Ink Trails Tattoo Forum: WHAT IS TATTOO INK? - Ink Trails Tattoo Forum

I see here a lot of you guys asking about Tattoo ink. I was like you when I first started and wanted to know exactly it was I was using to mark people.
There are a lot of brands out there and not all of them are created equal. What you should realize that tattoo ink if for tattooing and other ink isn’t.

What is Tattoo Ink?

Basically it is a pigment suspended in a liquid. Unlike real ink tattoo ink separates after long periods.
Tattoo ink is the same stuff that make up is made of. It consists of pigment, glycerin, propylene glycol (synthetic glycerin),
alcohol and distilled water.The pigment gives it color, the glycerin gives it body to stay thick and flowing,
the alcohol and water make it sterile so Bacteria and germs can’t grow in it.

The more premium brands like Starbrite, Moms and Millennium are thick and full of pigment,
when they separate you can see how much they have in them.
Intenze (back when I tried them 6 years ago) and prizm are lowgrade; you are paying for water and alcohol,
that’s why your tattoos look faded right away. They also have a strong smell of alcohol.

Then you have India ink, this is what was used because back in “THE DAY” that’s all they really had to use.
India ink contains a pigment, some binders and shellac for waterproofing.
They aren’t good to swallow so why would you put them in your skin.

I know Talens is making a “TATTOO BRAND” but if it contains shellac stay away from it.

When I first started you could order India Ink and rapio-graph ink for tattooing.
It was there because that’s what the old school guys preferred but I stay away from the old stuff.
I stay with what I know.

This is my opinion on brands you may find different results after trying certain brands.

Mark,

You keep mentioning Intenze ink as low grade and crap just like Prizm, you are the only one i have heard of that bags Intenze, even on the professional forums they say good things about Intenze. Here are some of the quotes on other forums.

i use millenium, starbrite, and intenze only. never had the problem of drying to fast on any of them.
they do have a sm. package of intenze single use, has like 20 colors in it and
would be good for testing it to see if you like it.i think its 10-15 bucks.

i have a koi posted up in the photo gallery that was done in all intenze ink. I dig the colors. They stay extremely bright and go in pretty good. Ya dont have to pound it in with a jackhammer.

while on the subject... I'm currently using intenze and very happy, but I'm curious about 'Unique Ink' and 'Stable Colors'. Who has used them and what's your take?

I've been using Intenze lately and they heal very brite and are easy to work with.

When I used Intenze it was crap. If you say it works, great. I have tried a ton of inks and at the time Intenze was garbage along the lines of Prizm and the Superior brand. Tattoo ink is way to expensive to try and go back and give it another try. Once they lose a customer then they are gone. A set of inks is like 250 dollars for a sampler; that’s more then paint.

The brands I use are consistent and I haven’t had a problem with them yet, like I did with Intenze. I know that an 8oz bottle of millennium versus Intenze weighed three times as much from the pigment and Intenze reeked of alcohol. I probably won’t ever use it for that fact but if you haven’t used any other brand when you get a chance try it. I like the thickness and flow of the brands I use. I've never used stable colors or Unique. I’ll edit my post a little.

Ive heard only the best from unique. Guy swears by it. He uses mainly unique and occasionally starbrite. Aussie. 1 question about Unique. I know each ink depends on the tattoo artist just like everything else in  tattooing. It depends on preference. But how long will intenze last. Guy says Unique Ink still looks just as good 10 years later. I dunno fi thats true. But you gotta think about longitivity of ink as well. NOt just the thickness, and the brightness.

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if taken care of, things last longer, but if you abuse it and subject it to sunlight and soaking in water right after getting it, then its going to be fucked up, but if you take care of it and protect it, it last longer... i'm definetly open to hear which inks would stand up 'better' against the test of time when under 'normal' conditions

This piece was done on my back about 4 years ago with Millenium and has withstood a 2nd degree sunburn.

As a animal rights activist I was really dissapointed to find out where most ink came from.  :-

I did hear about companys that make Vegan ink but hard to find and have been told that it's not really vegan ink anyway

What have you read? Inks are made out of plastic.

hi guys and gals,
check out.... http://chemistry.abo...y/aa121602a.htm
gives a pretty good overview of what is potentially in your tattoo inks. i.e. chemistry of different colours etc...
hope this helps
gurgi  ;D

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Tattoo ink usually contains animal products. The glycerine used as a suspension or carrier is mostly derived from animal sources and even the colors can come from animal sources (black from the bones of animals burnt down to charcoal

Well I've never heard of animal bones burnt down for charcoal. I know glycerine can be made more easily from plants. Tattoo ink isn't FDA approved so they really don't have to list exactly their scources. If animals don't want to be made into ink or eaten they better evolve a thumb, larger brain and stop tasting good.

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Some have thumbs, some have large brains, and some don't taste good. I also know humans with no thumbs, small brains and stink.

hei i have a question.
I did try Makkuro Sumi Pure Black Ink  (www.makkurosumi.com) on my leg, but the black (although it works/looks great) did smell like dog-shit. Is this usual?

Funny you should say that cos when I went to Japan last year I was privileged to be shown around the Azayaka studios where they make the Makkuro sumi black & greyshade inks.

Out around the back is a set of kennels with various breeds of dog. They use the Doberman for there blacks/gray, the Great Dane for their yellow & the Pekinese for the greens..........sorry, I can't go on!!!

I damn near pissed myself with that description, they should make it their advertising motto, "Makkuro Sumi Pure Black, it stays black........but smells like dog-shit!"

Seriously, I've never used it, but the Kuro Sumi black smells perfectly fine to me.

hi again, I did talk seriously and I don`t want to make bad advertisment for this ink (as I mentioned, the black looks great). But when I did
two or three first ink-sessions there was this awful smell. at the last sessions the smell went away - so maybe I don`t recognize it anymore or maybe it went away or maybe it was something different which made it smell. maybe I ran the machine too fast or so?

(to anticipate any more jokes about dogs and ink, please don`t get the idea of me using the shaved asses of dogs for my practising and then blaming makkuro sumi for bad smelling ink.
I am not practising on animals or anything. and the ink was from a sealed bottle, maybe it had something to do that I did use it with a new machine? maybe the hole of the tip was too small for my needle configuration and so they did rub on the steel making the ink cooking?
Once I read that people have troubles with putting white ink into the skin because the ink turns into gray, and then they found out that there are micro-little parts of steel coming from the friction between needle/tip which is like putting new pigments into the ink. )

maybe I shall smell again  ???

Graying comes from not properly cleaning your needle after each color. Tattoo ink does have a weird smell but it shouldn't be really bad.

SirTralala, on Jun 15 2007, 04:15 AM, said:

Lol is it possible that you stepped in something maybe just before? i know that most bad smells like that are usually caused by bactiria which i dont think is a real good thing to be having in tattoo ink :-) did the art work become infected in anyway at all after the session? perhaps their was a contaminated bottle of ink being used if it did smell and did get infected.

Just a thought

Regards morbid79angel

i know you've all seen this tattoo a bunch of times but half of it was done with intenze ink and the other ink was millenium and i think the colors speak for themselves. i think intenze makes good stuff now (not sur what it was like 6 years ago) i think the intenze ink is really good as long as you pack it in right. too often bad technique gives decent ink a bad name

at the shop i was apprenticing at i used Eternal ... they worked great ...have any of you guys and gals used or come across eternal inks.......
Oscar The Monster

Oscar The Monster, on Aug 9 2007, 02:59 PM, said:

yeah i loved eternal inks but i can't afford them right now but when i run out of moms and intenze im buyi n some