Making grey wash

I prefer to just use alcohol –
there are a ton of pre-made washes out there as well
check out silver back
and a lot of Sumi style pigments.

You can also mix in the caps – no need to mix it in giant bottles
the dipping from cap to cap will eventually dilute and change your mix anyway – during course of tattoo
hope this helps
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well, what you do is you throw that Mairio Barth shit in the bin and buy some real ink like Eternal, and then you use good old water…

Now, thats the first post out the way,,,,so can someone tell me who created my account and mailed it to me?

Who runs this show?

u know that eternal and intenze are made by the same people right….

for grey wash inks, i would use a normal black, not a triple, or tribal black. Kuro Sumi is the shit, i’ve had good results with Moms onyx black as well. If you want a pre mix bottle, then pour 1/2 a bottle of ink, and then use distilled h2o, then make another with a 1/4 ink 3/4 h20, for your lighter tones. Using alcohol or water depends on what the ink is cut with, ie, prizm is alcohol based, eternal is water based. you need to consider these things. But if you got your technique down, you can create very nice B&G effects with straight black ink, or just use a rinse cup of distilled h2o and thin your ink as needed.

Mario barth makes intenze and terry welker makes eternal i think…

I use alcohol,just put three to five drops of black in an ink cap,fill it with alcohol,stir with a toothpick,there’s your greywash.

I prefer to make my washes on the spot in the ink caps, I primarily use the small ones (#9’s I believe) and for a light wash I’ll do one drop of kuri sumi lining ink and distilled water to the top. Then two drops for something darker, and so on. I’ve also used witch hazel, which contains some alcohol.

I mix down with witch hazel; seems to keep the redness down so tone values show up better,imo. Set out 5 #16 ink cups. pure black in the first one, #2 75% or so, #3 50%, #4 25%, #5 pure witch hazel. That’s not the way I do it, but it seems to work for a lot of people who like to pre-mix tone values. Good luck.

what you do is you toss that Mairio Barth crap in the bin and buy some actual ink like Everlasting, and then you use excellent old water…

What’s the deal here is Intenze ink that bad? I don’t particularly care for it but it’s plastered everywhere on the net HOW MANY PROS ACTUALLY USE IT?

If you are using kuro sumi grey wash shading ink how much distilled water would you add if you where making pre mixed 80ml bottles for 4 or 5 different tones from very light to dark? I usually make up a 3,6,9 and 12 % mix with the kuro sumi outlining ink.

Witch Hazel is the best way to reduce any ink in that it’s sterile and also an astringent so it will help reduce inflammation, redness and swelling and also helps control the bleeding.

A good rule of thumb is to use pharmaceutical grade glycerin to thicken up an ink and witch hazel to thin your ink or to revive a dried up or drying up ink.

I tend to stay away from pre-mixed grey washes as you’re paying for the name and also for someone else to do the work. Buy yourself a good black ink like Kuro Sumi or Talens Drawing Ink and then start reducing it until you’ve got your own grey wash system. It’s better to do the work yourself and save yourself some hard earned dollars.

Is Talens drawing ink sterile? It seems like it wouldn’t be since it literally says it is meant for drawing in the name.

yes it has been sterilized to my knowledge
many award winning artists use it and swear by it

hmmm well okay then. I might give it a try one of these days. I’ve heard about it all over the place but every time I dismiss it as something you should not use. Like India Ink.

The best solution to get it is make it more attractive and dark color with the same color black only then only it would be looking good.

@ madreaper:

well said, very informative.

As far as some of the other posts:

A lot of well known (and many unknown) tattooers use Intenze inks. Many reputable ink manufacturers have their supporters and their nay-sayers. Usually it’s a matter of personal preference, sometimes it’s just ‘personal’.

I prefer bulk shading mixes. This way I know what to expect from my washes from tattoo to tattoo.

people blast with pelican drawing ink lots of the big names swear buy the stuff. and lots of the tattoo supplies stores carry it i want to try it as for intense ink i like it it the true black is darker then eternal liner black and blends down better too. all you guys are pumped on eternal but i gots there gray set and would rather just thin oot intense.