Suggestions for a technique to software post process a tattoo, onto a model's skin, where none existed before?  Has anyone even seen this done successfully?

Thanks.

I know it's not going to help you but the next time you want good looking fast Tats go with the Iron on ones.  I saw a guy with one the other day looked real enough.

PS could be a pain post process.

In a magazine article I read a "how to" in Photoshop of putting a flag over someone's fact and have it look like it was painted on. Offhand I recall that you have to create a displacement file so that the image you want "painted" has a 3D look, and the image layer had to be in "soft light" mode.

I'll try to remember to bring the mag in tomorrow and post the tutorial here. You can probably adapt this technique to creating a virtual tattoo. You'll probably have to use the warp tool in order to shape the tattoo more realistically.

Tony

Hmmm     fun idea

OK, I have the magazine tutorial. The magazine is "Photoshop Creative," a British import, and it runs about $15 US (does include a CD). The tutorial is on pg 74 of the current issue (11).

The poster asks how to create in Photoshop the painted faces w/ the national flags as seen at the World Cup. In a nutshell, here is how to do it:

1) Open the image, ideally the face (or other body part/whatever) will have both shadow and highlight detail.
2) Duplicate the layer and desaturate it (Image > Adjustments > Desaturate)
3) Increase the contrast (Image > Adjustments > Equalize) of the image and blur it slightly (Filters > Blur > Gaussian w/ value of 2.2)
4) Save this blurred grayscale as a displacement map (Save As > filename.psd)
5) Delete the top layer - no longer needed
6) Create a new layer that will hold the image to be tattooed / painted; load the image / creat it and position it where you want it to be
7) Make the painted image active, then Filter > Distort > Displace; set the horizontal and vertical displacement to 5 each instead of the default 10; then load in the displacement.psd file you created in step 4
8) Change the displaced image layer mode to Soft Light w/ a 74% opacity; use a soft edge eraser to remove portions of the displaced image where it doesn't belong - such as over eyes, teeth, hair, etc. (You can also use a Layer Mask to do this with better control.)

I've tried this a couple of times, but I don't think that I had a proper photo w/ good shadows and highlights. If you want to fake the look of a tattoo, say over a thigh, you may also need to use the warp tool to bend the tattoo so it follows the curve of the skin.

Tony

What about a makeup artist who does airbrush tattoos?  I am sure there are places where you can get custom made stencils...

http://www.tatstore.com/

^they have a section that says custom stencils.... not sure if it is what you need though...

I'd say spend the money on a good MUA and have them create one