Amazon Tattoo Practice Skin Review

*Price at time of publishing

These skins are cost-effective and easy to get, but they’re thin enough that they make practicing tattooing very difficult.

Video Transcription: Amazon Tattoo Practice Skin

What is up everybody. I hope you're having an amazing day today. And today I'm going to be going over Amazon fake skins. I just got these in the mail and just looking at them. I could already tell that I am not going to enjoy these at all, but I'm going to do a review on them. So you don't have to go through 

The pain of trying to tattoo these. So I've gone through and compared the difference between tattooing these fake skins off Amazon, and then real skins or different brands like that before, but I didn't actually have the chance to tattoo these. So I made sure I ordered some just so I could show you on video exactly how different they are. And obviously if you're having issues with your line work or tattooing, doing your shading with these fake skins, you'll be able to see exactly if it's the fake skins or something that you're doing wrong. And if it's something that you are doing, then you could look at a couple other videos that we have out to help you along your journey. If it's your first time here, I'm branded from tattooing 1 0 1 and make sure you are liking and subscribing down to low. So you could keep up to date on all the new videos we make each week, especially if you're getting into tattooing for the first time, or just wanting to step your tattooing up to the next level. Okay. Before I get into actually tattooing these fake scenes, I wanted to show you just a visual of how different they actually are. 

So just feeling this when it's really hard to try to stretch it out, it doesn't feel like the real skins I buy at all. And it's definitely not like human skin. You could see how thin that stuff is. You know, it's like a millimeter thick. So if you practice on this and try to jump on to actual human skin, you're just going to be touching that top layer, um, and not getting into the DMI, the second layer of skin, where all your ink needs to go in order to have a, a tattoo hold up in the human body. So that's one thing right off the bat that you definitely wanna think about. If you are buying these off Amazon, another thing would be if you are first starting out and just wanting to practice with your machine, things like that, get used to holding your machine. 

You know, if you wanna save some money by all means, go for this method. Um, just because you're not trying to do perfect tattoos, you know, you're just getting used to holding your machine correctly. Um, you know, getting your three points of contact, all of those things down before jumping on to trying to actually tattoo things, you know, for that purpose, I'm sure these will be fine, but if you're trying to, you know, do actual tattoos or something like that, it would definitely be worth getting some sticker stuff. And I'll show you the real skins held up side by side. So you could see the actual difference. So the real ends, you could see that they're actually quite thick. And I would say that this is about three times more thick than this, which gives you the ability to, you know, practice on your depth and making sure you are going the correct depth in the skin to hold up a tattoo through the human body, which is very important if you're getting into tattooing. 

Okay. Another thing is with the real skins, obviously you could Atum, they're a lot more stretchy. It feels like actual, you know, human skin, way more than this stuff. This has more of a plasticy feel to it than this does. You know, there's just not the elasticity elasticity to it with this one. So the next thing we're going to check is how a stencil actually holds up to this stuff. I've never put a stencil on this. So I just wanna see if it's the same or worse than actual real skins. And obviously in other videos, you see me put stencils on real skins. So you know exactly what it looks like whenever I do it that way. Awesome. So we're going to apply the stencil and see how it goes. I'm gonna be using a speed stick. As the other video, I did a review on using this for fake skins only, and it worked out way better than I thought it was. So I'm gonna be using this. All right. Let's put the stencil down, Man. This stuff is so weird. 

Okay. So it actually works way better than the real skin when it comes to the actual stencil. Um, you could clearly see that it went on there just about perfectly, um, way better than I've ever done on actual real skin. So when it comes to like the stencil process, I would say that these are better, which is really surprising to me. So awesome. We're let this draw and then we could get into actually tattooing this and a little question while we wait, would be, what is your best and worst experience whenever it comes to tattooing these cheap fake skins? Um, did it work for you or was it a terrible experience? I wanna know how yours went. So if you wanna comment down below and just let me know. Okay. So let's get into the actual tattooing process. Now for this, I'm going to be using a, a nine round liner. 

