This brief tutorial is broken down into three sections. The first section talks about those without a computer or access to email. The second is for those with computer and e-mail access but no graphics capabilities. The last section talks about those with computer and e-mails access, graphics capabilities, and a basic understanding of jpg and gif format.

Having no access to a computer or e-mail does not eliminate you from sending images to me and having them included on the tattoo site. Your starting point will be to take pictures of your tattoos. The easiest way to do this, is to take the pictures outdoors. If that is not possible, be sure to match the film with the type of light source you use. If you are not sure about this, buy the film at a camera store and ask for help.

Many company's that develop film can help you. You need to tell them the e-mail address and the file format you want to send. The preference is jpg format. If the Film Company has the capability, they should be able to handle it from there. If they do not have the capability, your best bet is to try a service bureau or printing company. They will most likely have a scanner and the means to send e-mail. You should call around and find who can do it for the best price. You will find there is a wide range of prices. Go for the cheapest, as paying more will not make for better quality.

If you have a computer or access to e-mail, yet have no means to scan or manipulate graphics, you can follow the steps above. Instead of having the service bureau send the e-mail, you can have them make a CD with your photo images. These images will undoubtedly be in tif or bmp format unless you specify that they be in jpg format. Once you have the images on a CD or disk, you can attach them to an e-mail by clicking any e-mail button on the tattoo site.

If you do not have any graphics programs on your computer I suggest that you go out on the web and find one you can download. The two I recommend is Paintshop Pro and L view Pro. Both of these are excellent graphics programs that you can download free. Though they are shareware and will run out of time in about a month, they do still function. For the price of free, you cannot beat them. You can find these programs by using a search engine. They are common and well known.

These programs will allow you to change the physical size of your images (300x300 would do nicely), and you can also save a tif or bmp to a jpg format. This can be done with little effort.

If you have good computer skills and access to graphics programs then you probably know how to prepare you images to send e-mail. For those people I will make this very brief. Simply make your image size in the neighborhood of 300x300. Save them as high quality jpg and send them away. There is no need to manipulate your images, as I will do that anyway. Try to keep your file size less than a meg. Attach your images to an e-mail and send them off. Check back in a couple of weeks to see your tattoos on the Internet.

That is all there is to it. Once you have sent them, check the site in a week or two and look for your tattoo.