Thanks, that’s exactly what I wanted to know. Basically whether there was a difference in needles for filling in blackout vs. filling in a color. I was wondering because it seemed to me that you need to be more careful filling in a butterfly outline than doing a total blackout.
Here’s a reddit post that includes a gif of a small version.
Yeah, I thought some attitudes would change when I read her explanation for her left leg blackout:
Just know that I absolutely LOVE it, and it’s extremely refreshing for me to see all the garbage, drunken tattoos I had scribbled all over my leg that I got before I became sober, be covered by sleekness and simplicity.
Eh, I’m not much of a tattoo aficionado, but the contrast of one side almost all black while the other side is mostly white is definitely a striking artistic effect. If that’s the effect that she was going for, then she definitely succeeded. And that’d be true even if the blackout didn’t also have the effect of covering up other ink that she regretted.
Also not at all a fan of tattoos here, but I thought that left leg looked quite elegant, like a silk stocking (that you can’t take off).
Question - will the black still look consistent with modern [?] inks over time? I knew a guy who had a tattoo with a solid chunk of black in it and over a decade it had become very uneven and blotchy looking and he was thinking about getting it completely re-inked.
Let this be her last battlefield.
Blowouts like what you’re describing can happen quickly due to poor technique. With a solid black piece there’s nowhere for spread/blowout to go.
Yes!! He stayed perfectly still (which you have to). No flinching!
It’s not just her left leg. Both her arms are done and it looks like they are done unevenly.
I assume she didn’t have all well thought out, non drunken tats on her other leg, she just hasn’t done it yet. You can google leg tattoos than look like stocking that look way better than that. She didn’t have that option, wanting to cover old tats.
Mad scientists need to invent white tattoo ink so she could start over with all new designs on that arm.
?? There is white tattoo ink.
I did not know that!
White ink is used primarily for adding highlights. It does not age well IME. A friend has a long, thin crescent on her arm done in white ink. She purposely tanned after it was done, then had it done again and again. It looks like a scar/fibrosis. I really like it.
The blackout art can be a big improvement over what it’s covering up.
Could be. I didn’t really think her tats were bad, compared to a lot I have seen. Like I said, her choice, she knows why she got the original tats and I don’t. It just seems like overkill for a professional tattoo artist. I would have went thru whatever laser removals and cover up tats I had to in order to avoid having all four limbs blacked out. Apparently she tried, but decided this was best.
I assume her sobriety and ditching her occult persona had something to with her decision. Ditching a lifestyle you’ve lived for a couple of decades usually comes along with a lot of changes. For her, this was the answer.
Don’t forget, blacking out the tattoos from that part of her life might have just as much meaning to her as those tattoos meant at the time.
Like getting an ex’s name crossed off (ie Tattoo Artist by Normal Rockwell or Johnny Depp’s “Wino Forever”).
It’s still there, it’s still part of your life, but it’s also a constant reminder that it was a part of your life that you don’t want to repeat.
I agree. Like I said, she knows what her tats meant. The blackout is something I personally wouldn’t do. If all else failed, I’d rather have the old tattoos than the blackout. I think it really looks bad when she leaves some tats in the blackout, like her dad’s face. It’s totally amateur looking and ruins the visual of the blackout as stockings/gloves.
Absolutely. Just horrible.
I think this new look is better than the old tats, myself
Other than having black hair and being conventionally pretty, I don’t think they look all that alike.Von Teese has a single tattoo, and it’s tiny. Von D seems to wear jeans and rocker wear as much as, if not more than, vintage-style clothes, whereas Von Teese is almost-always in that retro look.
For, “one of the most talented tattoo artists in the world”, that sure is ugly. As it is, I consider tattoos the bumper stickers of the human body, but this one wins the prize as the worst tattoo I’ve ever seen.
She covered something “crappy” with something even crappier.