White Ink Tattoos

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Monday May 19th, 2008 @ 8:40 PM

Filed under: Tattoos

I got two white star tattoos on my inner wrists on Feb. 1st of this year… they were very painful and hurt to touch for 3 weeks. Once they healed, they had a yellow tint and looked kind of like cottage cheese. I went to my new artist and he said that white ink should never be used in larger areas and he won’t do white ink other than to highlight. We tried to go over the white stars w/red ink but it only held the red color along the outline. He said that the middles are scar tissue (from the first guy going too deep) and aren’t going to hold color.

I would like to get a word done in white ink but I’m unsure about it… I know that Shannon had some white ink facial work done and I’ve seen other white ink tattoos on this site. Can anyone please help shed some light on this for me? I would really like to pursue this…

Thank you!

Mary

White tattoo pigment is generally titanium oxide, and the carrier tends to be thinner than other pigments. With time and exposure to the sun, most white pigment will take on a yellowish tint. Not always, but… a fair amount of the time. The reason a lot of artists tend to not use it for larger areas is that it’s a little harder to get in the skin consistently- overworking is a major concern when trying to get a solid white area solid. That’s what causes the scarring.

That’s not to say it’s not possible, but it’s something that’s certainly better done by artists who’ve worked with white extensively.

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