Greywash

Hi
I mixed 5drops of black into a medium cup and filled with water
It came out quite dark, like reddish black.
I added 2 drops and rest with water into another cup, still reddish black.
I was expecting light grey.
Is reddish black normal greywash color?
How do i make a very light grey?
Wanting to color some japanese waves

1 drop is enough for light grey, sometimes even less.
use the rinse cup.

the pressure u use matters as well, light brush strokes make lighter values, but the skin will turn red at first and then light grey after the inflammation goes down.

Use large caps,1 all black 1 with 10drops then water,then dirty dip from there

Reddish Black???? is it blood mixed with your greywash? Does it heal reddish black?
Also I was told to dilute your black with Witch Hazel, not water...although I suppose water is ok as long as it's sterilised water.

If u look at most japanese tattoos the shades also look reddish black

I always start 1 drop , you can always add later but once too dark it’s no going back

The blood you're making by jabbing needles in the skin is darker than the grey you're putting in. Use large caps for most wash recipes you find out there, and try adding 2 drops of white to each cap to give you an accurate representation of what the grey will look like when healed.

There is a way to stop the redness, instead of using water use witch hazel, I noticed this a few years ago, when I was using silverback premixed ink the lightest shade X1 would always look very red until it was healed so hard to judge when applying it, the other shades too were reddish, silverback was water based.

When I switched to Empire it was simpler to use as it did not go as red and within 10 minutes it had settled with out the redness giving a better indication on how it would heal, it always looks really dark but does heal lighter, empire is water and ethanol based and smells very different.

if I’m tattooing large areas of Japanese wind bars and swirls etc I mix dynamic black with witch hazel using large ink caps I have 100% black, 50% black, 25% black and about 5% black.