Dark brown tattoo - more likely to blur?

CamillaRhodes

I'm getting a small, quite delicate tattoo at the top of my spine / nape of my neck on Tuesday. I mentioned to my artist while planning it that I want it nice and delicate and feminine, esp. as it'll be my most 'prominent' tattoo, and he suggested we do it in dark brown rather than black as it'll be slightly 'softer' looking. I love this idea, but after doing a bit of googling there seems to be differing opinions on whether the dark brown ink is more likely to blow out / blur over time.

As the design will have quite thin lines which will curve relatively close to each other, are they gonna be more likely to smudge and run into each other than if we did it in black?

Would appreciate your expert advice!

Arawn

CamillaRhodes wrote: »

I'm getting a small, quite delicate tattoo at the top of my spine / nape of my neck on Tuesday. I mentioned to my artist while planning it that I want it nice and delicate and feminine, esp. as it'll be my most 'prominent' tattoo, and he suggested we do it in dark brown rather than black as it'll be slightly 'softer' looking. I love this idea, but after doing a bit of googling there seems to be differing opinions on whether the dark brown ink is more likely to blow out / blur over time.

As the design will have quite thin lines which will curve relatively close to each other, are they gonna be more likely to smudge and run into each other than if we did it in black?

Would appreciate your expert advice!

all small intricate tattoos will blur in time

K.r.a.t.o.S

Well, 'blowout' and 'blur over time are two different things really. Blowout generally happens if your artist places the ink too deep into your skin...so making sure you have an experienced artists is the key to avoiding that. Also the old concept of tattooing was to use black outline to hold in the colour ink inside the design...that was back when inks weren't nearly as good as they are now. There doesn't seem to be any scientific studies on the matter, but I'm of the opinion that because good colour inks are thicker in general than black inks, that they less likely to blowout.
As for blurring over time; certainly brown ink is closer to your skin colour so as it fades it might blend in more than a black ink tattoo would. But there again, inks are much more advanced now so they last much longer. Especially in Ireland with the lack of sun!
My opinion as a tattoo artist, is that you don't need to worry so much about these questions(for the reasons I've stated above)....but you should be basing your choice on your opinion of look and how you will feel about it. My two cents about it artistically; I think all-brown only really suits indian(henna) type designs...i haven't come across any other type of artwork that looks good all-brown. Also because brown doesn't stand out from the skin as much as black, with a intricate tattoo with small lines close to eachother it's more likely to look like a clump of ink from a distance.

CamillaRhodes

Much appreciated KratoS!