For this tut you will need Poser4, PSP 6 or 7, and an image to use as a tattoo. Most tube images that do not have a drop shadow will work, or any image with a transparent background, but bear in mind that most real tattoos do not use a lot of white, so if your image has a lot of white, you may want to select it out with the magic wand and delete it.

Please note that all screen shots on this page are greatly reduced in size from the originals.

In PSP, open the texture map you want to tattoo. (I used P4 woman O1B, you can download it and many others for free from HappyWorldLand.) If you do not have any "custom" maps you can use the basic P4 map, by going to Program Files/Poser4/Runtime/Textures/Poser4 Textures/P4 Woman Texture.tiff. Shift D to copy the image and close the original. Here's what you'll have:

Add a new layer and apply your tube where you want the tattoo. You can either size it using the scale in the tool options box before you place it, or using the deformation tool after you place it. (I tend to do it the latter way.) If you use the deformation tool, be sure to sharpen the image after deforming it.

If you are using more than one tattoo, apply each on a separate layer. The easiest places to tattoo are obviously the front and back of the figure - if placing tattoos on the shoulder, they should go on the *back* of the figure, and if placing tattoos around wrists, ankle, or neck, remember to place them on both the front and back of the figure. If the tattoo looks too "hard", you can adjust the layer opacity to soften it a little and allow some skin tone to show through. Save this image in layers as a PSP file, in case you need to work with it again.

Now let's check her out in Poser. Export your texture map as a jpg, calling it "tattoo" or something like that - you can save it anywhere, just remember where it is!

Open Poser and pull up the P4 female. Go to Render/Render Options/Surface Material. In the Surface Material window that opens, go to Texture Map (left hand side) and click the load button, and browse to open your new tattoo jpg. Make sure that the box that says "Texture changes apply to entire figure" is checked, and click ok. At the bottom of the screen is a row of buttons, marked "Document Display Style", click the button farthest to the right, and your changes will appear in the image window. To check the sides and back of the figure, make sure you have the Main Camera on (drop down box on the right under the image) and use the "yOrbit" dial (bottom one) to rotate the figure.

For the purposes of this tutorial, this is one *very* tattooed lady, but it will illustrate all of the placements above!

If you're satisfied with the look and placement of the tattoos, then you're good to go and can put the tattoo.jpg file wherever you store your skin textures. If you're not satisfied, go back into PSP and play around some more with the original, layered image you saved, saving the changes as a jpg and switching back and forth between Poser and PSP until you get the look you want.

If you have any problems, comments or questions regarding this tutorial, please feel free to contact me and I will do what I can to straighten things out. Thanks!