So this is in between. It shouldn't have an issue with, you know, it being so small, it cuts into it or too big that it's not gonna make a clean line because of how many needles there are. So I just chose in between that it should have no issue being able to penetrate the skin. And with this, you wanna remember that this is so thin. You don't wanna go too far into this. You don't wanna tattoo this. Like you be tattooing real skins or actual human beings because you'll be straight drilling into your table underneath. So I'm gonna go super light. And, you know, after tattooing for 13 years, it's probably gonna be really hard for me to go light enough that I'm not going into my table. So I'm going to do my best. Yeah. So I'm barely going into this skin at all, Which I will say, it's, it's going into the fake skins better than I thought it was going to be. But like I said, you just have to go really, really light. I guess this stuff would be great if you're trying to just work on keeping consistent, you know, working on your three points of contact and staying smooth with your tattooing and trying to get rid of shakes because you're just very lightly going over everything. Um, so you're just working on a tip of your needle. So if you're working on this, I guess this would work really great for that. 

If this is all you're working on, it would be really hard to jump from this to tattooing actual human beings because your tattoos are not going to be going into the skin enough to, you know, have it hold up and create a good tattoo. All right, let's speed this up so we can get to actually shading this thing. 

Awesome. So another we're all cleaned up. We could take a look at the linework. Um, so this would be really great if you're trying, trying to get used to just keeping your needle consistent the whole way through, if you're working on your depth, um, things like that, not necessarily for trying to get the appropriate depth for the actual human skin, but just getting used to holding your needle on things like this. This would work great for it. Um, you know, it's cheap. You could get a ton of it. Um, it's right on Amazon, but you know, after tattooing, I definitely wouldn't recommend it. If you were trying to, you know, get to the points where you're trying to tattoo on actual people, I'm just gonna lift this up to see that I didn't drill through, you know, the table, which I didn't, which is awesome. Um, but very, very close. You could see that, you know, in order to get good line work, you have to just barely get to the other side. You know, you could see that it, you could see the design right here. So it was very, very close to going through. Now let's do a little bit of shading and see how it works for that. 

Let's try some black shading first, you know, how I'd normally do traditional. So yeah, so it's going in pretty light, you know, this is strip black and it's looking more like, you know, a gray tone. So that's one thing you wanna think about, um, which is weird. Cause normally they go in super dark 

On like real skins or something like that. Yeah. So I'm just doing some shading around seeing how it works. Is it actually packed in there pretty well? Um, you know, definitely not the same as it would be on actual human skin by any means, but better than I thought it was gonna be 

Awesome. 

So we'll speed this up. This isn't a video necessarily on shading. If you were looking for like shading practice or anything like that, we have plenty of videos on here for that. So let's skip through, and then I'll tell you at the end exactly how I liked it. 

So after tattooing this stuff, I could clearly say that if you are someone that's wanting to do this as a career, this is not the stuff for you. You know, if you're just trying to practice and mess around and see if this is something that you want, um, you know, by all means by this stuff, but you're probably gonna end up getting frustrated and buying, uh, real skins or something a little bit better anyway, because it is really annoying to work with just like things like my needles, keep getting caught on this and I have a four stroke machine. So, you know, I should definitely have this stroke to be able to do some shading without my needles getting caught in there. And for some reason it's still getting caught up probably because what this is made out of. Um, yeah, it's just having issues where it's like actually holding onto the needles or something, whenever it's going, which is crazy. 

Um, real skins doesn't do that. And it's just one extra thing that makes tattooing this stuff annoying. So yes, for this, if you are wanting to tattoo for a living or trying to learn exactly how to tattoo, do not buy fake skins off Amazon, it is, it's just not worth your time. You might save a little bit of money, but you know, in this career, if you want to create good tattoos, you do have to fork out the money to be able to do that. Um, you know, buy good equipment, buy quality. That's going to last a while. And especially if you are learning, you want to buy the best things that you possibly can in order to grow. And 100%, if you can't afford a great tattoo machine right now, but want to learn, definitely buy the cheaper machine. Um, I'm not saying buy, you know, the cheapest machine out there, but buy a mid quality machine and get yourself some better fake begins to work on. 

This is going to be a game changer for you if you are using these right now. Awesome. So yeah, after tattooing this, I don't want to ever see these things again in my life. So like I said, make sure you're buying the quality fake skin so you could learn appropriately for what you're doing. What you're learning to do is tattoo on actual people. Eventually when you get to that part of your career, I hope this was able to help you get eyes out and knowing exactly what you need to buy when it comes to like fake skins. Cuz there are a ton out there and the quality is night and day, uh, 100%. So yeah. Thank you guys for watching so much and make sure you are liking and subscribing down below. So you could keep up to date on videos like this. We come out with each week as always. I hope you guys have a wonderful day.

Our Score

5.0/10

AVERAGE

Price: $21.99 (9/10)

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 These skins are pretty cheap and easy to get off Amazon, which makes them accessible to new artists on a budget.

