Photoshop Body art, REALISTIC Tattoos

I wanted to post a Tutorial using the techniques that I have already covered, Layer use and Colour Balance as well as use of the transform tool.

I start by opening my  photo in photoshop..

Photo by Joey.

Click to Enlarge.




If you notice, the Model already has a tattoo of two stars.. That is a good thing because it gives me a REAL tattoo to base my fake tattoos on (colour wise).

Next, I select the Brush tool as shown in the image on the left, the brush I select is just a custom brush preset which you can download from various sources on the internet, or follow my tutorial here.










*Note the colour I chose, that was based on the tattoos already on the image.. However if an image does not have any real tattoos to base your selection off, then it depends on what colour you want for the tats. (I choose black mainly)


Brush on the Tattoo in the general position you want the tattoo. (best to use different layers as having multiple brushes on one layer makes it harder to work with later on in this tutorial)

To match the Colour I do two things. 

First I change the Opacity of the layer, best to do this by eye as its all down to preference.

Then I adjust the Hue and Saturation of the Layer the tattoo is on.. again this is preference, I tried to get the colour as close to the original tattoos as possible.
(if you need help with Hue and Saturation, go to my tutorial here)








Next, I need to make sure both the layer containing the tattoo as well as the hue and saturation layer are both selected, so click one layer, hold ctrl and click the next layer, then to go to Edit->free transform, rotate the Tattoo and perfect the placement, Later I will show some more complex ways of shaping the tattoo to look realistic but for a simple design and the placement both allow me to get away with minimal editing.

Only slightly changed the angle of the Star I added.

Next I create a new layer and Brush on another custom Brush preset.
A good way to make a tattoo appear real in photoshop is by using the blend mode dropdown menu on the layer tab. I prefer Multiply, but  if you prefer another setting, use that.

Another way to make a tattoo look realistic is to use the blur tool but first I am going to use edit->transform->warp to warp the tattoo into the shape of the models body.

Now that I have positioned the tattoo where I want it, I go to filter->blur-> Gaussian blur and set the 'Radius' to 0.5 pixels.. then press ok.

The final image looks like this

This realistic tattoo through photoshop tutorial was done by The Photoshop Sensei

Any request, feel free to leave a comment.