May 10, 2024 • 21 mins
White ink has been around as long as I have been tattooing, but I am getting way more questions about it in the last few years than ever before.
In this episode I will answer all of the most frequently asked questions I get about white ink tattoos: how white ink works, why people may want to get them, other applications of white ink in tattoo art, including white outline tattoos, who they are best for, how they age and more.
If you've been curious about white ink, I am so glad you found your way to this episode.
You can connect with me, Micah Riot, as well as see my tattoo art on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/micahriot/
Micah's website is www.micahriot.com
The podcast is hosted on Buzzsprout but truly lives in the heart of Micah's website at:
https://www.micahriot.com/ink-medicine-podcast/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Micah Riot (00:23):
Hello darlings, Micah Riot here with another
episode of Ink Medicine Podcast.
It is May 10th 2024.
Today we're going to be talkingabout white ink, everything
about it how it works, what itlooks like, why people want it,
why somebody might not want it,what type of skin it looks best
(00:45):
in and how it ages.
I do get a fair amount ofquestions about white ink and I
just thought I would put all myknowledge in one place.
But first a tiny little bit ofpersonal news, because I believe
that you guys want to hear it,so I'll tell you.
I have finalized the details ofmy trip to Chicago.
(01:06):
I will in fact be at ButterfatStudios.
I will be there for five days.
I have three days full and twodays still not, but it already
feels like it's very much worthmy time.
I'm very excited to go meetfolks, meet other tattoo artists
, see a different shop, see howpeople do things in a different
(01:27):
shop.
So much of the time when youwork alone, especially as an
artist, you feel like you are inthis little bubble and the
world is so small, and that'snot a feeling I really like.
I like an expansive worldview,I like the feeling of belonging
and the feeling of havingcommunity and friends all around
(01:47):
, everywhere, all around theworld, and I feel like when I
connect with other tattooartists especially on the
podcast, because I don't do aton of guest spotting I feel
like I get closer and closer tothat expansive worldview of
feeling.
I have friends in many places.
I think I've mentioned this,but I'm so excited to meet
(02:08):
Esther Garcia.
I've been following her worksince I was a baby tattoo artist
.
I love her philosophy ontattooing.
I love the way that sheapproaches it.
I love her color tests onmelanin skin.
She's been doing thesebeautiful lavender color tests
on brown skin because purple andbrown are opposites on the
(02:29):
color spectrum.
Gorgeous, and just what a coolidea.
She's an absolute legend and Ican't wait to meet her.
I will also get to meet JamesOlivia Chu Hillman, who was on
the podcast last fall.
I did two episodes with thembecause we could not shut up.
We talked for so long and itwas so fun, and they are still
(02:53):
currently my teacher in arelational skills workshop.
That's been nine months longand we're coming to the end of
it and we have become more likefriends and when I go to Chicago
I'm going to meet them, hangout with them and tattoo them.
(03:13):
Hopefully, I'm excited, veryexcited for all those things.
It's going to be really nice tojust be in a different city,
wander around, explore, be bymyself for a week and just do my
thing, get out of my routine.
I used to love traveling alone,but I haven't done it in really
in years and it's time to goback to some of my things that I
(03:36):
used to love that wereinterrupted by various things,
including my marriage from a fewyears ago and also the pandemic
.
And, on that note, if you havethings you used to do, that you
used to love and you haven'tdone them in a long time, do
them again.
You will love them again.
It will bring joy to your life.
(03:57):
It will bring meaning to yourlife.
It will help you feel moreexpansive about your life, like
your life is bigger.
It doesn't matter that youhaven't done it in years.
Just do it again, do it again.
And now on to the episode.
Okay, white ink.
Some people love it, somepeople hate it.
(04:19):
Maybe you don't know what itlooks like.
Maybe you don't know what itlooks like when you see somebody
out in public and the marks yousee on their body are thin
white lines.
That could be a white inktattoo.
Essentially, white ink as aline on the skin.
(04:39):
In fairly light skin looks likea scar.
It's lighter than the skin,it's denser than the skin and
it's fairly hard to notice fromfar away, but when you get close
it's there.
It's obvious.
The way white ink tattoos workis the same way any tattoo works
(05:00):
.
It's inserted into the skinwith a needle the tattoo needle
just the same way any othertattoo is inserted into the
layers of the dermis.
