Gav and Dan demonstrate some pretty shoddy tattoo skills into some ballistic gel allowing us to get a rather disturbing glimpse at what occurs below the surface of the skin in macro ultra-slow motion. Check out the new probe lenses here! - https://laowacine.com/product/laowa-24mm-t8-2x-macro-pro2be/?ref=20

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Tattoo on Transparent "Skin" at 20,000fps - The Slow Mo Guys
Filmed on the Phantom TMX 7510

A while ago, Destin from Smarter Every Day.

Made an amazing video about tattooing in slow-mo.

You can check out that video right there.

And I thought, because we've got some new macro equipment, it might be cool to revisit that video and see below the skin or under the skin, through the skin by tattooing some ballistic gel off cuts.

Also because neither of us are actually brave enough to get the tattoo ourselves.

Okay, to start, I think we should just see the tattoo gun on its own, just see the needles come out.

Ultra macro, about 5 times magnification here.

I wonder if every time you go for a tattoo, how many people you would discourage from getting a tattoo if you showed them this first.

I thought there was just 1, but actually it looks like, what, 4?

So you're supposed to create a line with this 1.

Let's see, it's in on 9, and it's back on 4 to 5.

I've never seen a plastic end on a tattoo gun.

Well, I think the tattoo guns you go to when you do it, you know, professionally, they reuse the, not the $70 ones on Amazon.

Yeah, see, like that is how damn small those needles are.

Okay, I guess I wasn't expecting the surface tension of the ink to completely cover the needles.

Like, you can't see them individually anymore.

God, this must have taken ages before electricity.

Okay, here's our little sliver of ballistic gel mimicking someone's arm.

It's supposed to be 1 and a half mil deep, so it gets through the dermis of the skin and deposits the ink underneath.

It goes much further than it puts ink, or is it going to start leaving trails of ink?

I think it's going to start leaving trails of ink.

The gel does actually kind of ripple just like the skin does as well.

Like The needles pull it through capillary action and then the skin just grabs it and stays there under the skin.

I mean obviously ballistic gel isn't skin but to get the same effect, you know, it's as close as we can get.

You can actually see where the top layer of skin is like around the needle, and then it starts like sliding back up the needle as it goes in.

Like that's like the area where it pierced, and it's sort of dragging that down.

But then you can see it sliding and leaving a trail of ink there.

You can also get ones that are like a bunch all in a row for creating like shading.

OK, so this is maybe not completely accurate.

From this close up, you can actually see the needle pushing in and the surface of the skin sliding up the needle.

It's almost cleaning the ink off the needle which leaves a pool of ink on the surface of the skin.

And then as soon as the needle pops out It sucks the ink down the hole that it left.

It's almost as though there's no ink in there until the needle pops out and then ink rushes down the wound channel.

Like each individual 1 is an individual sort of wound where it's deposited ink.

We've done our lines on our ballistic gel, our poor ballistic gel.

Now we're going to do a little bit of shading in red, lipstick red.

Instead of sort of lots of tiny needles all in 1 spot doing this, they're going to be 4 or 5, sorry, fatter needles in a line to create like a colouring in basically.

I'm gonna see what it looks like coming straight towards the macro lens.

Might be quite hard to see what's going on because I think focus is maybe a third of a millimetre.

It's like, you know, the keyhole surgery.

You would just have no idea what that is, would you?

That's what your skin sees when it looks up.

You could be like, oh, that's a vein in an owl's eye.

You could make up 10 different things that people would believe.

I reckon you could give someone 10 guesses and they probably wouldn't get what it was.

I also thought that the shading needles were in a straight line, but they're kind of like.

So you're gonna put a little bit of skin there.

Okay, and I'm gonna set the focus, not on the needles, but on sort of the underside of the skin.

I think I've tattooed that spot pretty well.

It's like under the skin looking up, but it's got the texture of skin somehow.

of those fish that live underwater that have a see-through head.

Oh, wow, it's just broken through the surface there.

Yeah, so the needles are gonna come out of focus, but I've kept the focus on the, basically, underside of the skin.

And then each 1 of those will have like a little string of tattoo ink along it.

And then obviously as you move that along the skin, it will get, that's how you get your shading.

I think I just didn't realize how deep it went.

Obviously it's only like a mil and a half and we're seeing it massively enlarged, but it's still pretty savage, isn't it?

But obviously we're doing it also in the same exact spot.

Because the gel isn't skin, it doesn't have the same qualities of keeping the ink in.

