Apprentices
Build depth control before anyone hands you a client. Line, shade, and pack colour with resistance under the needle from the first pass.
Platinum silicone · 4–5 mm · 8.5″ × 11″
Skin that pushes back
Thin practice skin teaches you a pressure that doesn't exist on a person. TrueSkin puts four to five millimetres of platinum silicone under the needle — so the hand you build here is the hand you bring to the chair.
- Thickness
- 4–5 mm
- Sheet
- 8.5 × 11 in
- Working sides
- 0
The spec that matters
Four to five
millimetres
You only work the top two millimetres — that's where the needle belongs, on a person or on a sheet. The other three are the reason it behaves like skin: enough material underneath that you never bottom out on the bench and the sheet never flexes away mid-stroke.
- 1–2 mm — where the needle works
- 4–5 mm — what sits under it, with no thin spots
- Both faces — on the 8.5 × 11, turn it over and start again
0.0mm
1/3
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Pressure you can trust
On thin material the needle skates and the sheet flexes away from you. With 4–5 mm underneath, the hand you settle into is the hand that works on a person.
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Ink that stays put
Platinum-cure silicone takes the ink and holds the line where you laid it, so you can read your own spacing and saturation after the wipe instead of guessing.
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Two sheets in one
The 8.5 × 11 is worked on both faces. Line on one side, shade on the other, and get twice the practice out of a single sheet. The larger 11 × 17 and 12 × 36 sheets are single sided.
The sheet
Letter size,
on purpose
8.5 by 11 inches — the same footprint as the paper your stencils print on. Lay a full-size design down without shrinking it to fit.
Double sided, and only at this size. Nothing about the second face is an afterthought — it is the same platinum silicone at the same depth. We also make an 11 × 17 and a 12 × 36, both single sided.
TrueSkin, in the hand.
Who it's for
Three benches,
one sheet
Working artists
Test a new machine, a new needle grouping, or a piece you've never drawn before — on a surface that answers the way skin does.
Schools & studios
Letter-size sheets stack, store and hand out cleanly, and two working faces means one sheet covers two exercises.
Specification
On paper
- Material
- Platinum-cure silicone
- Thickness
- 4–5 mm
- Sheet size
- 8.5 × 11 in
- Working surfaces
- Two — double sided
- Other sizes
- 11 × 17 in, 12 × 36 in — single sided
- Grade
- Trade show quality
- Use
- Lining, shading, colour packing, stencil practice
It arrives boxed, flat and clean — not folded into a bag.
Portfolio
Made on TrueSkin
Every piece here was tattooed on a TrueSkin sheet. More on Instagram →
Before you order
Straight answers
Will a stencil transfer onto it?
Yes. Apply stencil solution the way you would on skin, lay the thermal paper down and let it set before you pull it. Silicone is less porous than skin, so give it a little longer to dry and keep your glove off the transfer.
Does the ink actually hold?
Platinum-cure silicone takes and holds pigment, which is the point of practising on it — you can wipe, step back and read your line weight and saturation instead of guessing at it.
Coil or rotary?
Both. Depth, not machine type, is what determines how a practice surface behaves, and at 4–5 mm there is material under the needle either way.
How do I clean it between passes?
Wipe with green soap or your usual studio wash while you work. Surface ink lifts easily; ink you've driven in is meant to stay, so treat each area as spent once you've worked it.
How much practice is in one sheet?
An 8.5 × 11 sheet with two working faces gives you 187 square inches of surface — enough to lay out a full page of exercises per side rather than cramming them onto a strip. The 11 × 17 is single sided but works out at the same 187 square inches on one face, and the 12 × 36 gives you 432 — the size to reach for when you want to run a full sleeve layout end to end.
Is it the same on both sides?
On the 8.5 × 11, yes — there is no backing layer and no right way up, and both faces are the same platinum silicone at the same thickness. It is the only size we make double sided; the 11 × 17 and 12 × 36 have one working face.
