what is a good combination of black and fleshtone to paint tattoos i'm goin bonkers tryin to get the right mixture.

Whatever color you want the tattoo to be, say red, don't use straight red. Start off with flesh color and add red to it until it looks red compared to the flesh color. This will keep the color from "jumping" off of the plastic. I'd also suggest painting the flesh instead of painting on top of molded flesh.

Here's some tattoo work I did for Artur Kulik...

http://www.joecustoms.com/customs/custo ... re&id=8523