Water Color Tattoos, That's a Negative Ghostrider.

Water color tattoos are rad right?

Sure, until several years go by and it looks a little “bleh.” They look so bright and crazy when you first get them, but over a period of time, that changes. Every tattoo fades, I know that. But there are two main things that hold a tattoo together for longer that watercolor tattoos generally do not have: solid line work and BLACK.

When I was apprenticing I learned a lot about color theory and lighting and shading and all that good stuff you obviously need to know to be a good artist. One thing that has been burned into my brain is that, If you don’t have solid line work, you don’t have a solid tattoo. Although you may not think about it when you’re flipping through an artist’s portfolio, (at least I HOPE you’re looking through your artist’s work before you decide to let them mark your body permanently.)  Line work is a big deal! Although most watercolor tattoos usually have some guiding lines somewhere, stay away from those that don’t, it won’t be pretty forever. All those shades of blues and grays and purples you want will all look “bleh” at some point. Without any line work, your tattoo isn’t held together.

BLACK. It is so important. Ugh, SO IMPORTANT. Shading gives your tattoo dimension. Makes it come together.  Tattoos hold up so much better when they have some black in them. Promise. Black also makes the rest of the colors pop. I’m a black work nerd though, so I may be a little biased towards having lots of black involved. Some artists may completely disagree with me, everyone has a different opinion, and none of them are wrong. 

Basically my little biased rant is summed up into this: Watercolor tattoos are trendy and pretty to look at now, but I don’t believe they are something that will hold up in the long run. On the bright side, if you have one that you're not crazy about, watercolor is pretty easy to cover up with the right artist. (Also I didn’t post pictures because I think that’s an assy thing to do.) No one should regret their art. At some point you wanted what you got, and you have it. So love it. 

Also this, never do this. You know what I'm talking about.

"Cheap tattoos aren't good, and good tattoos aren't cheap." - Every artist ever, because it's true.