The skin holds onto theparticles of the ink, kind of
encapsulates them into a littlesack and then they stay there
for the rest of your life.
(05:21):
Does white ink fade faster?
White ink has less contrastwith the wearer's skin and so
you're going to notice it fadingmore.
I believe that all ink fades atabout the same rate, although I
have seen some old piecesmissing oranges and yellows and
still retaining their blacks andtheir blues and their greens
(05:42):
and their reds.
So I think it depends on theperson how well they take care
of their skin, if they usesunscreen, if they hang out in
the sun a lot, if their skintends to get a lot of sun damage
through the year.
Also, which arm, if it's on anarm, like if it's your driving
(06:03):
arm, and it's always out thewindow and it's always getting
sun exposure on it.
And honestly, I haven't seenenough white pieces come back
after many years 10 years toreally know from my own
experience if white ink how itlooks many, many, many years
later.
The people I know who havewhite ink tattoos, who I've
(06:25):
known for a long time, they lookjust as fresh to me as they
always have.
Why would people want to getwhite ink tattoos?
So first let's talk about whiteonly and then we'll talk about
white as an element in othertattoos that have color or black
.
So why people might want to getwhite tattoos is because they
(06:50):
want to have tattoos, visibletattoos, maybe tattoos on their
face or their neck or theirhands, their arms, their chest,
but they don't want them to bereally obvious.
They want them to be fairlysubtle.
Other people like the look ofscarification, but they don't
actually want to getscarification.
It's a much more intenseexperience.
(07:11):
There's cutting involved andtattooing is, you know, just
more palatable in our society.
Or maybe they don't care aboutthe subtlety of it, they just
really like the look of it.
It can look very otherworldly,very ethereal, absolutely
beautiful.
I have long been interested inplaying with white ink.
(07:31):
For other people it doesn'treally work so much on my skin.
My skin's a little bit toogreen, too yellow, too olivey to
have white show up on my skin.
But I've been playing with iton other people now for
basically my entire career and II think it's great.
But I also I love alternativetattoo styles.
(07:52):
I love to experiment.
I don't take longevity quite asseriously as some tattoo
artists do.
And that brings me to my nextpoint is white ink.
Tattoos, sadly, work best invery light skin.
So people will sometimesapproach me with an assumption
(08:14):
that white ink and lighter inkslook best on dark skin.
That is not the case.
It would seem to be so if theink was sitting on top of the
skin.
The way that, like a dark skinperson, a deeper skin person
looks amazing and bright colorsand bright yellows and fuchsias,
um, in white, like white makeupon a on a face that has a
(08:35):
melanin skin.
So beautiful.
But tattoos sit underneath yourskin, so your own pigment is a
filter through which you thenview the ink.
The skin grows over the tattooparticles, ink particles and
obscure them If you have melaninin your skin, it will obscure
the ink particles and you won'tbe able to see the lighter
(08:56):
colors.
So the deeper the skin tone,the less light colors are able
to be seen through it.
The less light colors are ableto be seen through it.
This is why to get a highercontrast tattoo on very deep
skin tones you really wanna gowith basically black, blocky,
thick, contrasting, graphicblack shapes.
(09:18):
Or if the skin is kind of moremedium tone, you can definitely
get color into melanin skin.
Just sort of depends on yourspecific, the shade your skin,
the texture of your skin.
Like sometimes I'm very muchsurprised like I have a client,
also friend, who is half blackand half eastern european and we
(09:39):
are working on a very colorfulpiece on her back and the colors
look fantastic in her skin.
I really can't be sure back andthe colors look fantastic in
her skin.
I really can't be sure what itis about specifically her and
her skin.
I would say her skin is on thelike, maybe medium, like lighter
to medium.
I'm sorry I don't have theright language for describing
this person's skin tone, butshe's not white, she does not
(10:02):
look white, she does not pass aswhite, her skin is not light
and the colors are just glowingin her skin.
We have yellows, we have pinks,we have light greens.
They look fantastic in her skin.
It's kind of the first time Ihave noticed.
I have come upon somebody whohas melanin skin and the colors
are just.
(10:22):
You know, I don't think I'veseen brighter color in people's
skin before.
It's gorgeous, which is not tosay that having black tattoos is
not gorgeous.
I love black tattoos on deeperskin tones.
I think it's so elegant, it'sso beautiful.
