Reinventing The Tattoo Forum

I have received the same request and have done it in small areas.....isolating my cap and defining where it went....I refused to spread it out in my greywash and jack my piece up.The way I see it is the human body is relsiliant,..and tattoo pigments are not part of the body to begin with, and we have artists out thee using blacklight ink made by reputatble companies. Old school inks were made with ashes..and while I certainly would not advocate you shoud dump a large amount of grandpa in the orange....knowing that in the eye there may be a little bit of him with you is comforting to the client and not an issue. ( chances are also the little bit you use will not even take into the puncture and will end up on the wiping towel)...anyway I will probably get exiled for admitting to this...but wouldnt be the first time a client asked the artist

 

 

I have received the same request and have done it in small areas.....isolating my cap and defining where it went....I refused to spread it out in my greywash and jack my piece up.The way I see it is the human body is relsiliant,..and tattoo pigments are not part of the body to begin with, and we have artists out thee using blacklight ink made by reputatble companies. Old school inks were made with ashes..and while I certainly would not advocate you shoud dump a large amount of grandpa in the orange....knowing that in the eye there may be a little bit of him with you is comforting to the client and not an issue. ( chances are also the little bit you use will not even take into the puncture and will end up on the wiping towel)...anyway I will probably get exiled for admitting to this...but wouldnt be the first time a client asked the artist

 

 

well thank you for the honest advice and hopefully we dont get exiled

Personaly its a waste of time. If you saw what real pigment looks like and how fine it is. Ashes wouldnt even get into the skin as most of it just settles at the bottom of the ink cap. The only way is to grind the ashes to the size of pigment to get it into the skin. Otherwise its just in the mind of the client.

thank you for the advice

Generally when using ashes at a clients request, I will have them bring in the ashes at least a day prior to the appointment. Then I'll sift them to separate the finest particles from the course matter. I then autoclave the fine stuff to help guarantee no foreign bacteria. When setting up for the tattoo I open the ashes and mix them in with the black in front of the client. Whether or not any ashes actually get pushed into the skin, at least I did it in the safest manner, and they have peace of mind. 

Yeah, what Clinton said.  I have done this many times over the years.  I spectate the powder for the large pices, and autoclave.

Most black ink is traditionally made from charred animal bones, so adding some human in there isn't a big deal.   I have never had a problem.