It’s a good product!

I personally had my doubts. It’s impossible to draw on with sharpie and putting on the stencil wasn’t as easy as real skin but…… With a more simple design, I was able to get it on properly an I actually had fun! I was about an hour into it before I realized I could turn the hand around to my point of view! It takes wash lines very easily and whites are easy to manipulate. All in all, it’s a good product and I’d recommend it. As far as benefits…. I can’t tattoo these things and sell them as a new medium of art. A more affordable alternative to a real tattoo to a collector but so far, I like giving them to my kids.

Fun experience

Working on APOF was a fun experience; I’ve never tattooed anything other than human skin, so I was surprised to find striking similarities when I was tattooing the silicone hand. For example, ink staining, over-working, stretching the skin (on the pliable knuckles) and my hand motion. Once my (coil) machines were turned up, I had very similar results to tattooing on real skin. I approached the piece the same way I would a normally do a bio-organic tattoo on a client– sharpie drawing on the skin, a series of color/texture layers, and finally a clean outline and white highlights. I think it’s a great product for not only beginners in their apprenticeships to get used to maneuvering their hand/machine on a life-life body part, but also for experienced tattooers looking to experiment with new techniques and wander outside their comfort zone. APOF definitely has enough realistic qualities for an apprentice to practice on before diving into real human skin, and those same characteristics are great for professionals to have some fun and push the envelope with either their own preferred style (like I did) or try something totally foreign to them.