(10:43):
Anyway, we're getting away fromthe topic of white ink.
In conclusion, white ink doesnot work for melanated skin,
does not work for deeper skintones, and I have skin that is
not that melanated, but it ismelanated enough that I cannot
have white ink.
It just doesn't work.
(11:04):
It doesn't show up.
I've tried and that's okay.
You know it's not noteverything's for everybody, but
I am happy to experiment withwhite ink on lighter skin tones.
The more transparent you are,the more translucent you are.
The more you're like Irish youknow, kind of like Irish rosy,
neutral toned skin, like blueveins you can really see the
(11:27):
veins through their skin morethe white will show up in your
skin.
So now let's talk about whiteink tattoos versus white in your
tattoos.
We just discussed the white inktattoos.
That just involves all white.
Mostly people do them in linework, but sometimes you see
thicker elements in them andlike little filled in areas.
(11:51):
I probably wouldn't do a wholebig swatch of just white.
I think that white can healuneven skin, can be a little
different from like spot to spot, and it can also over time kind
of like get a yellowish orbrownish tint.
So you know, like a big swathof it would also be quite
(12:11):
experimental, like not that Iwouldn't do it, I'd do it, but I
don't usually do it since Ican't predict the results quite
as well.
The other way I have beenplaying with white ink is to use
it as an outline.
Sometimes it's an outlineoutside of the outline, like
I've done black pieces or piecesthat were quite dark and deep
and had a lot of shading in it,and then I'd put a white outline
(12:33):
all around the entire piece togive it a little glow, sometimes
to set it off against somethingin the background so it doesn't
meld with the background.
I've also been using white asjust its own outline.
There's several pieces of mineon social media with that idea
in mind.
So in one situation it was ahip piece and it was, I think,
(12:54):
the very first time I ever didthis technique, and it was, I
think the very first time I everdid this technique and I had
been seeing some Korean artistsuse yellow and also light blue
and teal as outlines and I waslike, great, I love that.
Look, I'm also going to try itwith more organic shapes and
with white.
And so I drew this sort offlower on this woman's hip and
(13:16):
then I outlined all of it inwhite Using a fairly thick
visible line I think it wasmaybe like seven or nine with
these very like long kind ofspindly petals, leaves and
petals that were encompassingher whole hip, kind of holding
fanning out over her entire hip,and we had her heal, the white.
(13:37):
The reason why I didn't want togo in with color right away is
so that I didn't dirty the white.
I wanted the white to remain asclean and crisp as possible and
when you have a fresh, opentattoo, like you did, a bunch of
light color, and the skin isstill weeping right, like you
just did it, it's not closed upyet If you are wiping dark
(14:01):
colors into it.
As you tattoo another part ofthe tattoo, it will get dirty.
So, especially white, verysusceptible to getting dirty and
healing that like gray wash orwhatever color gets in there as
part of the tattoo, and so I didnot want that to happen and I
let her heal the white.
(14:21):
It also took us quite a longtime to get all the white
outlining in.
When she came back we startedvery carefully with a very small
needle filling in the color,kind of doing these like bright
blocks of color to create reallythe shape and the feel and the
vibrance of the flower.
(14:42):
There's all kinds of pinks,magentas, uh, some yellow, some
green, I think a little bit ofteal in there, um, some red in
there too.
It's really very, um,eye-catching, very lovely to
look at.
Bright, it's quite bright, andyeah, the resulting look is so
(15:03):
interesting, so otherworldly.
The white outline kind of givesit this ethereal feel and then
the colors um make like justbring a smile to your face.
It's, it's quite cool.
It's almost like the flowerlooks more alive because the
white is more realistic, almosteven like nothing in the world
has a black outline on it butwhite it's just light, like
(15:26):
there's light behind it, so italmost looks like it's alive
more because of the lack ofblack outline and the white
outline around it instead.
And another way that people usewhite in tattoos is just to give
things highlights.
You'll oftentimes see justreally anything, any tattoo,
even if it's like, you know,hair on a face, like there's not
(15:49):
hair on a face, face you know agirl face, a pretty face, and
then there's beautiful long hairand like to give it that shine.
People will use white as likelittle dots or little lines to
create that illusion of like togive it that shine.
People will use white as likelittle dots or little lines to
create that illusion of likelight hitting it and it being
shiny.
