You can blow on the rubbing alcohol to get it to dry faster, but don’t wipe it off.

The larger the surface area of the lead, the easier it’ll be to draw on your skin.

You’ll need to dip the pencil into the water several times, so don’t just run it under warm water. Use a cup to make the process easier on yourself.

Wet the pencil when the tip looks dry.

Just like with the regular pencil, you’ll need to retrace each section multiple times with the colored pencil to get it to show on your skin.

If your tattoo has text in it, flip the text so it’ll appear the right way once you put it on your body. You’ll need to go over the outline with the pencil several more times to get it to stand out, but you won’t have to worry about messing up the outline.

On average, your pencil tattoo will last 2-3 days if you use liquid bandage. If you don’t, it’ll come off the next time you take a bath or shower. Avoid rubbing, touching, or scrubbing it to make it last as long as possible. If you don’t have liquid bandage, you could also use hairspray for the same effect. [7] X Research source

Some other popular tattoo images and ideas are feathers, quotes, Bible verses, names, trees, abstract designs, animals, and images from books and movies. Keep in mind that you don’t have to copy an actual tattoo—you can be inspired by pretty much anything. Lots of tattoo shops have online galleries of different images you can choose from. They can be super fun to look through and pick out ideas from.

Because you’ll be working with pencil, it’s best to make a design that doesn’t have too many thin or intricate lines, just because it’ll be harder to get those to show up on your skin.

For pencil tattoos, you can also trace the image onto a piece of tracing paper and then transfer a light version of the tattoo onto your skin. You’ll still have to go over the tattoo in pencil more once it’s outlined on your skin, but it can be easier to do it this way if you’re worried about drawing directly on yourself.