Full Black Sleeves

dib

What's the craic with these? Basically it's the whole arm coloured in in black. No design nothing. Just black. I've seen a few of them around on the internet and one or two in Dublin. Is there some tribal significance behind them or something else maybe? Not really my bag to be honest but would love to understand the significance, if any behind these tatts.

Cheeeaaaarrrrs!

Will

Most people use it to cover up tattoos instead of getting them removed, I think. I'm sure everyone has their own reasoning for it. I know one guy in the states has his leg totally covered in just black, dunno why but sure no harm

dib

No harm at all! Was just wondering if there was any tradition behind it.

SolvableKnave

I saw a guy with one of these a few years ago in Dublin. He did have design in it though. All his deisgns, mostly stars, were bare skin and the rest was all black ink. Sort of like a negative tat.

crotalus667

iirc one of the guys that played with Rage Against the Machine hs two plack sleves he gets them done over and over again with different types of ink (some thing to do with being a vegan)

serjical_strike

im starting to get this done on wednesday, starting small with a thin and thick band on my forearm and intending to have the design done over time in the negative space (bare skin) heres a good blog with lots of pics of it.. i think its an interesting tattoo to get and somethin a bit different to the norm.. http://****yeahblackwork.tumblr.com/

only worry i have is job prospects

djrlittleton

i will actually be one of the people with a half black sleeve in the future, you live you learn

Killer_banana

crotalus667 wrote: »

iirc one of the guys that played with Rage Against the Machine hs two plack sleves he gets them done over and over again with different types of ink (some thing to do with being a vegan)

But black ink (afaik) is the only ink not which isn't vegan?

Greentopia

serjical_strike wrote: »

im starting to get this done on wednesday, starting small with a thin and thick band on my forearm and intending to have the design done over time in the negative space (bare skin) heres a good blog with lots of pics of it.. i think its an interesting tattoo to get and somethin a bit different to the norm.. http://****yeahblackwork.tumblr.com/

only worry i have is job prospects

OMG that's Alice!!
I mean I know that girl! The top entry I mean with two black arms and topless! Her names Alice, she's a knitter in London, I know her through Ravelry.com-knitters are badass
She has some amazing tattoos, as you can see. After she got her arms all black she got scarification on the right arm-you can see some of the design.

I don't know why others get it done but I know she did it because she had a concept in her head of how she wanted to look and her arms blacked out just fitted the aesthetic she wanted to achieve.

btw that link doesn't go anywhere because of the swear word filter here, but I guess people can guess what the asterisks are

serjical_strike

Greentopia wrote: »

OMG that's Alice!!
I mean I know that girl! The top entry I mean with two black arms and topless! Her names Alice, she's a knitter in London, I know her through Ravelry.com-knitters are badass
She has some amazing tattoos, as you can see. After she got her arms all black she got scarification on the right arm-you can see some of the design.

I don't know why others get it done but I know she did it because she had a concept in her head of how she wanted to look and her arms blacked out just fitted the aesthetic she wanted to achieve.

btw that link doesn't go anywhere because of the swear word filter here, but I guess people can guess what the asterisks are

haha pretty random that you know her..!! her tattoos are great and she likes cider i see

i started mine albeit small in comparison to hers on my left arm, as soon as i got it i knew i wanted more. i just got 2 black bands on thin and one thick with plans to add onto it.

forgot about the swear filter in links.. ah well, you figured it out anyway eh

Greentopia

serjical_strike wrote: »

haha pretty random that you know her..!! her tattoos are great and she likes cider i see

Yeah she must REALLY like it, lol! Can't imagine getting tattooed in my arm pit though...ouch!! she's a braver woman than me.

serjical_strike wrote: »

i started mine albeit small in comparison to hers on my left arm, as soon as i got it i knew i wanted more. i just got 2 black bands on thin and one thick with plans to add onto it.

Cool! Simple clean graphics like that look great as tattoos I think.

Raze_them_all

My arms elbows to wrist will be blackwork, I didn't plan it that way i just ended up wanting black solid pieces

IamMetaldave

Also other reasons for it is to cover up a mess Like when an artist is starting out and they tattoo their leg, for instance. They may black it out down the road.

serjical_strike

after a week now mine is finally starting to look normal, i had some crazy peeling on it, im guessing since its just one big black area! will put up a picture when im all healed.

anyone else wanna put up a picture so i can see your blackwork..?

mystique150

Having read the OP's post, I thought that a black tattoo sounded ridiculous but that site is really good! Some of the work looks great and is very distinctive!