Or you know, if you're doingberries, there's usually a white
highlight on that, like anykind of fruit, but really
(16:12):
anything.
You can use white on almostanything and make it pop a
little bit more.
And you know, if this person'sskin takes white, well, you'll
get that little bit of an effect.
It will give it like a littlesomething extra.
And no, white highlights do nothurt more than the rest of the
tattoo.
It's just that you do them lastbecause of what I was saying
earlier.
You don't want to get yourwhite dirty and so you do it
(16:34):
less after you've done all theblack, all the shading, all the
color.
So people do think they hurtmore because it's the very end
of the tattoo.
You've been sitting there.
This is like the last thing youdo.
The artist has been wiping atyou, you're irritated, you're
hungry, you're done.
So that's why it hurts more.
But usually if the artist wantsto do the white highlights,
(16:57):
just let them.
It's going gonna look cooler,believe me it will.
Another way I've used white inkis to clean up fuzz around a
blown out tattoo.
Say, I'm touching up an oldtattoo or I'm maybe covering
something up and there's alittle bit of under skin fuzz in
the skin from like some blowoutfrom before usually blow out.
(17:18):
That's from blocking orcoloring.
It kind of looks like a bruiseunder the skin.
From like some blowout frombefore, usually blowout.
That's from black ink or colorink.
It kind of looks like a bruiseunder the skin and oftentimes,
when tattoos are 10 years old,they're just kind of fuzzy
around the edges.
And so if I'm cleaningsomething up for somebody, I'm
redoing it, retouching it,helping it to look fresher, just
kind of like giving it a littlerefurbishing.
I will sometimes use white onthose edges to just give it like
(17:39):
a crisper outline, a crisperedge.
If you are a tattoo artist, onetip for you to make sure you
remember is to always use aclean needle on your white.
If your needle is dirty, ifyou've been working in color or
in black and then you don't washit out well enough, if you've
been working in color or inblack and then you don't wash it
(18:00):
out well enough, if you stillhave remaining black ink in
there, your white will turn gray.
So make sure you're eitherusing a very fresh needle tip,
you're replacing your tip to useyour white, or you're cleaning
it out very well, washing it outwell, wiping it off on your
paper towel until there's noblack ink coming out.
And the last thing is aquestion I get often is how does
(18:21):
white ink age?
And that is a variable answer.
It's really hard to say,because each person's skin is
different and the way they takecare of their skin is different
and the amount of sunscreen theywear is different.
I think we do know thatsunscreen will help keep your
ink looking fresher, brighter,for longer, and I think that
(18:43):
applies to white ink as well,because sun will eat the pigment
right out of your skin.
If you sit in the park everyday all summer long with no
sunscreen, your tattoos willnoticeably fade.
So although I cannot tell youwith all with real certainty how
it's going to age, I can tellyou that sunscreen will help.
(19:05):
So wear a sunscreen on yourtattoos and your other body
parts, especially your face.
But you know, in general Ithink some people say it can get
kind of yellow, it can get alittle bit brown.
It doesn't usually go fullyyellow or fully brown.
It stays fairly light, maybelike creamy kind of a creamy
quality to it on your skin.
And you know, I still think itlooks cool and I think it's
(19:29):
worth getting.
It's worth thinking about.
If you have the kind of skin,that is an obvious choice for it
, of course, and if you don't,we can still try it.
You know I do color tests forpeople sometimes, and sometimes
it's about looking to see howcolors will look after healed on
melanated skin or skin that hasa lot of eczema issues, like it
(19:53):
depends.
You know, it's just likesomeone has really sensitive
skin and hasn't done well withcolor before.
You know, it's just likesomeone has really sensitive
skin and hasn't done well withcolor before.
I'll also oftentimes test whiteto see how that shows up on
their skin, and that, I believe,is all I have to say about
white ink.
I might have missed something,I might have to make an addendum
(20:13):
, but as of now, this seemspretty comprehensive.
I hope it satisfied yourcuriosity.
I hope that helped you thinkabout your future tattoos and in
a more expansive way, and Ihope it brought you some clarity
on questions you might've hadbefore and maybe given you a
little bit of knowledge.
If you are a tattoo artist andlooking for more tips and I hope
(20:36):
you're having a beautiful dayyou know what I'm gonna ask
myself.
