Critink

There are hundreds of thousands of tattoo pictures online. Maybe millions. But with this rise in popularity, it's getting even harder than ever to tell the difference between a quality piece of art and a piece that will fade into a black smudge. Learn to tell the difference now so you don't have to learn the lesson the hard way.


infinitewasteland Asks

I don't have any tattoos yet but I know I want at least one. Only thing though is I'm not sure if I want to get simple lines/black and white/little to no shading ones or coloured/detailed ones... are there any pros and cons of having black and white tattoos/coloured tattoos?

Good question!

Art mistakes 101: adding black to a color doesn’t make it darker. It also mutes it.

Let’s say you’re tattooing a red rose. The dark parts of that rose aren’t red mixed with black: they’re a darker red, like crimson. The lighter parts aren’t red + white: they’re a lighter red, which can be more tan. Sure there might be a little black i them, but not an awful lot.

Now think about colored pencils: let’s say you take a black colored pencil and draw and shade your rose. Now take your imaginary red and color over the whole thing. Your red colored pencil won’t show up over the black. Same with tattooing.

So basically: it can look super, super awkward looking if you decide color later on. If you want a simple b/w tattoo for now, go for it. If you want color, get another tattoo in color. If you don’t want another tattoo, you probably won’t want to color your first either.

  1. critink posted this

2 notes | Posted Jul 25, 12 #tattoos #planning #black and white #color