Ever thought about having a cool tattoo but not sure what it will look like?

We’re lucky to be Photoshop friendly, unlike <a class="zem_slink" title="Lil Wayne" rel="imdb" href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1211443/">Lil Wayne (I’d put him in Top Ten Ugliest Tats Ever list).  And history has lots of examples of “unfortunate” tattoos. Like Johnny Depp’s “Winona Forever” tattoo. He had to change it to “Wino Forever” after their break-up. Or like the Game’s famous “star” tat on his face – he had a teardrop before, then changed to a star and now he has an “LA” I guess. Looks so weird.

So think twice before making a tattoo, it’s permanent.  And removing a tattoo is a painful procedure leaving ugly scars on your skin. So before you decide on one, why not design your own tattoo in Photoshop first and see what it will look like?

I’ll give our beautiful R&B diva Beyonce a nice music tattoo. Hope she likes it.

1. Open your photo in Photoshop (Ctrl+O or File->Open…)

2. Open your tattoo image as well.

3. Now Select all (Ctrl+A) on your tattoo image and Copy (Ctrl+C):

<img src="http://blog.amit-agarwal.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/2.jpg" border="0" alt="2" align="bottom" />

4. Now go to your photo workspace and paste it there (Ctrl+V):

<img src="http://blog.amit-agarwal.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/3.jpg" border="0" alt="3" align="bottom" />

5. Select the tattoo layer by left-clicking on it:

<img src="http://blog.amit-agarwal.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/4.jpg" border="0" alt="4" align="bottom" />

Now we need to remove all the white from the tattoo image.

6. Select the Magic Wand tool by pressing W on your keyboard or select from Tools menu:

<img src="http://blog.amit-agarwal.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/5.jpg" border="0" alt="5" align="bottom" />

7. Just below the Main menu you will see options for the Magic Wand Tool. Set as below:

<img src="http://blog.amit-agarwal.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/6.jpg" border="0" alt="6" align="bottom" />

8. Now left-click on the white area on your tattoo image:

<img src="http://blog.amit-agarwal.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/7.jpg" border="0" alt="7" align="bottom" />

9. Press Delete. Here’s the result:

<img src="http://blog.amit-agarwal.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/8.jpg" border="0" alt="8" align="bottom" />

10. Now deselect (Ctrl+D) and with the Move Tool (M) place the tattoo where you want it.

If the tattoo is too large, you’ll need to resize it.

11. Select the tattoo layer. Press Ctrl+T. Now you’re in Free Transform mode. Resize and rotate it:

<img src="http://blog.amit-agarwal.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/9.jpg" border="0" alt="9" align="bottom" />

12. While still in Free Transform mode, right-click on the tattoo and select Warp:

<img src="http://blog.amit-agarwal.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/10.jpg" border="0" alt="10" align="bottom" />

13. Stretch it and distort it just enough to make it look like it’s really on your skin:

<img src="http://blog.amit-agarwal.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/11.jpg" border="0" alt="stretch" align="bottom" />

14. Apply changes by pressing Enter. You should come up with this:

<img src="http://blog.amit-agarwal.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/12.jpg" border="0" alt="12" align="bottom" />

15. Now in the Layers window set properties of your tattoo layer as below:

<img src="http://blog.amit-agarwal.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/13.jpg" border="0" alt="13" align="bottom" />

Here’s the result:

<img src="http://blog.amit-agarwal.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/14.jpg" border="0" alt="14" align="bottom" />

Cool huh? You can add some text as well using almost the same technique. The only different step will be rasterizing your text layer before Free Transforming it:

<img src="http://blog.amit-agarwal.co.in/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/15.jpg" border="0" alt="15" align="bottom" />

I hope you found this tutorial on how to design your own tattoo and test it in photos useful. If you have any thoughts or comments, please leave them here. Maybe you have some interesting ideas for the next Photoshop tutorial? Just let me know. I want to feed you guys with really useful and interesting tutorials and for that I need to know what you really want.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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