What's a small thing that'sbeen making me happy lately, and
I'll tell you what it'sactually been drinking water.
I'm trying to get my water inthroughout my day, just really
putting an effort in, and itmakes me happy to drink water,
to have access to clean,delicious, beautiful, safe water
(21:00):
.
Not everybody in the world isso lucky and it is something
that's been making me a littlebit more happy lately.
Thank you.
Hello darlings, Micah Riot here with another
episode of Ink Medicine Podcast.
It is May 10th 2024.
Today we're going to be talkingabout white ink, everything
about it how it works, what itlooks like, why people want it,
why somebody might not want it,what type of skin it looks best
(00:45):
in and how it ages.
I do get a fair amount ofquestions about white ink and I
just thought I would put all myknowledge in one place.
But first a tiny little bit ofpersonal news, because I believe
that you guys want to hear it,so I'll tell you.
I have finalized the details ofmy trip to Chicago.
(01:06):
I will in fact be at ButterfatStudios.
I will be there for five days.
I have three days full and twodays still not, but it already
feels like it's very much worthmy time.
I'm very excited to go meetfolks, meet other tattoo artists
, see a different shop, see howpeople do things in a different
(01:27):
shop.
So much of the time when youwork alone, especially as an
artist, you feel like you are inthis little bubble and the
world is so small, and that'snot a feeling I really like.
I like an expansive worldview,I like the feeling of belonging
and the feeling of havingcommunity and friends all around
(01:47):
, everywhere, all around theworld, and I feel like when I
connect with other tattooartists especially on the
podcast, because I don't do aton of guest spotting I feel
like I get closer and closer tothat expansive worldview of
feeling.
I have friends in many places.
I think I've mentioned this,but I'm so excited to meet
(02:08):
Esther Garcia.
I've been following her worksince I was a baby tattoo artist
.
I love her philosophy ontattooing.
I love the way that sheapproaches it.
I love her color tests onmelanin skin.
She's been doing thesebeautiful lavender color tests
on brown skin because purple andbrown are opposites on the
(02:29):
color spectrum.
Gorgeous, and just what a coolidea.
She's an absolute legend and Ican't wait to meet her.
I will also get to meet JamesOlivia Chu Hillman, who was on
the podcast last fall.
I did two episodes with thembecause we could not shut up.
We talked for so long and itwas so fun, and they are still
(02:53):
currently my teacher in arelational skills workshop.
That's been nine months longand we're coming to the end of
it and we have become more likefriends and when I go to Chicago
I'm going to meet them, hangout with them and tattoo them.
(03:13):
Hopefully, I'm excited, veryexcited for all those things.
It's going to be really nice tojust be in a different city,
wander around, explore, be bymyself for a week and just do my
thing, get out of my routine.
I used to love traveling alone,but I haven't done it in really
in years and it's time to goback to some of my things that I
(03:36):
used to love that wereinterrupted by various things,
including my marriage from a fewyears ago and also the pandemic
.
And, on that note, if you havethings you used to do, that you
used to love and you haven'tdone them in a long time, do
them again.
You will love them again.
It will bring joy to your life.
(03:57):
It will bring meaning to yourlife.
It will help you feel moreexpansive about your life, like
your life is bigger.
It doesn't matter that youhaven't done it in years.
Just do it again, do it again.
And now on to the episode.
Okay, white ink.
Some people love it, somepeople hate it.
(04:19):
Maybe you don't know what itlooks like.
Maybe you don't know what itlooks like when you see somebody
out in public and the marks yousee on their body are thin
white lines.
That could be a white inktattoo.
Essentially, white ink as aline on the skin.
(04:39):
In fairly light skin looks likea scar.
It's lighter than the skin,it's denser than the skin and
it's fairly hard to notice fromfar away, but when you get close
it's there.
It's obvious.
The way white ink tattoos workis the same way any tattoo works
(05:00):
.
It's inserted into the skinwith a needle the tattoo needle
just the same way any othertattoo is inserted into the
layers of the dermis.
The skin holds onto theparticles of the ink, kind of
encapsulates them into a littlesack and then they stay there
for the rest of your life.
(05:21):
Does white ink fade faster?
White ink has less contrastwith the wearer's skin and so
you're going to notice it fadingmore.
I believe that all ink fades atabout the same rate, although I
have seen some old piecesmissing oranges and yellows and
still retaining their blacks andtheir blues and their greens
(05:42):
and their reds.
