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Skin Cyanotype Tattoo

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Zarraboy

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Med. Format Pan
Has anybody tried to print a cyanotype on skin? I mean, the original formula does not seem to be too toxic, so i was wondering if the sensitizing solution would make a nice layer on the skin after dried, enough to have a medium format negative contact printed on to it. Just wondering.
 
I wouldn't suggest it. It's not very toxic and probably less toxic when processed but the prussian blue will probably very easily come off.

And you might get an odd tan mark tattoo from the UV + negative instead...
 
Would this mark be indelible?
 
Wouldn't you have to put the sensitiver actually under your skin to make it a tattoo? Not sure how you would do that. And err how would you keep good contact with the negative?
 
I think that's a cool idea.. GO FOR IT.

You could also tape some negatives on your body and go suntanning. I think I'll try that next summer...
 
You might want to watch [video=youtube;RVqrxWHRcV0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVqrxWHRcV0[/video] before doing any large contact prints...
 
Cyanotype tattoo sounds like a volunteer for the Darwin awards. Would you like me to send you a dull rusty knife so you can castrate yourself and save the world from your gene pool?
 
I like the idea of going for the tan.......wonder how many days I'd have to have a 5x7 negative taped to my bald head....:smile:

Regarding the cyanotype....I can't comment on the toxicity, but I can say that I seem to have blue stains all over my darkroom even though I don't do that many cyanotypes.
 
I think that's a cool idea.. GO FOR IT.

You could also tape some negatives on your body and go suntanning. I think I'll try that next summer...


avedon used the sun to tatoo a negative on himself.
he seemed very proud of this accomplishment when interviewed many years later.

Cyanotype tattoo sounds like a volunteer for the Darwin awards.


i worked for the igNobel awards back in the 1990s,it was A LOT of fun.
some of my portraits appeared in "The Scientist" magazine.
 
Cool replies and cool video, Paul! Thanks for sharing. I´m kind of immune to Darwin awards at this moment, my creative genes have long been passed on to a new generation... :smile:). By the way, who is Avedon?
 
I don't think it'd be indelible... for a tattoo to be permanent, it has to go into the lower layers of the skin. The top layers, that would soak up things like chemicals, eventually come off in the form of dead skin that your body constantly renews. Short of obtaining a third degree burn and then cyanotyping over that (which I DO NOT recommend, third degree burns are serious business but it's making the point about how deep the pigment has to go into the skin...), it wouldn't work.

If you're really interested in having a tattoo done, I'm sure you can get prussian blue pigments (though there's probably better ink/pigment choices) and most tattoo artists can do a direct photocopy of whatever you want and then transfer it to your skin and tattoo through that with a proper tattoo needle and ink. The biggest problem with transferring photographs to the body is... the body moves. It grows, it sags, it's three-dimensional not flat like a piece of paper, the skin and cells constantly renew itself and you get very slight jostling of the ink. It will eventually get a little bit blurry over the years. I've learned that with just the past 10 years of having my tattoo.
Also would be wary about the suntan/sunburning idea but only because I was very unfortunate as a child, in my little stroller, falling asleep with my hand on my knee and for years and years and years, and as i grew up, i developed a "monster print" on my knee. It *might* not be noticeable now that I'm 28 but it was when I was a teenager and I don't tan much in the first place. Again, skin sags, moves, etc. you may end up with an ugly square with a blob in the middle.

Mark Fisher - you'll probably find that a "magic eraser" which is a very very very microscopically fine abrasive, will get rid of all your blue staining except for anything that has sunk into porous materials. Prussian blue is a solid material suspended in water/liquid but very fine... so it can appear to stain but it's not very hard to get out of non-porous materials like plastic trays etc.
 
Excellent Heather, thank you. I was obviously asking about something to be done just to go to a party and then washing away when back home. I do have real tattoos and i thoroughly understand about the skin layers. My main concern was about the toxicity.
 
The biggest problem with transferring photographs to the body is... the body moves. It grows, it sags, it's three-dimensional not flat like a piece of paper, the skin and cells constantly renew itself and you get very slight jostling of the ink. It will eventually get a little bit blurry over the years.

A delicate humming bird on the breast can turn into a condor later in life! :laugh:
 
Using a strong alkaline soap/cleanse should get rid of any blue stains in your darkroom. Cyanotypes fade with exposure to alkaline.
 
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