Tattoos have gone from being something associated with soldiers and sailors to becoming modern pieces of art. They now come in countless different styles, with limitless designs and a wide variety of colors. The type of color, shading and tones will vary depending on the tattoo design, tattoo artist and tattoo style. Color tattoos became more notable in the 17th century as tattooing in Japan became more comfortable. To this day, Japanese tattoos are filled with bright and bold colors. The popularity of tattoo colors is connected to the advances of tattoo ink.
Choosing the color for your tattoo is an important part of the tattoo design process. Colors can change the whole effect of the inking, can help it come to life or to resemble the original image. Several tattoo styles gravitate towards bright color work. New school watercolor, old school, traditional, Japanese, and illustrative all heavily rely on colors to complete the work. When contemplating what colors you want in your tattoo, there are a few things you will need to consider. If you want a small tattoo, colors may visually blend and muddy into each other. Big pieces look better with color, as the shades will stand out and be clear to read. When choosing the best color for your tattoo, remember that your skin tone will impact how it looks on the skin and how long it will last. Colored tattoos will always look different once healed, so make sure you keep that in mind during the inking process.
Vibrant and pastel colors like pink, yellow, light blue and green tend to fade faster. The shades commonly used in watercolors are short-lived as well. Despite being incredibly popular, this style of tattooing requires frequent touch-ups to keep the vibrancy and longevity of the colors. How good your color tattoo looks and for how long it will stay looking good will depend on the area you get tattooed. This is because some body parts are more susceptible to aging and weight relayed changes. Shoulders and ankles have tight skin that doesn’t become loose over time, this means your tattoo should keep its shape and color better for longer. Arms, thighs, and abdomen go through lots of changes as we age, affecting the way the tattoo looks.
Color tattoos are incredibly beautiful and have stemmed from an immensely vibrant history. They are used in a wide variety of different styles, from modern genres like biomechanical and new school tattoos, to traditional styles like Japanese and American traditional tattoos. Colored tattoos tend to fade quicker, especially light colored and watercolor pieces because of the technique that is utilized. White tattoos fade the quickest out of all tattoos, especially when exposed to the sun. These are some of the things to take into consideration as well as educating yourself on the longevity of color tattoos, and how the tattoo will look several years down the road.