So I think it depends on theperson how well they take care
of their skin, if they usesunscreen, if they hang out in
the sun a lot, if their skintends to get a lot of sun damage
through the year.
Also, which arm, if it's on anarm, like if it's your driving
(06:03):
arm, and it's always out thewindow and it's always getting
sun exposure on it.
And honestly, I haven't seenenough white pieces come back
after many years 10 years toreally know from my own
experience if white ink how itlooks many, many, many years
later.
The people I know who havewhite ink tattoos, who I've
(06:25):
known for a long time, they lookjust as fresh to me as they
always have.
Why would people want to getwhite ink tattoos?
So first let's talk about whiteonly and then we'll talk about
white as an element in othertattoos that have color or black
.
So why people might want to getwhite tattoos is because they
(06:50):
want to have tattoos, visibletattoos, maybe tattoos on their
face or their neck or theirhands, their arms, their chest,
but they don't want them to bereally obvious.
They want them to be fairlysubtle.
Other people like the look ofscarification, but they don't
actually want to getscarification.
It's a much more intenseexperience.
(07:11):
There's cutting involved andtattooing is, you know, just
more palatable in our society.
Or maybe they don't care aboutthe subtlety of it, they just
really like the look of it.
It can look very otherworldly,very ethereal, absolutely
beautiful.
I have long been interested inplaying with white ink.
(07:31):
For other people it doesn'treally work so much on my skin.
My skin's a little bit toogreen, too yellow, too olivey to
have white show up on my skin.
But I've been playing with iton other people now for
basically my entire career and II think it's great.
But I also I love alternativetattoo styles.
(07:52):
I love to experiment.
I don't take longevity quite asseriously as some tattoo
artists do.
And that brings me to my nextpoint is white ink.
Tattoos, sadly, work best invery light skin.
So people will sometimesapproach me with an assumption
(08:14):
that white ink and lighter inkslook best on dark skin.
That is not the case.
It would seem to be so if theink was sitting on top of the
skin.
The way that, like a dark skinperson, a deeper skin person
looks amazing and bright colorsand bright yellows and fuchsias,
um, in white, like white makeupon a on a face that has a
(08:35):
melanin skin.
So beautiful.
But tattoos sit underneath yourskin, so your own pigment is a
filter through which you thenview the ink.
The skin grows over the tattooparticles, ink particles and
obscure them If you have melaninin your skin, it will obscure
the ink particles and you won'tbe able to see the lighter
(08:56):
colors.
So the deeper the skin tone,the less light colors are able
to be seen through it.
The less light colors are ableto be seen through it.
This is why to get a highercontrast tattoo on very deep
skin tones you really wanna gowith basically black, blocky,
thick, contrasting, graphicblack shapes.
(09:18):
Or if the skin is kind of moremedium tone, you can definitely
get color into melanin skin.
Just sort of depends on yourspecific, the shade your skin,
the texture of your skin.
Like sometimes I'm very muchsurprised like I have a client,
also friend, who is half blackand half eastern european and we
(09:39):
are working on a very colorfulpiece on her back and the colors
look fantastic in her skin.
I really can't be sure back andthe colors look fantastic in
her skin.
I really can't be sure what itis about specifically her and
her skin.
I would say her skin is on thelike, maybe medium, like lighter
to medium.
I'm sorry I don't have theright language for describing
this person's skin tone, butshe's not white, she does not
(10:02):
look white, she does not pass aswhite, her skin is not light
and the colors are just glowingin her skin.
We have yellows, we have pinks,we have light greens.
They look fantastic in her skin.
It's kind of the first time Ihave noticed.
I have come upon somebody whohas melanin skin and the colors
are just.
(10:22):
You know, I don't think I'veseen brighter color in people's
skin before.
It's gorgeous, which is not tosay that having black tattoos is
not gorgeous.
I love black tattoos on deeperskin tones.
I think it's so elegant, it'sso beautiful.
(10:43):
Anyway, we're getting away fromthe topic of white ink.
In conclusion, white ink doesnot work for melanated skin,
does not work for deeper skintones, and I have skin that is
not that melanated, but it ismelanated enough that I cannot
have white ink.
It just doesn't work.
(11:04):
It doesn't show up.
I've tried and that's okay.