Quality (4/10)

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 These fake skins will work for you if you want to see if you’re interested in tattooing or if you want to practice tattooing at a consistent depth.

However, they aren’t actually thick enough for you to practice tattooing at the correct depth, and they don’t stretch like human skin or a more premium tattoo practice skin like ReelSkin.

Handling (4/10)

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For a practice skin, it doesn’t feel much like human skin. So, it isn’t the best option for artists who want to eventually make the jump to actual clients, because it will feel very different.

On top of that, our needles got caught while shading, and it was difficult to keep from going all the way through the skin while lining because it is so thin.
PROS:
  • These are easy to get ahold of and are on the cheaper side for tattoo practice skins (about $1/piece).
  • They’re great when it comes to transferring stencils.
CONS:
  • This practice skin does not prepare you to make the jump to actual human skin since you cannot practice getting the right needle depth.
  • The sheet is so thin that it’s easy to go all the way through and damage your needles on the table below.
  • Stiff synthetic skin doesn’t allow you to practice stretching the skin.

Product Details

Brand

Yuelong

Thickness

1.2 mm

Size

6”x8” per sheet

Product Details

Brand

Yuelong

Thickness

1.2 mm

Size

6”x8” per sheet

Amazon Tattoo Practice Skins - Our Review:

While this isn’t the best tattoo practice skin, you can get it at a good price if you want to try out tattooing for the first time, or if you want to learn how to carefully control your tattoo machine. However, we don’t recommend it as practice for actual human skin. If you’re serious about practicing your skills for clients, you’ll need to purchase a more premium fake skin.

tattoo artist holding up a blank tattoo practice skin

Ultra-Thin Tattoo Practice Skin

One of the most important things that you must get right in tattooing is your needle depth. Going too deep in the skin will cause blowouts, while going too shallow will make your tattoo fade incredibly fast. 

Because these skins are about 1mm thick, you can’t get very good practice when it comes to needle depth. You would normally be at a depth of around 1-2mm, depending on your client. If you were to try to tattoo at the correct depth, your needles would go right through this fake skin and get dull from hitting the table beneath. 
tattoo artist comparing worst and best tattoo practice skins

Even though you can’t practice hitting the right depth with these skins, you can practice keeping a consistent depth, though you’ll need to adjust the depth when you move to more expensive practice skins and real human skin.

Great Stencil Practice

One of our biggest complaints with fake skins is that it’s very hard to get a nice, dark stencil on most practice skin brands. However, we had no issues getting a great stencil here.

practice tattoo skin for new tattoo artists

On top of stencils, you can still practice using three points of contact and doing ultra-light shading techniques on these skins. However, we don’t recommend them for more advanced tattoo practice.

Tough Material

When you’re working with practice skin, you want it to be as close to real human skin as possible. While there’s currently no fake skins out there that are 100% perfect, working with this tough rubber practice skin was much more difficult than it would be with brands like ReelSkin or Frankenskins.

tattoo skin practice skull

The silicone was very tough, which makes it hard to practice stretching the skin correctly. It was hard to get ink into, which meant even plain black ink looked a little lighter than normal. Additionally, it felt like the skin was “holding on” to the needles while whip shading.

Who the Amazon Practice Skin Is (and Isn’t) For

Like most low-priced supplies and tattoo kits, this practice skin is good for people who want to try out tattooing for fun, or for artists who want to see if tattooing is for them. 

It isn’t for tattoo apprentices, beginners who know they want to make tattooing a career, or artists who are using practice skin to build their skills or try new techniques.

Get the Amazon Tattoo Practice Skins

skull on fake tattoo skin
fake tattoo practice skin

Other Tattoo Supply Reviews

Dragonhawk Complete Tattoo Kit Review

Frankenskins Tattoo Practice Skins Review

Hawink Tattoo Ink Review

Dragonhawk Complete Tattoo Kit Review

Frankenskins Tattoo Practice Skins Review

Hawink Tattoo Ink Review

Dragonhawk Complete Tattoo Kit Review

Frankenskins Tattoo Practice Skins Review

Hawink Tattoo Ink Review

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AUTHOR
Nathan Molenaar

Nathan is a licensed professional tattoo artist with over 8 years’ experience working at studios across the globe, including Celebrity Ink, the world's largest tattoo studio chain.

When he's not tattooing, he spends his free time sharing his experience and knowledge with aspiring artists who dream of pursuing a career in the tattooing industry.

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