Laser Tattoo

Step 3 Find your pain tolerance

Test your pain tolerance using different settings on the laser cutter.

The jolly roger wingdings tattoo below was done using the highest power setting, and around 70% speed. While the pain was tolerable, it burned so deep that after a gentle rubbing the skin completely peeled off.

EXTREME EXFOLIATION!

The final settings I used were 90% power and 90% speed.

Strong enough to burn, but quick, so that it does not penetrate deep enough for the skin to instantly peel away afterward.

Comments

[zapper067]

this is dangerous and is not very suitalbe as a instructable.People may hurt themselves with this

[agemma]

Pshh try tattooing with an arc welder then come talk to me

[Skwaab]

Your comment made my day.

[hintss]

is skin conductive enough for that?

[IT_Daniher]

> is skin conductive enough for that?
Yes, skin is conductive enough.

> Pshh try tattooing with an arc welder then come talk to me
I'd advise against it, unless you'd like to look like this:
http://itdnhr.com/static/itdnhr-2007.jpg.

Plasma cutter accident. Lost a good chunk of my left hand.

[-5nip3-]

Does it hurt?

[stoneodaugherty]

hurts less than tattoos. only a couple of seconds instead of hours. the laser thing though IS a bit extreme

[The Ideanator]

Absolutely not! Though I have no access to laser cutters, I have done it with soldering irons, its fun, you should try holding it there to see how long it is before you pass out from the "fun"

[-gabe-]

"Fun" being a completely relative term >_>.

[The Ideanator]

Indubitably.  

[Rotten194]

Naw, burning skin off is fun!

[zascecs]

Sure it doesn't.....

[Kazeem]

has he not said it hurts a hell of a lot about 5 times already?

[vomit_pail]

any pictures of the tattoos today? i am curious as to how they heal.. or, rather, scar.

[Andyman_perth]

Hey mate, great job on this!!!! I thought I was being innovative etching my name on my lunch :) Laser tatts... BRILLIANT!!

I was in the lab within 15 minutes and I have quite a nice smiley graphic on my finger. I'm dreaming up the next graphic for next week.

What I think is IMPORTANT here is to make mention of you power settings. These are very vague and NO ONE should try these settings on their skin.

You didn't mention the wattage or DPI setting of your setup. I have a Versa with a 30W tube and I run at 1000 DPI for everything. I used 20% power and 90% speed. I know my laser well enough to know that if I tried your settings it would have some real damage.

People get a piece of leather or cardboard to try out on first. You do need to burn in 'generously' to get some scarification. I did a light one and a dark. The light one has exfoliated out over the weekend. The dark one has some very nice contrast.

Try your first one out on finger tips. If it screws up it will exfoliate out. I tried smearing some ink. Didn't seem to do anything.

For everyone else out there shocked by this, TNT's ULS and my Versa are both CO2 lasers. That is, it is infra-red beam. Its is just a thermal process, no UV or similar. The way it works is it heats material up to the point where it combusts and vapourizes. In fact, CO2 lasers are safer than visible lasers with respect to eye safety. A visible laser will cook the cones at the rear of the eye; IR laser will cook the front of the eye which is repairable.

ps. TNT, your laser is filthy dude. That looks like condensed acrylic on the flat table. That sh*t is poison dude. Dont be lazy with that stuff, use the cutting grid.

[Tetranitrate]

Oh man, I never expected anyone to actually do this. I guess the reason I was a bit vague on the settings was because I figured anyone with access to a laser cutter would know their own machine much better than I would. If someone does not know what settings to use for their machine, than they should definitely not be doing this. The specific model I used was the Epilog Mini. It is a 45 watt laser.

[Nyanman]

I WAS RIGHT!!!! CO2 LASERS ARE WHAT YOU SHOULD USE!!!!!!!!

[sonaps]

woot, congrats then

[Nyanman]

^yay:)