As a African American man (and a tattooist) I recognize how carful you are being with your wording, and how many obstacles you had to dodge in making this video. I appreciate your efforts. Thank you 🙏🏽
A trick I have used when designing for darker skin tones is to actually use a color picker on a picture of their skin tone ( I use photoshop or my Ipad) I then make the first layer of the image that color and then draw my design on top of that. It keeps me from getting distracted in details that may not even be visible. It also gives me and the client an idea of how it's going to look on the skin.
To summarise 1. simplify the shapes and have less detail 2. more contrast between the skin tone and the darkest ink 3. placement is important in terms of lighter/darker areas of the skin that are exposed to sunlight 4. shading/transitions can flatten the image so do that last if requested
When my old highschool art teacher said “let your darks be dark and lights be light” I knew it was important but I never knew how much it would come in handy in my future career! I’m mixed and I know how hard it is for people with darker skin can find an artist confident with their skin tone, so I’m gonna focus my efforts on making a place for said people to come confidently knowing they will get eye catching and long standing work
This video is almost word for word how my mentor explained it to me. Very well said, this is the only video I've come across addressing this situation and in detail tattooing darker skin tones. Spot on thank you so much
DUDE you’re AWESOME!!! YOURE the artist I’ve been lookin for. Literally have stayed bare for years until I found an artist who shows it. YOU brought a dude in my SAME tone.Hope your in LA
Funny how I learned more from fireside then working in a shop and having four teachers teaching me after five years of being self taught I learned shit besides how to pull skin on a ass no joke sadly shop closed and I wasted four months of my life giving free work tattoos and so much in gas money point is thanks for the pro tips that really help growth in work 😊
Same. Most "mentors" i feel set you up to fail especially if they think you maybe better. I never learned anything from my mentor that I did not already know
Thanks for the continued sharing of darker skin techniques, it's been very helpful. The problem with swelling was a problem I ran into that you covered a while back and has helped also. Really appreciate it.
Thank you for this. It has been one of the three least offensive explainations I've heard. As requested, could you recommend a particular ink for darker complexions or would most inks work well?
I don't think any of y'all read wtf he said. He said it's the "LEAST OFFENSIVE" he's offering applause to the video for being appropriate. It's a thin ice conversation, and the video offered a great description to other artists.
Hahaha...I noted how he was dancing around his words and using euphemism to explain things..E.g.. he uses "value" in place of "where you can see the tattoo", in order to bypass the trope that tattoos tend to blend into darker skin and thus loosing detail.🤣🤣.
Do you have any videos for even darker skin? I am significantly darker than he is. Actually very close to true black after a day at the beach, in the sun. Like I would make him look light skinned. Is there hope for me getting a decent tattoo without having to come as close as one foot and shining a bright light just to notice that I have a tat?
It probably would blend in with your skin . I imagine it would be best to get something that doesn't involve a lot of shading and had a.minamalistic approach so it can be easy to make out
Ive tattooed some really dark people One guy was seriously the color of an egg plant. I used Salupe black by Intenze and it actually showed on him very well. In the picture, he looked a few shades lighter because the ink was so dark. His other tattoos had a wierd silvery sheen and could barely be seen. Someone also told him you have to go deeper on black skin. So he had hella blow outs and scarred lines cuz another dum ass artist was incompetent
Old video, I know 😊 it feels like this approach is basically the same approach for any skin type, no? The difference is simply the adjustment to compliment the particular level of melanin. Just how one makes different adjustments depending on area and a person's anatomy. It feels the melanin part is the most obvious of them all.
I have full sleeve in both arms and I wear long sleeves in the summer. I only wear shirts with short sleeves indoors. I am too lazy to put sunscreen on my body so I just use clothes as protection. Tattoos aren't cheap. Must give up the sun exposure if you truly wish that your tattoos don't lose colour overtime and look faded.
I've had trouble discerning the stencil/guideline art when applied to darker skins in the conventional manner. Did I clean from this (well done and welcome) video that your layout was perhaps beefed up somewhat before beginning the actual gun work with the use of a marker? If so, is a surgical marker the only thing appropriate or could something such as a Sharpie be safely used? Also, are you aware of any lighter shaded transfer mediums which can be substituted for the conventionally produced dark copy/fax variety of inks commonly used for transfer stencils? Thanks for the great info.
Hey I know I’m 5 months late but you just have to do your research and ask around. Social Media is your most powerful tool. I have been to two artists and beforehand I viewed their work. Both were very comfortable working with me and in their portfolio, I’ve seen them work with dark skin clients and how well their work healed on the skin. I will be trying one more artist, who will be my first black artist in the near future. Just like my other artists, I look at his style and how clean his work is. Definitely take your time picking the right artist and see how well they work with you. Make sure you’re comfortable as possible when getting your first tattoo. Also pay attention to the shop they work at as well. Make sure it’s clean, friendly, and all of the artists are professional. It is quite difficult to find artists that are used to tattooing darker skin but just look around within your area and don’t be afraid to ask around. Where I’m from, not many people of my complexion have tattoos, it’s mostly brown skin or white....even few light skins have tattoos around here.
Jake if a dark skinned person comes in and they are dark as Shaquille O'Neal, just be honest and tell them that "this might not be for you". Almost as bad as when I went on a Bahama cruise and we got off the boat and all the white women were getting their hair braided lol. The good thing is that it was only temporary.
My gosh my boi thinking to hard into this..im a "blacc" tattoo artist and ive seen yellow show up on a guy that dark smh lol i watch this video..and all i could think is..your video would make a "white" artist nervous as hell😂😂😂which is already true...all you have to do is not water your inks down...my guy😭
This nigga was so uncomfortable talking about black skin so the BLM or some crazy organization wouldn’t try and cancel his ass 😂😂😂😭, mad respect bruh thanks for the insight
I plan to do a black and grey rise tattoo, to cover up is last tattoo, my question here is does grey ink really gives the dimensional effect to the skin???
My skin tones white so most all tattoos I get will be able to look dark because my skin tone is but I always found it complicated it how could you get a tattoo that's real dark on someone that's already dark.
Almighty-Keyyy # I have no idea what you’re talking about. Who said anything about African Americans, and that they are the only black people? We’re talking about how other races have dark skin. South Asians, Pacific Islanders, Middle Eastern people, etc.
i'm black and have multiple tattoos and they all show beautifully. i get complimented on them all the time (good compliments). my skin tone is actually light brown but my opinion still stand on black people (whether dark skin tone or light skin tone) with tattoos look good. also it would help to find a good artist who knows what they doing.
@@cartoonkid72 you are absolutely right. I’m dark skin and I know many people with darker skin tone like me who have nice, visible tattoo. One guy I seen was a bit darker than Daniel Kaluuya and I was able tell his tattoos on his arm was Roses and his leg tat was a basketball theme sleeve with a jersey number from 8ft away. I’m a little lighter than Kaluuya and I get complements of my arm tattoos all the time. You just have to find the right artist and choose the right design that will be visible like the video says.
