Has anyone tattooed leather

[reddevil76]

I'm sorry but I don't quite understand this. You can't dye or paint living skin, so you use a tattoo machine. But since leather accepts dye and paints, why would you want to use a tattoo machine when a brush could do the job in half the time?

[reddevil76]

I am working on a project now that may interest you. I have a friend/customer that gave me a photo of his dad sitting on a Harley. The photo was taken in 1946. It's a tiny little crappy picture so it took a lot of work to restore it, but here's the picture. After lots of photo manipulation, I was able to come up with this photo. Now, I had it laser etched onto a piece of leather and plan on stitching it to the top of his Tour-Pak like this. I still have quite a bit of work to do, but you get the idea!

That's some great stuff! Wished I have laser etching services here...

[BAD HIDE]

I don't think vaseline would be wise, as it might gum up or react with whatever finish you use after that. I haven't tried it, but possibly some sort of wax based top finish or conditioner. If anyone has any real success with this process, I'd really appreciate any input as to specifics. It's tempting to play with it, but I haven't had time or the products to experiment with.

And as to why, tattooing is what I do. Carving and stamping has limits, pyrography works but lacks color, painting might work, but it lacks the finesse and control with line and shades I can get with a tattoo machine.

[cem]

I'm sorry but I don't quite understand this. You can't dye or paint living skin, so you use a tattoo machine. But since leather accepts dye and paints, why would you want to use a tattoo machine when a brush could do the job in half the time?

Some people just like to try different things and I agree with Bad Hidess take on it. I'm not a tattoo artist myself but I've seen a few tattoo artist at work and have seen the effects they are able to achieve also colour dyes fade and I don't particularly like the look of colour paint on leather and although the laser stuff looks good it's just not what I'm looking for.

Bad Hide I think it's going to be trial and error with whats going to work the artists doing it seem even more secretive of the process than normal tattooing. I was assuming it might just be vaseline as they would have ready access to it and might not be aware of the finishes available for leather but I don't know for sure, if I find anyhting else out I will let you know.

Cheers,

Clair

[reddevil76]

Some people just like to try different things and I agree with Bad Hidess take on it. I'm not a tattoo artist myself but I've seen a few tattoo artist at work and have seen the effects they are able to achieve also colour dyes fade and I don't particularly like the look of colour paint on leather and although the laser stuff looks good it's just not what I'm looking for.

Bad Hide I think it's going to be trial and error with whats going to work the artists doing it seem even more secretive of the process than normal tattooing. I was assuming it might just be vaseline as they would have ready access to it and might not be aware of the finishes available for leather but I don't know for sure, if I find anyhting else out I will let you know.

Cheers,

Clair

Since it seems the only concern is "wipe off", you guys can consider using a resist. The resist if applied sparingly, works only on the very top layer of the leather. And since you are using a tattoo machine, you will actually pierce the leather plus the film of resist on it and the color goes beyond into the fibres itself where the resist does not permeate.

And when you wipe off, the resist protects the other areas where colour is not intended. Just my thoughts.

[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