Exactly What Is A White Ink Tattoo?

White ink tattoos are exactly what you would expect. A tattoo applied using only white ink. These tattoos are less visible than traditional tattoos and depending on body and skin type can appear to be a brand or scarification once healed.

The application process of a white ink tattoo is slightly different than a black and grey, or color piece. White ink tattoos have no solid outline like other tattoos. Care must be taken by the tattoo artist to only apply white ink without bleeding in any of the outline ink placed on the skin. This will cause the bright white color to dull and become even less noticeable.

White ink tattoos require more ink than traditional black and grey or color tattoos. White must be applied stronger than color ink. This requires the tattoo artist to go over the same area three or more times. So a white tattoo may be more painful than a color tattoo due to the added passes required.

The ink used to place a white ink tattoo is not the same white a tattooist uses for changing the pigment of colors. The white used in white ink tattoos is thicker and of higher grade. This ink is specifically made to stand out and remain bright. Be sure to ask your tattooist what type of white ink he will be using. If he just gives you the “all white is the same” speech… run!

Placement Of  A White Ink Tattoo

Care must be taken in choosing the location of your white ink tattoo. White is very susceptible to sun damage. White appears to yellow once tanned, and the original bright white color will never return once tanned. This damage can be done in as little as one time tanning or a single sunburn.

Careful consideration must be taken when choosing the location of your white ink tattoo. Hands are not a good spot, as well as the top of your forearm since they are likely to be exposed to the sun regularly. You are best to place your white ink tattoo where it will never see sun. Good placement can be ; under your arm, chest, back, the underside of your wrists, legs (as long as you dont tan them), basically anywhere you can keep out of the sun.

Choose A Tattoo Artist Who Has Pictures Of His White Ink Tattoos

White ink tattoos are not a project for the novice tattooist. Choose your tattoo studio and artist carefully. Ask to see his books and be sure there are examples of white ink tattoos in there. If he doesn’t have examples, he’s probably not very good at applying white ink tattoos, or never even attempted one. Also, ask to see pictures of the tattoos once healed.

If you see his books and like what you see, go for it! But if his white ink tattoo examples don’t look the way you want your tattoo to look, don’t expect him to just start doing things right with your piece.

In hopes to broaden my own knowledge as well as providing even more relevant content here at Pounded Ink, I have added a forum to the site.

The forum contains several sections to discuss any form of body modification. There is even sections where you can upload pictures of your own modifications for the world to see.

Registration is free and only requires confirmation of your e-mail address to activate, so you can start posting right away.

In time I hope to build a strong helpful community devoted to every aspect of body modification. No procedure is too extreme to talk about.

What are you waiting for? Click here to see what all the fuss is about.. Stop by, say hello, and tell the world what you think. The more the merrier. See you on the forum!

Aaron Cain – Tattooing since 1991, Aaron Cain has developed the biomechanical tattoo style like few others.  Taking inspiration from the top tattooist and artist in his field Aaron Cain has risen to the top of the custom tattoo spectrum.  Cain’s tattoos can be distinguished by thick lines and hard edges amid the cluster that is biomechanical. Not only is he on the top of the tattooing field Cain produces a full line of custom tattoo equipment.

Paul Booth – The name Paul Booth immediately brings images of death and mayhem to mind.  An established tattooist and artist Booth is well known in the tattoo industry for his almost lifelike portraits of everything evil. After devoting nearly twenty years of his life to the art of tattoo, where his is revered for his efforts to elevate the medium into the realm of fine art, Paul Booth has become a household name. His unparalleled dedication to the evolution of his craft has garnered him numerous awards around the globe, top tier magazine features (among them, many cover stories), public and television appearances including CNN, MSNBC, DISCOVERY, A&E, TLC, MTV and more.

Nick Baxter – Nick Baxter is well known for his gorgeous large scale color tattoos.  “Tattoos are an exciting and especially rewarding medium to work in, as the personal interaction and displaying of the work is a large part of it. However, there are some visual limitations to working on skin, but a lot of the challenge and fun for me is to figure out effective ways around these, to try to push the genre to new heights and possibilities.” Baxter Says.