Like, you know, to get the same effect of the ink has to go slightly deeper.

Yeah, this is just like a rough Estimation, but I think it's it really is definitely illustrating something.

Yeah, there's definitely a visual there that I've never thought about.

Yeah so look at the cross section of your handiwork.

A small interruption now for the sponsor of this video, Lauer.

Lauer is a brand of lenses that I've used many times over the years on this channel.

They make the famous probe lens, which is 1 of my favorite lenses.

As of today, they've just released the ProTube set.

Firstly all 3 lenses are now T8 instead of 14.

Each with slightly different functionality.

The next 1 has the end of the probe tilted at 35 degrees which we used in this video to look slightly up on the subject and avoid getting the shadow from the top of the probe encroaching onto the image.

And what I feel is the most interesting 1 is the periscope.

They did previously release a periscopic lens called the periprobe.

The downside to that in my opinion was that you couldn't put that camera on a tripod and look straight down into like a tank.

With this, you can actually have the camera on a tripod outside the tank, but the end of the lens inside the tank.

If you wanna get your hands on any of these lenses make sure to check the link in the description and just so you know it is an affiliate link.

I'm always very excited when a brand I've used multiple times in the past reaches out and offers to sponsor a video so big old thanks to Lauer for offering to sponsor this 1 and sending over these lenses.

I don't know if that's put me off having a tattoo even more or whether I now want 1.

Well, I already wasn't gonna get that tattoo I talked about before, but I'm definitely not gonna get it now.

Yeah, I'm glad I didn't get what I thought would be cool a few years ago.

Sorry, the video will have to wait, just a sec.

You know like, I used to be working out and stuff when I was in the army, and you know how the rock has like a tattoo here, like a chest 1 like that and it goes down his arm.

I thought it'd be quite cool to get something like that.

But I wasn't gonna get that, but I thought of something similar, like where it's like a peck and all that.

I have a newfound respect for everyone who sat through insane tattoo sessions, like full body, oh I've lost that, I dropped it.

Yeah, Turns out, obviously I'm brave enough to try and drop in off Tony Hawk's half pipe, 15 foot up, break my arm.

But yeah, I think that that has made me too much of a chicken to actually get a tattoo.

Well, Hopefully you enjoyed that video or you found it disturbing.

I think either emotion is fine here on YouTube.

Make sure you subscribe if you like slow-mo and we'll see you in the next 1.


Speaker 0: Oh, hello, I'm Gav.

Speaker 1: I'm Dan.

Speaker 0: We're the Slow Mo Guys. A while ago, Destin from Smarter Every Day. Roll tide. Made an amazing video about tattooing in slow-mo. You can check out that video right there.

And I thought, because we've got some new macro equipment, it might be cool to revisit that video and see below the skin or under the skin, through the skin by tattooing some ballistic gel off cuts.

Speaker 1: Also because neither of us are actually brave enough to get the tattoo ourselves. Very true.

Speaker 0: Okay, to start, I think we should just see the tattoo gun on its own, just see the needles come out. Ultra macro, about 5 times magnification here.

Speaker 1: I wonder if every time you go for a tattoo, how many people you would discourage from getting a tattoo if you showed them this first.

Speaker 0: I think this is gonna look horrendous. Have a look at this frame.

Speaker 1: Oof! That is ultra macro.

Speaker 0: Go. Oh, I think they go out of frame. What? Oh wow. That's goodness me.

So how many needles are on this?

Speaker 1: I thought there was just 1, but actually it looks like, what, 4? Really close together needles? Like this is for lining. So you're supposed to create a line with this 1. It's jobbling around all over the place.

Speaker 0: Let's see, it's in on 9, and it's back on 4 to 5. Yeah, 5 to 6 milliseconds per cycle. Flip. That is rapid. Something moving that quick

Speaker 1: is just insane, isn't it?

Speaker 0: I've never seen a plastic end on a tattoo gun.

Speaker 1: Well, I think the tattoo guns you go to when you do it, you know, professionally, they reuse the, not the $70 ones on Amazon. Yeah, no. No. These are just plastic nibbed bad boys.

Speaker 0: Plastic nibbed jobbers. Go for it. Yep. That is so immensely small. Can you put something in for scale?

Like your finger or something. Yeah, see, like that is how damn small those needles are.

Speaker 1: Oh. 0. It looks like something from Aliens.

