Vinyl Tattoo Project

Designing my Vinyl Tattoo

Designing the Tattoo:

For our first project, I wanted to make sure it was unique, so I went on Pinterest and looked up illustrative and geometric tattoo designs. I found a bunch of designs I liked, mostly pertaining to aliens and skeletons, so I thought to combine the two. I found a design pretty similar to what I wanted, and got to tracing the design. I had some difficulties with this at first, due to the fact that all of my lines were just single lines and didn't join in any way. When I had our professor look over my design, he said he really liked the design but that I needed to go back and join all of the lines. I guess in my head I didn't realize that all of the lines had to be joined, because it was going to go through the printer. A couple other classmates had this issue too, so we went back to work fixing our designs. My tattoo design was essentially all made out of lines, so it took me a pretty long time to go back and fix everything. I still made one or two mistakes though, because when it came time to print, I had either one or two lines through parts of the design, but I just tried to make it look as seamless as possible. I printed my design in four different colors, but only ended up using two. I printed the design in gold, black, cream, and teal. When I had the designs physically in my hands, I got to work with my X-ACTO knife, trimming away all the pieces I didn't want. The project's goal was to stick it on your laptop cover, but I wasn't too keen on that idea due to the fact that I already had a case covered in stickers, as well as a marble designed case. I didn't want to put the design straight onto my laptop either, so I thought of a different idea. I went to Michael's and got a really nice piece of wood to put my design on. I had finished the teal print, but I thought with the wood background, the gold would look better so I cut that design out. It took me at least an hour to cut out each design. I put the vinyl on transfer tape, and got to work flattening it out with my App card. This was pretty difficult for me, it wouldn't stick to the tape! I had to work at it for about ten minutes. Then, I put it on the tape and transferred it onto the piece of wood. My first project was complete!

What Could I Have Done Better?

With this project, I didn't really expect the deadline to come up on me so quickly, so I definitely could have managed my time better. I also could have started out with joining all of my lines, instead of making them all single lines. I guess I was still trying to get the hang of Rhino so it took me a lot of revision to get the design printable. The dimensions of the design is another thing I could have done better. The project was too big to even put on my laptop if I wanted to do that. 

Aspects of the Project I was Happy With:

Overall, I was really happy with my first project. It was difficult to work on the project, while also doing a couple homework assignments. I liked the wood piece I put the vinyl project on, so I enjoyed that part of the project (I still have it on my wall hanging up). I like that if I ever wanted to change an aspect of the project, I also could do that. When we were doing the critique, a couple people complained about the color of the wood being too light, so if I ever wanted to darken the color with a wood stain I could do that. I also could paint in between the vinyl pieces and remove the vinyl to create the design with paint. 

What Would I do Differently in the Future?

If I ever had to recreate this project by using vinyl, I would know how to properly join the lines so the printer would be able to work correctly. I would also make the dimensions the proper lengths, so that I would have more options of what to put the design on. I would work more diligently and not procrastinate if I were ever given a project like this again. 

What did I Learn from the Project?
I learned that you could trace over an image to help create the design of it. I learned how to better make use of layers, each section goes into a layer. I also learned how to work with transfer tape, and how it can be difficult at times. I also improved my X-ACTO knife skills, and was able to cut out all of the pieces I didn't want very quickly and without messing any of the vinyl up. I also learned that you can get a little more creative and pick an object for the vinyl to go on that's not the basic laptop, cup, or folder.