Practice on fruit. Fruits have a challenging contour that will mimic the clients that sit in your chair for a tattoo, and are cheaper and more readily available than other options. Some fruits that you should consider for tattooing practice:
- Bananas
- Melons
- Grapefruits
Practice on synthetic skin. Synthetic skin is a relatively new comer to the tattooing scene. Practice skin is relatively easy to order from online sources, but many tattooists criticize this false skin as too far from the real thing. Synthetic skin can:
- Be useful for starting out and getting a feel for your tattoo machine.
- Provide you with practice for building your hand strength.
Practice on pig skin for a realistic practice experience. Pig skin is a close approximation of human skin, and can give you a more realistic trial run than you would experience with fruit or synthetic skin. Pig skin is also the traditional practice medium used by tattoo apprentices, and due to its similarity to human skin, will train you to have better control with the depth of your needle.
- Pig skin can be bought expressly for the purposes of tattooing online, but as many butchers end up throwing it out, you might find a cheaper more plentiful alternative at your local butcher.