Process for front cover tattoos

This was one of the magazines I analysed and liked very much therefore I decided to follow the conventions of this magazine for my own which would ensure it fit in with the representations of rap and hip hop and appeal to my target audience.

This is the image I began with, I made a peer take a photo while I was trying to imitate Eminem plus following some of the stereotypes and representations of hip hop and rap artist. As you can see I have my arms crossed and wearing a chain like Eminem.

This is my first tattoo decision, "Original gangster", I came to this decision as when searching on what tattoos artist tend to go for is something involving that gangster and thug life. When editing the tattoo onto the arm I had to use the magic wand tool to remove the background of the tattoo, this then allowed me to place the tattoo on the arm and see the skin. Then I had to use the skewing tool, this allowed me to curve the tattoo as if it went along accordingly to the position of my arm. The last tool I used was the eraser tool, this is because I had to remove the areas in which the tattoos overlapped onto the other arm.

This was my second tattoo, "Only god can judge me", I chose this tattoo in particular because I found that hip hop and rap artist tended to turn to God on various occasions plus I found that an inspirational hip hop artist, Tupac had this tattoo. For this process I used the same tools as the first tattoo, magic wand to remove background, skewing tool to manipulate it and eraser to remove the overlapping areas.

This was my third tattoo, a rose surround a cross, this is because it had symbolism of death or loss of somebody close which I thought was suitable as rap artist who have lost someone usually tattoo their name on their body or show some sort of respect. When applying it to my body I had to use the eraser tool to create the effect the tattoo warped around the arm and magic wand tool to remove any unnecessary background area.

This was the fourth tattoo, this tattoo displayed masks, drugs and money. I chose this because I felt these representations linked in perfectly with the representations of rap and would appeal to my target audience as the idea of use of drugs and having loads of money is seen as a dream lifestyle to my audience. When editing this tattoo I use the magic wand tool to remove all the areas I did not want plus I used the eraser tool again to remove any overlapping areas.

This was my final tattoo, the tattoo said "south side" on two guns, and this is because I found that a lot of hip hop and rap artist represent an area in which they have rivalries with other areas. Therefore I felt it was a good idea to use this tattoo. When editing this tattoo I used the eraser tool to remove the areas which the vest covered and I used the magic wand tool to remove the irrelevant background area.


With all the tattoos I edited the opacity and fill, this allowed me for each individual tattoo lighten or darken each tattoo to ensure it looked realistic on my body. This is the image I will use on my front cover for my music magazine.