Choosing the Right Colour – A Never Ending Quest

How to choose the right colour for your tattoo is a question so often asked. Let’s help you get familiar with the possible answers.

Picking the colors and knowing more about the types of ink will help you. Hopefully you can avoid unwanted tattoo cover ups or removal because of bad results or simply a change in personal taste. However the colour you choose does affect this!

We will give you some basic advice about picking the right colour and the best ink according to your skin tone.

Right colour of ink

Tattooing inks are basically made of pigments and carriers. Some ingredients are chemical, while others are organic. They also contain alcohol and water. However, there are inks which are completely organic and some are hybrid mixtures. Tattoo artists often use inks, which are already mixed.

Still, there are people who like to make their own inks. Organic pigments are more skin friendly and safe. Industrially produced inks contain iron and metal oxides as well as heavy metals.

Some colours are more resistant to aging and some are easier to remove. Black, blue and green fade less, and in case you want to remove them it is easier. Vivid colours like red, orange and yellow are difficult to remove but fade fast. Large bright tattoo pieces in yellow or orange might take years to remove. On the contrary, black pieces might be gone after a few months of (painful) procedures.

Types of skin

If you have a pale skin, you can ink yourself with light colours and almost skip the black ink. The colours will still fade with the years, but will remain more visible compared to people with darker skin tones. Colours like red, pink and orange suit pale skins quite well. Fair skins can bear all colours well. You should better avoid yellow though, as it often looks bad. It will not be visible enough anyway, so feel free to go for another colour.

Dark skin tones are the hardest to reproduce good work on. The skin tan affects the colour of the ink. Darker skins look well with black, red, purple and green tattoos. Light colours will disappear and blue might tint to green.

How to choose the tattoo palette?

So, we’ve reached the hardest part. To choose the best palette first consider the design you’re getting. The colours depend on many details like shading, gradients and the tattoo style itself. The best option is to use pure, unmixed colours, thus avoiding your tattoo age as much as possible. You can choose your colour according to its symbolic meaning or psychological effect.