Here’s my guide to making a real pressed flower tattoo- inspired by ‘oh comely’ magazine.

What you’ll need:

STAGE 1: drying and pressing the flowers: (1 week)

• selection of flowers
• scissors
• 4 sheets of kitchen towel per batch of flowers
• thick, heavy book

STAGE 2: sticking the flowers on: (30 minutes)

• picture of the flowers you’re going to use, laid out in the position you want them to be in
• vaseline or eyelash glue
• tweezers
• mirror

STAGE 1

I simply choose flowers with colourful petals that lie flat. It’s best to pick and press quite a large quantity as well as varying types and colours, in case some crumple or rip. The larger flowers maintain their shape better and keep in mind that the petals get darker when they’re dried out.

To press the flowers place them in between kitchen roll, face down, and leave them amongst pages of a heavy book for about a week. Once you’ve got a good collection of pressed flowers you can re-use them and repeatedly return to your stock for more flower tattoos. Or to make other things like greetings cards.

How to prepare the flowers

With some flowers, I leave about 2cm of the stem to keep the flower whole. For others,  I cut only 0.5cm away from the bud so some of the petals detach. This is more delicate and you can apply the petals one at a time, which gives you a more intricate tattoo.

STAGE 2