Ink recommendations: greywash

So the day has come that I'm allowed to move to human skin! (Cue cheering).

For the next few months atleast I'm sticking to solid black/greywash pieces, but given that I'm moving to humans I'd rather like to get some better ink than what I've been using (soolong at the moment).

For those that haven't seen my "hi" post, my studio isn't very helpful at all and don't like answering questions/helping me at all. For an unpaid apprentice budget, what ink would you recommend for a good black that will dilute down well for washes? Or inks plural if you'd recommend one for lining and one for washes.

Also curious as to recommendations for a opaque white for highlights, and whether my white is just awful that it mixes terribly into colours for lightening them (I mean, it's kinda cool the pastel-ish colors I get but mixing it is a pain, and doesn't turn out quite right). If so, recommendations (still for unpaid apprenticeship budget but decent) for a white for color mixing?

If there's something particularly stupid I have said, feel free to enlighten me as I am still learning and not getting much help. Help from all corners is much appreciated as id rather end up a better artist than the people I currently work for..

Kuro Sumi was dillute well. Dynamic will too. both will work for blacks
Starbrite white is great. I like Intenze or Solid ink white as well.

while not stupid...I think you shouldn't limit yourself to black and graywash. Graywash...and black and gray tattoing in general...is so much harder to do correct than people think. Stick with solid black rather than multiple gray scales and learn to create a gradient with hand speed and pressure. it will translate into good color blends too.

TexasPT said:

Kuro Sumi was dillute well. Dynamic will too. both will work for blacks
Starbrite white is great. I like Intenze or Solid ink white as well.

while not stupid...I think you shouldn't limit yourself to black and graywash. Graywash...and black and gray tattoing in general...is so much harder to do correct than people think. Stick with solid black rather than multiple gray scales and learn to create a gradient with hand speed and pressure. it will translate into good color blends too.

Click to expand...

Studio is keeping me on solid black/greywash pieces for now, partially I think because owner likes to do neo-color and hates doing grey/small pieces, and partially because I tend to do better with pencils and grey than I do with color. Charcoal and pencils are where I'm comfortable so I'm happy learning this for now.

Thank you for your advice, will look into local suppliers for those ones. Seriously, thank you for helping out again, being able to actually ask questions is really appreciated

I like to, and our studio, uses zuper black by intenze. Its opaque and thick, but waters down nicely to form a nice wash. Expensive and comes only in a 12 oz bottle in most locations at $49.50 USD but lasts forever. 12oz is huge.

But the intenze website is now selling 1oz bottles for 14$ if you want to try it.



On the opposite side, the most opaque white ive worked with and seen worked with is intenze's snow white opaque.

Very thick, heavy opaque pigment, which ive seen sit on black by magic if you work it right.


$6.25 USD for a 1/2oz bottle.

Because of the thickness of this white when using it to mix with colors to create a pastel or lighter color, i recomend using their mixing version. Its a diluted verson of this opaque white, but the particle size is more evenly dispersed to mix a little better with the more watery colors (such as bahama blue, carols pink) aswell as the thicker/opaque colors (cherry red, country blue)


**side note
A good way to calculate your usage is the following:

A 1oz ink bottle will fill these cups until empty. If using 1 full cup a tattoo, this will be how many tattoos you will get out of a 1oz bottle of ink.

17 large ink cups =30ml(1oz)
35 medium ink cups = 30ml(1oz)
75 small ink cups =30ml (1oz)