Draw your tattoo design on a regular piece of paper using a pencil. Place your design under the carbon paper and run it through a transfer maker. Set the carbon copy on your skin, wet it with soapy water, and then remove it.

Tattoo transfer paper is paper that acts as a stencil for a tattoo. The paper is saturated with a special transfer dye or, and it’s protected by a thin brown sheet. When you remove the protective sheet and apply pressure to the saturated paper, it leaves an imprint of every line you draw.

Most artists use multi-layered sheets of stencil paper that allow them to print or hand draw their design directly on one sheet, while a lower sheet serves as the “transfer paper.” This “transfer” layer is specifically designed to transfer the stencil ink onto the client’s skin, leaving you with a crisp, clear stencil ready for tattooing.