Speaker 0: It looks like the xenomorph's

Speaker 1: second mouth. Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 0: Oh, that's horrendous. Okay, I guess I wasn't expecting the surface tension of the ink to completely cover the needles. Like, you can't see them individually anymore.

Speaker 1: No. God, this must have taken ages before electricity.

Speaker 0: Okay, here's our little sliver of ballistic gel mimicking someone's arm.

Speaker 1: Yes, definitely arm.

Speaker 0: 20, 000 FPS. GPS?

Speaker 1: Whoa, man, that looks so deep. Doesn't it? Is that too deep? It's supposed to be 1 and a half mil deep, so it gets through the dermis of the skin and deposits the ink underneath.

Speaker 0: It goes much further than it puts ink, or is it going to start leaving trails of ink?

Speaker 1: I think it's going to start leaving trails of ink. The gel does actually kind of ripple just like the skin does as well. Yeah. Oh yeah, look. It's leaving like streaks of ink.

Yeah. So does that mean under every tattoo

Speaker 0: is little spikes of ink like that?

Speaker 1: It must do. Like it just, the skin just grabs it. Like The needles pull it through capillary action and then the skin just grabs it and stays there under the skin. I mean obviously ballistic gel isn't skin but to get the same effect, you know, it's as close as we can get.

Speaker 0: Look at the ripple when it pops out.

Speaker 1: Look at the surface of the skin.

Speaker 0: You can actually see where the top layer of skin is like around the needle, and then it starts like sliding back up the needle as it goes in. Like that's like the area where it pierced, and it's sort of dragging that down. But then you can see it sliding and leaving a trail of ink there.

Speaker 1: You can also get ones that are like a bunch all in a row for creating like shading.

Speaker 0: Should we see 1 of those next? Yeah. Oh, and you're like poking the... What? It's really hard to see.

Speaker 1: You're like mushing it

Speaker 0: into the... You might be doing that a bit too hard. That's going really deep. You might be just mullering this.

Speaker 1: Don't get a tattoo by me, OK?

Speaker 0: OK, so this is maybe not completely accurate. From this close up, you can actually see the needle pushing in and the surface of the skin sliding up the needle. It's almost cleaning the ink off the needle which leaves a pool of ink on the surface of the skin. And then as soon as the needle pops out It sucks the ink down the hole that it left. It's almost as though there's no ink in there until the needle pops out and then ink rushes down the wound channel.

Speaker 1: That's wild. Like each individual 1 is an individual sort of wound where it's deposited ink. We've done our lines on our ballistic gel, our poor ballistic gel. Now we're going to do a little bit of shading in red, lipstick red. Different type of needle?

Yes. Different arrangement? Different arrangement. Instead of sort of lots of tiny needles all in 1 spot doing this, they're going to be 4 or 5, sorry, fatter needles in a line to create like a colouring in basically.

Speaker 0: I'm gonna see what it looks like coming straight towards the macro lens. Might be quite hard to see what's going on because I think focus is maybe a third of a millimetre. Yep. Yep. Oh wow.

You can see it like going pin sharp.

Speaker 1: I can see what it is now. Before I couldn't, yeah. Weird. It's like, you know, the keyhole surgery. And we're entering the left ventricle.

Speaker 0: You would just have no idea what that is, would you? No. Vroom, vroom, vroom, vroom. That's what your skin sees when it looks up. It looks like, that could be anything.

You could be like, oh, that's a vein in an owl's eye. I'd be like, OK, sure.

Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You could make up 10 different things that people would believe. I reckon you could give someone 10 guesses and they probably wouldn't get what it was. I also thought that the shading needles were in a straight line, but they're kind of like. Staggered, yeah.

Yeah, they're staggered.

Speaker 0: 2 and 3. Yeah. So you're gonna put a little bit of skin there. Okay, and I'm gonna set the focus, not on the needles, but on sort of the underside of the skin. Okay.

Okay, go for it.

Speaker 1: Here we go. Here we go.

Speaker 0: Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.

Speaker 1: All right. I think I've tattooed that spot pretty well.

Speaker 0: Oh yeah, you've reamed that area. It's like under the skin looking up, but it's got the texture of skin somehow. You're like 1

Speaker 1: of those fish that live underwater that have a see-through head.

Speaker 0: There we go.

Speaker 1: Oh, wow, it's just broken through the surface there.

Speaker 0: Yeah, so the needles are gonna come out of focus, but I've kept the focus on the, basically, underside of the skin. Sure, okay.

Speaker 1: The whole jiggly thing is just jiggly. Look at all those spikes.

