Got my Airbrush System Yesterday!!! How many here do airbrush??

Ok! I took a phenomenal class and spent hours in the A/B room at FABAIC. Paul Roustan is an awesome artist and spent one on one time with me looking at my system, instructing me and answering my gazillion questions.

I spent $100 on a top feed or gravity feed Iwata Revolution gun per Alex Hansen's (who I love!!!) recommendation. It made a huge difference!!! YAY!!!! A work horse gun that just keeps going!!!!!!! Easy to understand, easy to clean!!! Woo Hoo!!

I spent $100 on Wolfe FX EB Flow alcohol based paints. They do flow nicely throught the guns but..... they must be a hybrid type ink as they did not last on any of my test subjects more than 2 and a half days and washed easily off with soap and water (huh?). Nice paint but not really the preferred paint for tattoo airbrushing.

I learned :

=how to properly clean my brushes (which parts to put in 91% alcohol when/if you don't have time to clean at gig)
=free hand strokes and control
= that sometimes you need properly thin your paint to get that proper flow
= about overspray!!! (whoops!!)
= that using the bottom feed gun may mean you need slightly higher psi to push the paint out

I have successfully completed 3 gigs with my system and while I haven't recouped my investment I have definitely increased my confidence and versatility as a working artist.

I agree, the airbrush paint is pricey!! But airbrush has it's place and it isn't for everyone. I don't love doing tattoos but again, hey, I would rather be painting or spraying than sitting at home.

If you're just adding to service and profit potential, you may want to just offer black tattoos and get some cosmetic powders that gives color shine to the design as well as sets it. As long as you don't call it "shimmer" or some girlie word, even guys go for it. I often hear they like the powder better than multicolored inks. Plus it's way faster. I also never have problems with my airbrushes or compressor. I have a badger compressor my dad's friend gave to me from when he painted motorcycle tanks (It's probably 20 or so years old!). All I did was put a moisture trap on and a splitter with a quick-release. The key to non-malfunctioning airbrushes is: KEEP IT CLEAN. Spray some alcohol through if you have a break in customers, or even after every 10 during a busy time. Spray a whole jar of alcohol through before disconnecting for a break down.
We just did a gig with hundreds of students with 2 airbrushes, badger anthems (I have an iwata too, but I really like the badgers for airbrush tats) and most got multiple tattoos. The PTA president thanked us many times because last year the provider couldn't keep up and not everyone was able to get tattoos. The kids LOVED the cosmetic powders. We have red, green, gold, silver, pink, and blue. You can get them at the Airbrush body art online store, and yes they work great- once they are wet, they darken so they aren't overly shiny, but maintain the color. I keep considering getting the colored inks, but the cost of the airbrushes, inks,cleaning and setup times, and potential for malfunctions isn't worth it to me. We tell the client about the powder instead of ink before they hire us, and I haven't had anyone turn us down because we didn't do the inks.

paintedyou wrote:If you're just adding to service and profit potential, you may want to just offer black tattoos and get some cosmetic powders that gives color shine to the design as well as sets it. As long as you don't call it "shimmer" or some girlie word, even guys go for it. I often hear they like the powder better than multicolored inks. Plus it's way faster.

Hey!

I would love to know what kind of powders you used that were iridescent enough to be a top coat and not overpower the paint!

Rachel

Thanks for the info this could be huge