Greywash o Black and Grey?

“In the world of tattooing there is a diverse amount of techniques and styles that stand out, and that bring a different point of view or result to each piece of this art, as happens, for example, with the Grey Wash and the Black and Grey, where each of these styles – despite being so similar – has its own different way of using the techniques to obtain amazing results and that take the glances of the spectators.”

In order to understand the differences between the two techniques, it is necessary to know what each of them consists of separately, since each style has its own artistic way of capturing a design on the skin and, at the same time, of obtaining different and impressive results.

Many may prefer one over the other for whatever reasons, but in the end both techniques are very well recognized and used by great tattoo artists because both techniques make tattoos look radiant and allow lasting results that are seen as works of art.

Some considerations of Grey Wash 

The Grey Wash technique is the result of the use, in varying degrees of concentration, of black and grey inks in order to obtain contrasts in the tattoo. Apart from this, it must be taken into account that it is a technique that is also widely used in black and grey tattoos, and can also be used in other styles, since the grey wash basically consists of diluting the inks to obtain a shade of black or a lighter grey, so this technique can be perfectly used with colors and obtain the same results (as happens with watercolor tattoos).

Using the Grey Wash technique it is possible to obtain various shades and shades without having to buy different inks. The way in which the grey wash is made is by placing several cups on a surface that is properly sterilized, then it should be filling the cups with black ink, the first cup with a drop, the second with two drops, and so on, and the rest of the cups you have to fill them with the necessary amount of distilled water that provides the effect of saturation and color desired.  

The Black and Grey technique

Black and grey is a technique that makes use of different shades of black in order to obtain results that look so spectacular with shadows, depth, contrast and so on; some artists also use other inks such as greys and whites to obtain the same result, each in a variety of tones. 

Shading in this technique is important to get good results, because this will be the one that makes the tattoo stand out and has depth, besides it should last for a good number of years, so doing well the application of the ink will be imperative. 

Both techniques are very good and recommendable.

What is done in the black and grey technique is to mix small amounts of black or grey ink with white to obtain different tonalities, which gives great results in tattoos because they are thicker and brighter by the use of white, but this technique must be done with a slow application, while with the grey wash, the tattoos are more ethereal and require reviewing, in many cases, the tattooed areas to obtain greater saturation.

Both techniques can be used at the same time, as well as separately, what is a fact is that with the technique of Grey Wash is spent less time, and less amount of ink, therefore is less expenditure on the same, while with the technique of Black and Grey is made use of more inks, in addition to it spends more time since the application is slower to get the appropriate tones.