You know it's not noteverything's for everybody, but
I am happy to experiment withwhite ink on lighter skin tones.
The more transparent you are,the more translucent you are.
The more you're like Irish youknow, kind of like Irish rosy,
neutral toned skin, like blueveins you can really see the
(11:27):
veins through their skin morethe white will show up in your
skin.
So now let's talk about whiteink tattoos versus white in your
tattoos.
We just discussed the white inktattoos.
That just involves all white.
Mostly people do them in linework, but sometimes you see
thicker elements in them andlike little filled in areas.
(11:51):
I probably wouldn't do a wholebig swatch of just white.
I think that white can healuneven skin, can be a little
different from like spot to spot, and it can also over time kind
of like get a yellowish orbrownish tint.
So you know, like a big swathof it would also be quite
(12:11):
experimental, like not that Iwouldn't do it, I'd do it, but I
don't usually do it since Ican't predict the results quite
as well.
The other way I have beenplaying with white ink is to use
it as an outline.
Sometimes it's an outlineoutside of the outline, like
I've done black pieces or piecesthat were quite dark and deep
and had a lot of shading in it,and then I'd put a white outline
(12:33):
all around the entire piece togive it a little glow, sometimes
to set it off against somethingin the background so it doesn't
meld with the background.
I've also been using white asjust its own outline.
There's several pieces of mineon social media with that idea
in mind.
So in one situation it was ahip piece and it was, I think,
(12:54):
the very first time I ever didthis technique, and it was, I
think the very first time I everdid this technique and I had
been seeing some Korean artistsuse yellow and also light blue
and teal as outlines and I waslike, great, I love that.
Look, I'm also going to try itwith more organic shapes and
with white.
And so I drew this sort offlower on this woman's hip and
(13:16):
then I outlined all of it inwhite Using a fairly thick
visible line I think it wasmaybe like seven or nine with
these very like long kind ofspindly petals, leaves and
petals that were encompassingher whole hip, kind of holding
fanning out over her entire hip,and we had her heal, the white.
(13:37):
The reason why I didn't want togo in with color right away is
so that I didn't dirty the white.
I wanted the white to remain asclean and crisp as possible and
when you have a fresh, opentattoo, like you did, a bunch of
light color, and the skin isstill weeping right, like you
just did it, it's not closed upyet If you are wiping dark
(14:01):
colors into it.
As you tattoo another part ofthe tattoo, it will get dirty.
So, especially white, verysusceptible to getting dirty and
healing that like gray wash orwhatever color gets in there as
part of the tattoo, and so I didnot want that to happen and I
let her heal the white.
(14:21):
It also took us quite a longtime to get all the white
outlining in.
When she came back we startedvery carefully with a very small
needle filling in the color,kind of doing these like bright
blocks of color to create reallythe shape and the feel and the
vibrance of the flower.
(14:42):
There's all kinds of pinks,magentas, uh, some yellow, some
green, I think a little bit ofteal in there, um, some red in
there too.
It's really very, um,eye-catching, very lovely to
look at.
Bright, it's quite bright, andyeah, the resulting look is so
(15:03):
interesting, so otherworldly.
The white outline kind of givesit this ethereal feel and then
the colors um make like justbring a smile to your face.
It's, it's quite cool.
It's almost like the flowerlooks more alive because the
white is more realistic, almosteven like nothing in the world
has a black outline on it butwhite it's just light, like
(15:26):
there's light behind it, so italmost looks like it's alive
more because of the lack ofblack outline and the white
outline around it instead.
And another way that people usewhite in tattoos is just to give
things highlights.
You'll oftentimes see justreally anything, any tattoo,
even if it's like, you know,hair on a face, like there's not
(15:49):
hair on a face, face you know agirl face, a pretty face, and
then there's beautiful long hairand like to give it that shine.
People will use white as likelittle dots or little lines to
create that illusion of like togive it that shine.
People will use white as likelittle dots or little lines to
create that illusion of likelight hitting it and it being
shiny.
Or you know, if you're doingberries, there's usually a white
highlight on that, like anykind of fruit, but really
(16:12):
anything.
You can use white on almostanything and make it pop a
little bit more.
And you know, if this person'sskin takes white, well, you'll
get that little bit of an effect.
It will give it like a littlesomething extra.
And no, white highlights do nothurt more than the rest of the
tattoo.
