Blu

So last semester I did the makeup for a student written show by Virgina Grise called Blu. It was a showed about the lifestyles and the effects of East LA Chicano gang life intertwining with the stories and myth of Aztec culture. Because it was a show about gangs, which meant they needed gang tattoos, I had to tattoo each actor by hand.

We tried different methods, we could not buy premade tattoos since each tattoo had significance to each character so they were designed specifically for each character. We looked into Tinsley Tattoos, but for how many we needed to be made, it would have cost about $3000. We also tried Henna, Airbrush, but none really gave the look we wanted. And home printable tattoo paper was the most awful result ever. The ink was printed on a plastic adhesive sheet which was transfered onto skin by water but oh my gosh it looked PLASTIC and shiny.

So I decided to use tattoo pens, and had to hand do them ever night. These photos are the first batch of trial tattoos done by hand.

These definitely weren't my favorites, but since I didn't have a camera during the run of the show, I only have the trial tattoo photos from someone else's camera. =(