Speaker 0: You see all the little pricks of color.

Speaker 1: And then each 1 of those will have like a little string of tattoo ink along it. Yeah. And then obviously as you move that along the skin, it will get, that's how you get your shading.

Speaker 0: That's insane. Isn't it? All those little tiny puncture marks. I think I just didn't realize how deep it went. Obviously it's only like a mil and a half and we're seeing it massively enlarged, but it's still pretty savage, isn't it?

It is savage. Like that to me doesn't look pleasant. And we've picked red obviously. Yeah, that's, yeah.

Speaker 1: But obviously we're doing it also in the same exact spot. Yeah, yeah. Over and over. Because the gel isn't skin, it doesn't have the same qualities of keeping the ink in. Like, you know, to get the same effect of the ink has to go slightly deeper.

Speaker 0: Yeah, this is just like a rough Estimation, but I think it's it really is definitely illustrating something. Yeah, there's definitely a visual there that I've never thought about. Yeah so look at the cross section of your handiwork. Oh, it's so tiny, is it? It looks savage on the slope.

It looks huge. It's only gone in that far.

Speaker 1: Yeah.

Speaker 0: A small interruption now for the sponsor of this video, Lauer. Lauer is a brand of lenses that I've used many times over the years on this channel. They make the famous probe lens, which is 1 of my favorite lenses. Here's all the times we've used it. As of today, they've just released the ProTube set.

It's a set of 3 lenses. Firstly all 3 lenses are now T8 instead of 14. Each with slightly different functionality. There's a direct view classic probe. The next 1 has the end of the probe tilted at 35 degrees which we used in this video to look slightly up on the subject and avoid getting the shadow from the top of the probe encroaching onto the image.

And what I feel is the most interesting 1 is the periscope. They did previously release a periscopic lens called the periprobe. The downside to that in my opinion was that you couldn't put that camera on a tripod and look straight down into like a tank. You had to suspend the camera above. With this, you can actually have the camera on a tripod outside the tank, but the end of the lens inside the tank.

So stay on the lookout for that video. If you wanna get your hands on any of these lenses make sure to check the link in the description and just so you know it is an affiliate link. I'm always very excited when a brand I've used multiple times in the past reaches out and offers to sponsor a video so big old thanks to Lauer for offering to sponsor this 1 and sending over these lenses.

Speaker 1: That's quite nice, isn't it? It's pretty nice. Looks good.

Speaker 0: I don't know if that's put me off having a tattoo even more or whether I now want 1.

Speaker 1: Well, I already wasn't gonna get that tattoo I talked about before, but I'm definitely not gonna get it now. Also because neither of us are actually brave enough to get the tattoo ourselves. Very true. You want a tattoo?

Speaker 0: I don't have any. I think I would get 1. I just don't know what I'd put.

Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm glad I didn't get what I thought would be cool a few years ago.

Speaker 0: What was that?

Speaker 1: A few things. What have you

Speaker 0: got to say now?

Speaker 1: I'm too embarrassed.

Speaker 0: Really? You're too embarrassed? You don't have to say it. Do you want to say it?

Speaker 1: Well, you know like...

Speaker 0: Sorry, the video will have to wait, just a sec.

Speaker 1: You know like, I used to be working out and stuff when I was in the army, and you know how the rock has like a tattoo here, like a chest 1 like that and it goes down his arm. I thought it'd be quite cool to get something like that. Just, just no.

Speaker 0: Isn't that like a Samoan? Yeah, well that pattern is, yeah.

Speaker 1: But I wasn't gonna get that, but I thought of something similar, like where it's like a peck and all that. Then I got fat and I was like,

Speaker 0: I'm so glad I didn't get that. I have a newfound respect for everyone who sat through insane tattoo sessions, like full body, oh I've lost that, I dropped it. A lot bouncier than skin. Yeah, it's not quite the same, isn't it?

Speaker 1: Yeah, Turns out, obviously I'm brave enough to try and drop in off Tony Hawk's half pipe, 15 foot up, break my arm. But yeah, I think that that has made me too much of a chicken to actually get a tattoo.

Speaker 0: I think I'm right with you there. Well, Hopefully you enjoyed that video or you found it disturbing. I think either emotion is fine here on YouTube. Make sure you subscribe if you like slow-mo and we'll see you in the next 1. Thanks for watching.

See all The Slow Mo Guys transcripts on Youtube

Tattoo on Transparent "Skin" at 20,000fps - The Slow Mo Guys