Ryan Dearringer – Ryan Dearringer is an award winning, custom tattoo artist at Sacred Ink, in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is among a new breed of tattoo artists, who attempt to blend art, in all its wonders and splendors, into the world of tattoo. He pulls inspiration for his tattoo work from all styles and influences of art, and attempts to push the boundaries of tattoo to new levels. Whether it be Portraits, Old School tattoos, New School tattoos, Graffiti style, or Fine art tattoos, Ryan has a way of making it work in an innovative manner. He believes that the core of what makes a tattoo artist great, is that they are an artist first, and a tattoo artist second. He approaches each and every tattoo design he creates in a similar manner.

Carson Hill - At just under 30 years old Carson Hill is a biomechanical master.  “My goal as an artist of any kind is to improve. To further understand dimensional reality, light and shadow and how it plays with all things, the complexity of simplicity, the depth of infinity, and so on, and interpret it into my work. To further define my subtle message through each artwork I bring into manifestation.” Hill says.

Mike DeVries – A rather young addition to the ever competitive tattoo market, Mike DeVries has stood his ground as one of the top color tattooist in the country.  DeVries continues to create ultra realistic color tattoos that look as though they will jump off the skin at any minute.  Hoping to expand his abilities, to achieve the utmost realistic pieces on skin. “Portraits, animals and pin-ups are my favorite things to do; anything that is real.” Mike says.

Jesse Nesse – Specializing in cover up tattoos as well as world renowned custom color tattoos, Jessee Nesse has risen to not only the top tattooist in Nebraska, but to the rank of top tattooist in his field.  Nuclear Ink Custom Tattoo first opened in the summer of 1999 located in South Omaha.  In 2000, it moved to it’s current location just north of 72nd and Dodge Street in Midtown.  The shop was started out as a shop exclusively for custom tattoos.

Bob Tyrrell - Bob Tyrrell started tattooing at the tender age of 34, already a student of art, Tyrrell has risen to the top of the tattooing field with his insanely realistic black and grey portraits.  If you are in the market for a wickedly realistic tattoo then you should look no further then Bob Tyrrell.  The finished works of this tattooist look like they are ready to jump off the skin and join in conversation.

Brandon Bond - Brandon Bond is one of the most successful, published, and award winning tattoo artists in the world. He is the owner of the thriving All or Nothing Tattoo empire in Atlanta, Georgia. He also owns a publishing company called Stranglehold which sells movies, books, clothing, artwork, and other tattoo related products. After 15 years of compulsive workaholism, Brandon still tattoos constantly, staying booked about a year in advance. Last year Brandon opened a second studio Anti Art Elite. Located northwest of Atlanta, GA.

Guy Aitchison - Guy Aitchison is at the top of the biomechanical tattoo field.  He has produced some of the best large color biomech tattoos I’ve ever seen.  Torn between painting and tattooing he has created numerous works featured in top art and tattoo magizines. Guy believes tattooing is a very critical type of commercial art, where success or failure of any given project has very deep implications for the client. This forces an extra degree of dedication and flexibility on the part of the artist, and the clients’ participation helps maintain a flow of fresh ideas and images into the artist’s bag of tricks.

As you can probably attain from the names for this tattoo that there is a great deal of sexual inuendo that a tramp stamp.  Popular culture has taken this tattoo fad and pasted its own spin like in the movie Wedding Crashers ; ““See that tattoo on the lower back? It might as well be a bull’s eye.”

There may be some more factors behind this tattoo trend as lower back tattoos are usually designed to accent the natural figure of a woman and is less seceptable to stretching if a person goes through various weight changes.

Is the tramp stamp dead?  Certainly not, but it could be a fading trend as tattoo removal clinics across the country have ever increasing appointments for tramp stamp removal.

The same care and consiteration should be taken in the decision to get a tramp stamp as any other tattoo.  Remember.. your new tattoo will be there forever, so choose wisely.

Any tattoo that you get on your upper shoulders or even a tramp stamp will greatly limit any potential back tattoo. Full back tattoos usually run from the shoulders all the way down the back to below the ass cheeks, creating a stunning first impression and since it is a flat canvas the viewer is instantly drawn into the design.

Full back tattoos do however take a lot of time and dedication. Expect to sit anywhere from 20-100 hours depending on the intricacies of the selected tattoo design. Black and grey pieces will of course take much less time then a full color back tattoo, but to each his own.

There is always a chance that your existing tattoo might be able to be worked into a full back piece or even covered up. Certain things are not easy to work around like tribal designs, which may require you to get some laser work done before starting a full back piece.

I myself have made the mistake of getting a tattoo on my back before taking the time to think about what I really wanted there. I still haven’t decided on a back piece design but I can assure you once I do, my existing back tattoo will be covered so I can use the entire canvas.

