Fake Tattoo

So being the wonderfully wild child that I enjoy being I got to thinking about tattoos. A friend of mine who is a volunteer for three months here to El Salvador decided she wanted to surprise her boyfriend for April Fool's Day. To me it was totally a no brainer! I suggested doing a fake tattoo to mess with him because he's not really a tattoo person. She thought it was a great idea and so tonight we set to work. Well, being the Pinterest addict that I am, I had seen a fake tattoo tutorial a while back that I had been meaning to try out and thought this would be a great time to try it. Unfortunately it called for a gel pen, which we gleefully ignored as we did not have one. So we set about drawing out the butterfly she had picked out for the special occasion but no dice. The ink just was not taking to her skin for some odd reason. Well, it turns out we were using the wrong pens and so we had to find a new way of doing it. After searching for a bit she happened upon a tutorial for it, but again we were missing a somewhat major component. So we thought about it and decided we would substitute a pen in instead. And so here is how we went about it:

What you need: a rag to clean up, talcum powder, rubbing alcohol, cotton balls/pads, warm water, tracing paper, a pencil, ballpoint pen and scissors

A bottle is also good to have if you're doing one on the wrist to rest on
I accidentally forgot the pencil and ballpoint pen in the picture. Forgive me

 Step one: Draw your design first with pencil. It does not need to be too heavy or thick. You might have to play with the design a bit to get what looks best to you.

 Step 2: Use the cotton swabs/pads and alcohol to clean the area you are going to "tattoo." This prevents oils and things like that from messing up the ink. Wait for it to dry a bit before moving on to step 3.

Step 3: Cut out the design with enough space around it to keep your design in tact then place it where you plan to have your tattoo.

Step 4: Dip the rag in warm water then place it onto your paper for approximately 30 seconds.

At this point you should have a faint outline of the pencil design on your skin

 Step 5: Wipe off the excess water from the surrounding area and wait for the prepped area to dry.  Now using a black ballpoint pen go over the design again carefully. We accidentally used one with a blue tint the first time and that looked bad.

Your "tattoo" should look something like this right now

 Step 6: Pour talcum powder onto the area carefully, trying not to spill everywhere like I managed to do every time.

Now wait for about another 30 seconds to a minute for the talcum powder to set in before wiping it off with your hand or if you have it a makeup brush.

This should be your finished product! 

 Hopefully if all went correctly you should have an at least somewhat legit looking tattoo for a few days. (we're not positive on how long it will last seeing as it will probably vary.)

Our lovely test tattoo