Colour Tattooing: A Freer Approach

Black and Grey as My Starting Point

I have always been very attached to Black and grey. I like the sweetness of the Shading, the subtle transitions, the way a Image can exist with very few things. Black allows for a form of restraint, almost of silence, and it’s something that has always resonated with me.

Black and Grey: A Visual Language That Gives Structure

The black allows for clear reading. We are working on the light, the volume, the depth, without overwhelming the image. The soft shading provide substance to the drawing while allowing the image to breathe. It is a precise, constructed approach where every detail matters.

Colour: Space to Be Freer

The colour, that's another matter. It doesn't replace that relationship, it simply opens a different creative space. With colour, we step outside a more strict framework. We no longer think solely in terms of contrast or of light, but in material, in atmosphere, in sensations. It's a freer approach, closer to the painting than drawing alone.

In tattooing, colour allows for a different kind of storytelling. It can bring depth, a sense of warmth, sometimes even a certain softness, provided that it is used with precision. It is not about quantity or intensity, butbalance. As on a painting, some areas can be busy, others left calmer, more space to breathe.

Skin, image and movement

What interests me about colour is this possibility of create compositions without being confined to a single register. The Corps becomes a living canvas, which moves, which captures the light differently at different times. The tattoo is never fixed, and colour further accentuates this dimension. It evolves with the Skin, with the time, with the person wearing it.

Two Visual Languages in Conversation

However, the basis remains the same. A tattoo, whether it's Black and grey Or in colour, rests on a strong drawing and a readable composition. The colour is not there to mask or correct, it comes enrich what already exists. It requires particular attention, real consideration of the’Image on the whole.

I don't see black and grey and colour as two opposing worlds. They are two languages that work together. One is more restrained, plus structured, the other more free, plus open. Depending on the project, one may feel more natural than the other, and sometimes the two meet.

This is also what makes the tattoo so interesting: the possibility toexplore,adapt, evolve create compositions, while remaining true to the same visual sensibility.