It's just that you do them lastbecause of what I was saying
earlier.
You don't want to get yourwhite dirty and so you do it
(16:34):
less after you've done all theblack, all the shading, all the
color.
So people do think they hurtmore because it's the very end
of the tattoo.
You've been sitting there.
This is like the last thing youdo.
The artist has been wiping atyou, you're irritated, you're
hungry, you're done.
So that's why it hurts more.
But usually if the artist wantsto do the white highlights,
(16:57):
just let them.
It's going gonna look cooler,believe me it will.
Another way I've used white inkis to clean up fuzz around a
blown out tattoo.
Say, I'm touching up an oldtattoo or I'm maybe covering
something up and there's alittle bit of under skin fuzz in
the skin from like some blowoutfrom before usually blow out.
(17:18):
That's from blocking orcoloring.
It kind of looks like a bruiseunder the skin.
From like some blowout frombefore, usually blowout.
That's from black ink or colorink.
It kind of looks like a bruiseunder the skin and oftentimes,
when tattoos are 10 years old,they're just kind of fuzzy
around the edges.
And so if I'm cleaningsomething up for somebody, I'm
redoing it, retouching it,helping it to look fresher, just
kind of like giving it a littlerefurbishing.
I will sometimes use white onthose edges to just give it like
(17:39):
a crisper outline, a crisperedge.
If you are a tattoo artist, onetip for you to make sure you
remember is to always use aclean needle on your white.
If your needle is dirty, ifyou've been working in color or
in black and then you don't washit out well enough, if you've
been working in color or inblack and then you don't wash it
(18:00):
out well enough, if you stillhave remaining black ink in
there, your white will turn gray.
So make sure you're eitherusing a very fresh needle tip,
you're replacing your tip to useyour white, or you're cleaning
it out very well, washing it outwell, wiping it off on your
paper towel until there's noblack ink coming out.
And the last thing is aquestion I get often is how does
(18:21):
white ink age?
And that is a variable answer.
It's really hard to say,because each person's skin is
different and the way they takecare of their skin is different
and the amount of sunscreen theywear is different.
I think we do know thatsunscreen will help keep your
ink looking fresher, brighter,for longer, and I think that
(18:43):
applies to white ink as well,because sun will eat the pigment
right out of your skin.
If you sit in the park everyday all summer long with no
sunscreen, your tattoos willnoticeably fade.
So although I cannot tell youwith all with real certainty how
it's going to age, I can tellyou that sunscreen will help.
(19:05):
So wear a sunscreen on yourtattoos and your other body
parts, especially your face.
But you know, in general Ithink some people say it can get
kind of yellow, it can get alittle bit brown.
It doesn't usually go fullyyellow or fully brown.
It stays fairly light, maybelike creamy kind of a creamy
quality to it on your skin.
And you know, I still think itlooks cool and I think it's
(19:29):
worth getting.
It's worth thinking about.
If you have the kind of skin,that is an obvious choice for it
, of course, and if you don't,we can still try it.
You know I do color tests forpeople sometimes, and sometimes
it's about looking to see howcolors will look after healed on
melanated skin or skin that hasa lot of eczema issues, like it
(19:53):
depends.
You know, it's just likesomeone has really sensitive
skin and hasn't done well withcolor before.
You know, it's just likesomeone has really sensitive
skin and hasn't done well withcolor before.
I'll also oftentimes test whiteto see how that shows up on
their skin, and that, I believe,is all I have to say about
white ink.
I might have missed something,I might have to make an addendum
(20:13):
, but as of now, this seemspretty comprehensive.
I hope it satisfied yourcuriosity.
I hope that helped you thinkabout your future tattoos and in
a more expansive way, and Ihope it brought you some clarity
on questions you might've hadbefore and maybe given you a
little bit of knowledge.
If you are a tattoo artist andlooking for more tips and I hope
(20:36):
you're having a beautiful dayyou know what I'm gonna ask
myself.
What's a small thing that'sbeen making me happy lately, and
I'll tell you what it'sactually been drinking water.
I'm trying to get my water inthroughout my day, just really
putting an effort in, and itmakes me happy to drink water,
to have access to clean,delicious, beautiful, safe water
(21:00):
.
Not everybody in the world isso lucky and it is something
that's been making me a littlebit more happy lately.
Thank you.
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