattoo ink that comes in that shape of bottle