Ladybugs, spiders, dragon flies and butterflies are fast to paint and make cute tattoo designs. Create butterflies and dragon flies by painting a black line for the body, with two short black antennas extending from the body. Paint two wings on either side of the line in any color. The dragonflies wings are painted on the upper half of the body, whereas the wings of the butterfly can be decorated with colorful patterns. To paint a lady bug, start with a round red circle. Outline it in black and put a line down the middle. Put dots on either side of the line and two short black antennas extending out from the line in the middle. Paint a basic spider by drawing a black circle with 4 black lines coming out from either side of the circle.
Animals are a little more difficult to paint, but are commonly requested face-painting tattoos. Dragons, unicorns and fish are three of the more requested animals. A unicorn is painted by loading a small detail brush with white and painting the shape of a horse head. Paint a colorful mane on the horse. Make it into a unicorn by adding an orange horn to the forehead of the horse. Sprinkle loose face painting sparkles to give it a shimmery, magical effect.
Paint a dragon with a medium round brush loaded with black. Paint a thick line that spirals at the bottom. On the top, paint a dragon head in black. Put curved flicks, acting as scales, along the thick line. Paint wings in black coming from the thick line by drawing a triangle with webbing in it using a small round detail brush. The point of the triangle touches the thick black line.
Orange fish are easily painted by pressing an orange-loaded medium round brush against the face and flicking it in a curve lifting as you flick so that it comes to a point. With a small round brush, put two tail fin lines coming down from the point of the initial line. Paint a white dot on either side of the top of the initial line and a black dot within the white dot.
Paint flowers easily by double-loading a soft-bristled round brush and pressing teardrop strokes in a circle to form petals. Double-loading a brush is accomplished by loading the brush completely with the first color then putting the tip of the brush in a second color, usually white to accent. Complete a teardrop stroke by putting the tip of the brush on the face, then sliding it a short way, pressing as your slide. End the stroke by pressing down fully on the face to create a teardrop, or in this case petal shape.
Symbols and words are popular tattoo choices, such as hearts that say, "I LOVE U" in them, or stars with "Twinkle, Twinkle" written inside. Chinese writing and flag symbols are also common tattoo art requests.