Why I Don’t Like Tribal Tattoos

Before you decide to get a tribal tattoo first think about why you are getting it.  Any tattoo should have some sort of meaning to you, even if that meaning is nothing more then “this looks bad ass”.  If you don’t descend from bronze age tribal nomads, why mark yourself with huge black stripes for the sake of looking cool?  There are much more intricate and original designs you could work with to better express yourself.

Tribal tattoos also are generally uncomplimentary to the body as far as form is concerned.  Tribal tattoos have harsh edges and very solid lines that don’t accent the body’s natural form nearly as well as other custom tattoo styles.

If you want to make a tattoo stand out, make it tribal as it will most definitely counter any natural form your body has.

My Experience With Tribal Tattoos

I have a tribal tattoo as do a few of my close friends.  Even though they look cool when you get them our general consensus is that tribal tattoos clash with every other tattoo we get and many of us end up covering them after we admit our mistakes.

How many tribal paintings do you see on art gallery walls?  This isn’t a new medium that is breaking ground it’s simply a lot of solid color that people think looks cool.

Old School Tattoos

What is an old school Tattoo?  Old school means exactly what the name implies, old.  These are traditional designs very common on tattoo flash sheets.  If your grandpa got a tattoo while he was in the military it’s an old school tattoo.  Other common forms of old school tattoos are simple flowers, hearts with banners, various script writing, among other similar simple designs.

New School Tattoos

Just as old school mean old, new school tattoos are relatively new in design.  New school tattoos can be drastically out of proportion, using a lot of foreshadowing creating the feeling that the tattoo is coming out of the skin.  You will find that new school tattoos have movement in the subject matter.  Some common examples of new school tattoos would be claws coming out of the skin, comic book style characters and scenes, various three dimensional designs, etc.

Portrait – Reality Tattoos

A portrait tattoo is exactly what the name implies it is a rendering of an actual photograph.  It is common for people to get pictures of their kids or loved ones as well as scenes from their favorite movie.  I have also included reality tattoos which include realistic looking animals or objects.  The beauty about a portrait tattoo is that no one else will ever have that same tattoo even if they would get the same movie scene on their arm the artist rendering of it will be different for each tattooist.

There are some great portrait tattooist out there but there are even more poor ones.  Be sure to do your research on your tattooist previous work before embarking on a portrait tattoo.  There is nothing worse then a horrible looking portrait on your body.

A Tattoo Is A Form Of Self Expression

A tattoo should be as individual as the person who will be wearing it.  There is no excuse for having a tattoo that you aren’t happy with just because you got a deal on it.  The cost to have a custom tattoo drawn by a qualified tattoo artist is well worth the money you will spend for a lifetime of enjoyment knowing that no one else has your tattoo.

When thinking about your next tattoo, think outside the box and remember you are only limited by your imagination.

What Type Of Tattoo Sleeve Do You Want?

The first thing you need to do, even before choosing a design or theme for the tattoo, is to decide what type of tattoo sleeve you want to get.  Variations include full, three-quarter, half, and quarter sleeves.  As the names imply each variation defines where the tattoo stops on the arm as measured from the shoulder.

Keep in mind that there will be times when you will want to cover your tattoo such as job interviews, corporate meetings, court, etc.  Your choice on sleeve length should be based on your acceptance level of exposed tattoos.  Like it or not tattoos do carry a stigma and the longer your sleeve the more difficult it is to cover up.

How Long Does A Sleeve Tattoo Take?

Besides the length of the tattoo sleeve, the bigest factor in the amount of time a tattoo will take is the choice between full-color or black and grey.  Full-color tattoos take much longer to complete as every square inch of the skin must be penetrated with ink.

I have two full-color quarter sleeve tattoos.  They go from my shoulder to about six inches from my elbow.  They are just barely covered by a t-shirt, which allows me to work in a corporate environment without discrimination from tattoos.

Each of my quarter sleeves took roughly 20-22 hours of tattooing to complete.  Given my experience a full color sleeve can take as much as 40-50 hours of solid tattooing to complete.  My buddy has a full sleeve biomech tattoo in black and grey.  His tattoo took only 30-35 hours to complete as it was only black and grey.

As you can see any type of tattoo sleeve is going to take several extended tattooing sessions to complete.  Durring this time it is important to keep your tattoo out of the sun so your colors don’t fade between the initial start of the tattoo and the final session.  This is more important for color tattoos as opposed to black and grey, but still important.

