Merging existing tattoos
How to merge two or more existing tattoos
Summary
Published: Feb 03 2024 by manavortex, initial guide by Yggnire Last documented edit: 18 May 2024 by YoursTrulyBilly
This guide will teach you how to merge multiple tattoos into one.
For this example, we'll be merging two VTK tattoos from Belly Tattoos Pack and Low Back Tattoo Pack by Yggnire
Wait, this is not what I want!
If you are looking for the body layouts, check Texture Frameworks for Player V -> Texture Layouts
For a more detailed guide with illustrated steps, check How to create an overlay tattoo. You can use that guide for reference.
If you want additional information, check Texture Frameworks for Player V.
Level of difficulty: Easy
The guide is extremely detailed and has screenshots for each step!
Requirements:
The ability to read: mandatory, because I'm not gonna lie — this is gonna be difficult otherwise.
Knowing how to edit images: recommended, because this guide will not cover it. If you don't know it, the relevant section will tell you what to Google, though
The following two tattoo mods (kindly provided by Yggnire):

Expected time to complete:
<1h for total noobs, <15 minutes if you know what you're doing.
Prerequisites
To see which files you need to edit, check this: Overlay textures by framework.
Step 1: Create a Wolvenkit Project:
Depending on the supported framework, you need to name your project like this:
KS UV
004
004_my_tattoo_mix
VTK
00
00_my_tattoo_mix
If you don't know how to create a project, you can look it up on the Wolvenkit wiki.
Step 2: Add the modded files
Switch the Asset Browser tab to Mod Browser and find the two archives that you want to merge.
You'll have to add v_overlay.xbm
from inside these .archives to your Wolvenkit project. Since they'll overwrite each other, read on to find out how to do that.
It's best to rename each tattoo after adding to make it easier for you to know which is which!


In the asset browser, find
v_overlay.xbm
inside the first.archive
file and add it to your project (right-click or double-click)

Re-name the file in your project to e.g.
lowbacktattoo.xbm

Add
v_overlay.xbm
from the second.archive
file to your project

Re-name the file in your project to e.g.
skulltattoo.xbm
Add the file
v_overlay.xbm
again — this will be your final overlay.xbm
If you want to merge into a clean template, check Merging existing tattoos: into a clean template.
Step 3: Export for edit
Go to Tools > Export Tool. You only need to export three of the files, but you can click
Export All
:


You can now find the exported .png files in
source\raw\base\v_textures\body
. Time to look at them.If you can't see the files in the Project Explorer, switch it to either source or raw, or just navigate your Windows Explorer to the folder.

Step 4: Photoshopping
If you don't have photoshop, you can use photopea.com in your browser for free!
Open
lowbacktattoo.png
in Photoshop.Drag-and-drop the second file (
skulltattoo.png
) into your open tab.Optional: If the pictures aren't the same size, use the
W
: box at the top of the file to scale it up or down.

If your added file has been pasted as a smart object, rasterize it by right-clicking on the layer in the Layers palette
Merge the layer down on the base layer

Fixing the transparency
We have one last thing to do before we can import our file back, and that is fixing the transparency. Don't worry, we'll do it step-by-step:
Ctrl+click on the thumbnail in the layer palette. This will select everything, considering transparency.
Find the
Channels
palette. It should be right below your Layers palette, but if it's not, you might have to turn it on via Window -> ChannelsAt the bottom of the Channels palette, click the "Save selection as channel" icon. This will create "Alpha 1":
Exporting
Select File -> Export -> export as png
Overwrite
v_overlay.png
Step 6: Importing into Wolvenkit
Return to WolvenKit, and open the Import Tool
Find and select v_overlay.png
In the sidebar, make sure that
Transparency from alpha channel
is checkedImport!
Check the files in Wolvenkit. They should have changed.
Delete all files that aren't
v_overlay.xbm
, since we don't need them anymore.
Step 7: Testing the mod
Make sure that no other tattoo mods are installed — or there's a chance that you'll get to see those, rather than your new edit.
Install your mod. Time to test!

And there you have it! Go in-game and admire your new tattoos! 👏
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