The craft · 7 min read
Black and grey realism: how it's done, and how it ages
One ink, diluted into greys, laid in layers that read like a photograph. Done right, a realism piece softens with age and keeps its shape. Done wrong, it blurs into a grey smudge inside five years. The difference is decided before the needle touches skin.
By Roberto Ojeda · · VVV Tattoo, Kenneth City, FL
What is black and grey realism?
A tattoo made with black ink alone, with the black thinned into a range of greys, that aims to look like a photograph or a drawing from life rather than a graphic. Portraits of people and pets, statues, animals, religious images, mythology. There are no outlines in the way a traditional tattoo has outlines; the edges are made by the change from one value to the next, the way they are in a photo. It's the style I do most, and the one most of the work on the main page is in.
How is it done?
The ink is one black, mixed down with distilled water into a few fixed dilutions, from near-black to a wash that is barely there. The piece is built in passes. The darkest areas go in first and solid, because everything else is read against them. Then the mid-greys, laid in layers rather than in one heavy pass, so the shading is smooth and the skin isn't overworked. Then the lightest washes, which do more than people think: a wash is what makes a cheek round, or a chrome surface turn. The highlights are mostly the skin itself, left alone. The needle groupings change with the job: tight for the sharpest detail, wide and soft for the big gradients.
What this means for you is that a realism piece is slower than it looks. The time is in the layers.
What makes a realism tattoo age well?
Every tattoo softens. Over the years the ink spreads a fraction in the skin and the edges between values get wider. In a style with no outlines that spread is the whole risk, and four things decide whether it stays a face or becomes a smudge.
- Solid blacks. The darkest areas have to be truly dark and big enough to anchor the piece. A realism tattoo built from mid-greys alone has nothing to hold it when the greys fade, and they fade first. Contrast is what survives.
- Size. Detail needs room. Two values that are a millimetre apart on the stencil will be one value in ten years. A portrait needs a certain size to be a portrait later, which is the next section.
- Placement. The upper arm, the thigh, the chest and the back hold detail best: the skin is stable and mostly out of the sun. Hands, fingers, feet and the inside of the wrist and elbow wear faster, and a face that gets rubbed across a knuckle every day won't stay a face.
- Sun. Ultraviolet light breaks pigment down a little every time it hits the piece. It's the main cause of fading, and it's the one thing you control after the day. Sunscreen, SPF 30 or more, every time it's out, once it has healed. There's more on this in the Florida aftercare post.
How big should a portrait be?
Bigger than most people first ask for. The usual request is a face about the size of a playing card, and that is below the size where eyes, lashes and the lines of a mouth can be separate things after healing. For a face on its own, think the size of your palm with the fingers, at least; for a face with hair, shoulders or background, the whole of an upper arm or the outside of a thigh. If the size you have in mind is smaller than that, there's usually a version of the idea that works: a detail of the face instead of the whole, or a different reference where the face is the whole frame. That's a conversation for the request, not a reason not to send it.
What reference photo works?
The reference is the piece. I can't put in what the photo doesn't have. What works: one photo, sharp, in focus on the face, lit from one clear direction so there are real shadows to build from, at a decent resolution, taken by a camera rather than screenshotted from a story. What doesn't: a photo lit from the front by a flash, which flattens everything; a tiny crop from a group shot; heavy filters, which have already thrown away the mid-tones; and five photos where you'd like the eyes from one and the smile from another. Pick the photo you love, send a couple of alternatives, and we'll pick the one that will translate to skin. For pets it's the same, and a photo at the animal's eye level beats one from above.
Pets and people
Pet portraits are built exactly the same way, and they have their own trap: fur. Fur is thousands of tiny highlights, and a tattoo can't be thousands of anything. The job is to find the few dozen marks that read as fur from across a room and leave the rest as soft value. The Shih Tzu in the portfolio is that, if you want to see what it looks like healed on the arm.
Questions people ask
Does black and grey hurt less than colour?
No. The needle does the same work either way. What changes the feeling is placement, size and how long you sit, not the ink. Smooth shading over a large area is a long, steady sensation rather than a sharp one.
Will a realism tattoo need touch-ups?
Sometimes. Once it has settled, around three months, a few spots may have healed lighter than the rest, especially where the skin moves or rubbed during healing. Send a healed photo and that's judged then.
Can an old tattoo be covered with black and grey realism?
Often, but it depends on how dark and how large the old piece is: realism covers with dark areas, so the new design has to be able to put its shadows where the old ink is. Send a clear photo of it through Venue or Instagram and you'll get a straight answer.