Black And Grey Tattoos

Black and grey is the oldest form of tattoos and performed by the proper artist can produce stunning results. The work is described as black and grey because the highlights of the tattoo are natural flesh that is not tattooed, or occasionally some white for more dramatic effect.

Black tattoo ink is made from a variety of sources including Magnetite Crystals, Powdered Jet, Wustite, Bone Black, and Logwood. The same ingredients can be found in common India art ink.

Black and grey tattoos are the most resilient to damage from the sun. If you do a lot of work outside and refuse to wear sunblock you should get a black and grey tattoo rather then color work.

Full-Color Tattoos

Full-Color tattoos are by far my favorite type of tattoo. Color tattoos open up an entirely new realm of possibility.

There is a higher rate of ink rejection with color tattoos vs. black and grey due to the various compounds used to create color tattoo inks. Tattoo ink companies don’t have to reveal the ingredients in pigment products. These are closely guarded recipes and finding out exactly what is in your tattoo ink may be nearly impossible.

Color tattoos are created using a slew of compounds including, but not limited to, Ochre, Cinnabar, Cadmium Red, Iron Oxide, Napthol-AS pigment, Disazopyrazolone, Cadmium Seleno-Sulfide, Clay, Cadmium Yellow, Curcuma Yellow, Chrome Yellow, Disazodiarylide, Chromium Oxide, Malachite, Ferrocyanides, Lead Chromate, Monoazo Pigment, Phthalocyanine, Manganese Violet, various aluminum salts, Quinacridone, Carbazole, Titanium Dioxide, Barium Sulfate, and Zinc Oxide.

Don’t let that list scare you, rejection to tattoo ink is not very common. In the event that you do have a reaction it will likely be to only one specific color.

In order for color tattoos to retain their color you must keep them out of the sun. The suns rays can break down inks in a matter of years. Even a single bad sunburn could cause your tattoo to loose its original luster.

Which Hurts More Color Or Black And Grey?

Black and grey tattoos don’t hurt nearly as much as color. The main reason for this is that with a color tattoo you must apply pigment to every square inch of the skin. With black and grey the shading is achieved using less pigment then a color tattoo would require, therefore it hurts less.

Most tattoo artist are not well versed in other languages or cultures so they take the flash off the wall at face value. All oriental writing styles must have close attention paid to the stroke, width, and angle of every aspect of the character or you risk changing the meaning completely.

You must also realize that you can not try to spell an English word in Chinese or Japanese because they do not have an alphabet. You will find flash translation sheets in many tattoo shops that list characters to represent our phonetic alphabet. In order to take those symbols and have a native oriental understand what you mean is ludicrous. It would just look and read as chicken scratch.

You must also understand that just because a string of symbols means one thing in say Chinese does not mean they translate the same in Japanese. Even though they use the same set of characters they can have totally opposite meanings.

For example…

馬鹿 in Chinese literally means “horse & deer”, however in Japanese, they mean “stupid” or “idiot/fool”

安伯 makes “Amber” in Chinese, but in Japanese it makes “Yasunori”, which is a guy’s name. Imagine walking around the streets of Japan with a tattoo that you thought was your wifes name in a heart, but everyone that sees you on the street will wonder why you have a mans name in a heart.

There are companies advertising that they have “thousands of professional tattoo designs.” Here are just a few examples of the tattoos in the “Kanji” section of a well known flash tattoo site. Not only are there many Kanji symbols with poor brushwork, lots of them have completely wrong English translations like:

色 “Wild” – really means “Color”

子 “Spirit” – really means “Child” but with an extra unnecessary stroke at the top

夕 “Child” – really means “Evening”

天 “To Die Young” – really means “Sky, Heaven”

荒 “Passion” – really means “Rough, Violent, Coarse”

You can probably imagine the embarrassment if you had gotten one of these tattoos to later find out it means something completely different. Your “Wild Child” would become “Color Evening”.

I personally don’t understand why someone would want a tattoo that is not in their native language. I have words tattooed on myself but every one is in English and has no possibility of being misinterpreted. If you must get Kanji, Chinese, or Japanese tattoos I stress that you do your homework. If you don’t believe me you can check out Hanzi Smatter a website devoted to the misuse of chinese characters in western tattoos. There are hundreds of examples of tattoos that do not mean what their owners intended.