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What is a Custom Tattoo Stencil and Why are they Important?

Topic: FashionPublished August 8, 2012

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A custom tattoo stencil is the basic tool for a tattoo artist to draw the outline for a tattoo on his client’s skin. It is not used for the entire duration of the tattoo application but is applied temporarily to the client’s skin as a template before the design is permanent. Stencils can therefore be seen as an artist’s blueprint for any tattoo design that guide him on rendering the design perfect with the right line thicknesses and nuances of shading. These blueprints usually contain many basic features of the design but not all its details.

Not all artists use stenciled outlines since they prefer to design the tattoo on to the client’s skin freehand. An artist has to have the particular skill of using this technique of applying the pattern directly onto one’s skin. If he doesn’t, he will use a stenciled outline.

Tattoo lovers, tattoo freaks and artists generally all love stencils, though not all artists use them. It’s preferable to use a custom tattoo stencil for your tattoo than any other type of stencil for reasons given below.

One of the many benefits of the artist using a tattoo stencil is that it makes the design drawing process far simpler than one can imagine. To understand this, you should put yourself in the artist’s place and consider how you would feel if you had to work on a tattoo design without an outline. Obviously, it would mean that you draw from scratch without an outline to help you along, which only makes your job all the more difficult. A stenciled outline does make an artist’s job simpler.

If it takes less time for the artist to ink on the client’s body, it also takes less time for the customer to spend with the artist—a very important factor for clients. In fact, time is a big consideration for artists, too. If you compare the amount of time an artist spends by using a stencil and compare it with the time taken without using it, you can see the time difference between the two. This will explain the advantages of using a custom tattoo stencil.

Besides saving time for the customer, using a custom stencil design also means getting a perfect design—in fact, just the one you want. If you are all set to have a permanent tattoo, this is bound to be a major consideration for you.

One final advantage for both the artist and the client is that with a custom tattoo stencil, you can get the assurance that the lines and curves of the design are outlined and etched perfectly and are just what you want. There are all kinds of people in this world and all levels of fussiness that they will reach to get the kind of detailing in their tattoos that they want. Taking the above factors into consideration, you will realize that using a custom tattoo stencil to outline a tattoo design works well for both tattoo artist and client.

Article author

About the Author

Kristen Dunn is a tattoo enthusiast and professional tattoo designer who has created thousands of thought provoking, elegant, and funky tattoos for her clients. She has a vast collection of custom designs to her credit. Winner of several awards and accolades, Kristen is now a founding member of the world's largest custom tattoo design community at CreateMyTattoo. View her tattoo collection or read more on her blog here.

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