COREH LÓPEZ
jack nicholson TATTOO
presentaTION
Hello!
I’m Coreh Lopez, I welcome you to this video-tuto-
rial in which you will learn many things about how
to correctly tattoo a portrait from the beginning to
the end, and especially a portrait that must look
like the reference.
Also, in this process, you can learn advanced tips
such as creating wrinkles, skin pores, realistic
teeth, and the perfect application of whites.
I made this tattoo a few years ago, but the tech-
nique used and the tattooing style is identical to
what I do nowadays. That’s why I wanted to share
it with you to learn all my tricks and advice about
how to professionally tattoo a realistic work like
this.
Characteristics to take into
account concerning this tattoo
In a realistic tattoo work where we must get an
identical result to the reference, there are many
factors to be taken into account that will help us
to achieve this task.
There are many tricks and advice I can give you,
in this case, I will tell you the two most important
things that, in my opinion, you must implement if
you want to achieve that you don’t miss any detail.
the STENCIL
A stencil is important, we all know that, but a sten-
cil in a portrait is even more important. If we also
need the result to be completely faithful to the re-
ference, we need the stencil to be almost millime-
trically accurate.
01
When we make a stencil by hand, we occasiona-
lly make small mistakes: The pen moves to one
side, we press too hard, we don’t press enough,
we pass on the same area twice, or we even forget
a line that turns out to be important and we have
to improvise.
Nothing should be improvised in realism, but keep
in mind that in a portrait like this one, we need
certain things to be the same as in the original
photo.
For example, if the eye we make looks slightly lar-
ger, or if the nostril is displaced a few millimeters,
we can have a messy result since these small de-
tails sometimes change the character’s face com-
pletely.
It is necessary to pay attention to details, and the
details are marked by the stencil, that is why we
recommend you create a stencil with ipad and
thermocopier.
There are several reasons, but you must have in
mind that when you work the stencil with an ipad,
you can make the stencil several times, days be-
fore, and you can even go over it by making the
original layer blink with the line layer. This will pre-
vent you from forgetting important lines, and will
let you check if everything is in place.
On the other hand, this method together with the
thermocopier is the most accurate, so I encoura-
ge you to use it as soon as possible especially for
this type of work. You can do an excellent job wi-
thout having these two processes, but there are
more possibilities to make a mistake, and the
easier the task, the more we can concentrate on
our work: Tattooing.
 COREH LÓPEZ

jack nicholson TATTOO

THE IPAD AS A WORKING TOOL

On the other hand, using an iPad as a tool to watch
the photo while tattooing, allows you to stop from
time to time, and activate the layer of lines abo-
ve the photo, to check where you should tattoo, or
what direction each thing has.
Sometimes we see the stencil on the skin, and we
don’t understand some things, because we don’t
have the photo underneath, that’s why I recom-
mend you to have the Procreate application open
and watch the photo right there to tattoo it, so that
from time to time you can check if you’re doing well
or not. It seems silly, but this has saved me a lot of
trouble. Don’t forget to have the charger plugged
in! There is nothing more hateful than tattooing
and realizing that the battery is dying and that you
don’t have the cable in the studio.
Teeth are just shapes, if you tattoo them thinking
they are objects in the shape of teeth, you will
be wrong for sure. One tooth, sometimes, does
not need shade, and sometimes, two teeth, do
not need a line in between. It’s better to fall short
than to overdo it, because if you darken too much
or make too many lines, you can make the typical
mistake of making a tattoo where the character
smiles and it seems to have the teeth dirty.
In this work, you will also see how I make wrinkles,
skin pores and medium saturations. I prefer that
you watch it directly on the video, but I’ll tell you in
advance: The trick is to be very patient. Everything
else I prefer you watch it directly on the video, I’m
sure you will learn many things.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THIS TATTOO MATERIALS

On the one hand, the tattoo starts underneath, as The machine I have used in this tattoo is the Inkjecta
I told you in the video, since it is the least impor- Flite Nano and the bar and stroke configuration is
tant and darkest part, so we can practice a little intermediate in both cases.
and warm up. In addition, an old tattoo must be As the skin is intermediate and not too hard, I was
covered, which I do by darkening the reference able to do everything with an intermediate stroke
photo below. and pressure, and I had no problem completing it
The tattoo is not finished in this session, it is not successfully.
necessary, I never set as a goal finishing a job
completely, my goal is always to do it at the hi-
ghest possible level. If there is time to finish it,
fine, but in this case it was getting late and the
client was quite sore at that time, which is normal.
The skin stood it very well, that’s why I am very ha-
ppy with the result obtained and the ease of doing
the whole process from start to finish.
On the other hand, you can see how I make realis-
tic teeth. It is not easy, I give you some piece of ad-
vice in the video, but remember: Never make the
teeth as if they were objects with contour lines.

flite nano, limited edition black; inkjecta

02
 COREH LÓPEZ
jack nicholson TATTOO
If the skin is hard, it should have a longer stroke and
a stronger pressure, for sure. On the other hand, a
soft or delicate skin requires a shorter stroke and
lighter pressure. But you must take into account
that in hard skins, using a long stroke makes the
ink penetrate correctly, but we will be damaging
the skin too much, and otherwise, with a short
stroke, we will do less damage but the result will
be more superficial and will need another session.
This is why the skin is an unpredictable factor, and
this is also why the realistic tattoo can never be cal-
culated 100% nor can it be predicted if it will be
finished in one or two sessions.The needles used
in this video are all BlueBird brand and the models
are the following:
11M 0.35 MEDIUM TAPER FOR FILLING
(FLAT MAGNUM)
11 ROUND MAGNUM LONG TAPER FOR SHADING AND
SATURATIONS
9RS 0.35 MEDIUM TAPER FOR SMALL SHADOWS AND
FILLINGS
3 ROUND LINER 0.30 FOR GENERAL LINE AND DETAIL
WORK
3 ROUND LINER 0.35 FOR WHITES
original photo; jack nicholson
03
the whites
We will finish the job with a full exercise of whi-
tes. Pay close attention, whenas I begin this
process I will give you some basic tips to be able
to do it well, but you must pay attention to the
movement of the needle to understand why I do
each thing and how I get achieve that the result
has lines, dots and shading by using the 3 Round
Liner needle with low voltage and stronghigh
pressure.
That’s it! I hope you enjoy watching the video as
much as I enjoyed doing it, if you have any ques-
tionsquestion about it, I leave you my email so
you can contact me and solve your doubts about
the content of the tutorial.
Thanks for being there!
Coreh López
corehlopez@gmail.com
TATTOO DETAIL