Even with "erasable" ink in the works, we're still a ways off from risk-free tattooing. Put needle to skin and you're committing yourself to pain both in application and removal, not to mention a (mostly) permanent appliqué. Making the decision to get inked shouldn't be taken lightly, and French graphic designer Loic Zimmerman really weighed his choices. He created a 3-D rendering of himself tatted with his design to see just how he'd look with a 3/4 arm piece.

To make his CG bad self, Zimmerman went to French gaming and motion-capture studio Quantic Dream to get a 3-D scan of himself. He then imported the patches and rebuilt his virtual self back at home. He used an exported UV set of the section of his body to be tattooed as a guideline in Photoshop to fit and enhance his tattoo design. Check out the comments here to see a visual step-by-step of the process.

It would be really rad if in the future tattoo shops offer this type of rendering for people thinking of getting large pieces. It would help both the tattooee imagine themselves with the artwork and the tattooer see how the piece needs to be adjusted for body shape and angles.

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[via PSFK]