What Is A Blackout Tattoo?
What Is a Blackout Tattoo? – A blackout tattoo is when a large section of the body (typically arms or legs) are inked with a solid, opaque covering of black ink. Basically, these tattoos are created by filling in a large area on the body with nothing but black ink, like coloring in a whole coloring page black.
Blackout tattoos are sometimes used to cover-up older ink, but they’ve also seen rising popularity as first-pass tattoos. Of course, as the nature of these tattoos may suggest, the process of getting a blackout tattoo is difficult and time-consuming.
The bigger the area that you’re looking to be filled in, the more sittings your artist will need and the more needles will be used—both of which amount to more pain in general. Also, since blackout tattoos are designed to be completely solid, your tattoo artist will most likely have to go over spots multiple times to ensure an even and saturated pigment distribution.
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What are blackout tattoos and are they a trend?
Tattoos are having a moment right now—especially tiny ones in easy-to-hide places. So, of course, there’s an up-and-coming trend that’s a sort of backlash to those little, delicate tattoo designs. It comes in the form of #blackouttattoos , which are solid (and, yes, black) tattoos designed to cover large areas of the body, like the chest, back, arms, and legs.
Popularized by Singaporean tattoo artist Chester Lee , blackout tattoos are gaining popularity for a few reasons: They’re a super-convenient way of hiding old tattoos (the reason Teen Vogue ‘s current cover star Grimes has a large cross on her forearm ), they’re unique, and, apparently, needles just don’t scare some people.
But even if needles (and tattoos themselves) are NBD for you, this still comes with a lot of risks. “There are many ingredients in the pigments used for dark ink — think titanium dioxide, lead, nickel, chromium,” says Howard Sobel, MD , NYC dermatologist and founder of DDF Skincare.
What is a “black tattoo”?
Blackout tattoo designs are one of the latest and newest trends. This is a tattoo design that involves tattooing large black ink over your entire skin (arm, leg, back – you name it). These tattoos are also often a convenient way to cover up any mistakes that a previous tattoo artist has made.
How long does it take to blackout a tattoo?
Cover-Ups Tattoos – If you have a tattoo that you are not particularly fond of or are just plain tired of it and would like to start out brand new but do not exactly want to go through laser removal, the blackout tattoo is perfect for that. Many people have decided to get rid of their past tattoos and look toward a new solid future.
Not only does the blackout tattoo look great and has a sense of elegance to it, this style of tattooing can easily cover up any tattoos that you may have gotten and regret. Say you have a tattoo on your arm that has had its fair course, whether this tattoo has color in it or not, black is the most dominant color that can mask most any other color it comes in contact with.
Shading over your cover-up is not all that easy said and done however. Blackout tattoos take time, patience, and toughness. A typical cover up for a tattoo done in the style of blacking it out can take anywhere from 6 hours to even 20, depending on the size of course.
Covering the tattoo up both hides the tattoo and creates something completely different for the individual. Some people out there have rare skin pigmentation problems. This causes the skin to appear a much lighter color than the rest of the body.
Although this is nothing to be ashamed of, some people with this skin type decide to hide their beauty marks by doing a blackout tattoo. Others even take pride in their skin tone and highlight those certain areas by getting the blackout tattoo surrounding the specific patch of skin.
When will blackout tattoos catch on in India?
I have recently been enamoured by this new form of tattoo art, called the Blackout Tattoo. Honestly, you do a simple Google search and you’ll have a bunch of articles and images to feed your curiosity. 
© Hanumantra Lamar But, what are these tattoos and why have they become such a huge trend recently? To put it plainly, a blackout tattoo should, and is, relevant to every inked individual out there. I’ll tell you why. But first, a little background about blackout tattoos would do good for your general knowledge. 
© Hanumantra Lamar The blackout tattoo was initially devised as a clever and literal form of a cover-up, in case you got someone’s name inked who was no longer part of your life and you’re dying to omit them from every cell in your body (pun intended). Only, it was a cover-up that looked way too good. Hence, it began to catch on as a form of art , in itself. Yes, there is always the option of laser removal, too, if a cover-up is all you’re looking for. The only problem is, for most people, it’s just too painful and expensive. 
© Instagram Vikas Malani of Body Canvas adds that such tattoos make for a great way to mask any skin deformity that would otherwise, be too prominent. “It’s a great way to cover up any marks or pigmentation on the body to avoid the questions that isn’t something everyone likes—easy, safe and comparatively economical. But it should not look like a blank patch; rather more like a creative job. ” 
© Chester Lee Dr Ajay Kashyap, renowned plastic and cosmetic surgeon at MedSpa, on the other hand, opines that these could be rather unnecessary in this regard and should be avoided. “Blackout tattoos when used solely as a purpose to artfully camouflage a certain area could cause one to overlook various other skin problems that you would otherwise be forced to notice,” he explains. 
© Hanumantra Lamar Moving on to the part where blackout tattoos are the current rage in body ink; some of the work done by renowned Singaporean tattoo artist Chester Lee is creating waves on social media. Most of his recent works are what we now know as the blackout tattoo trend, with men and women, alike embracing and flaunting it openly. “If done right, it’s one of the most beautifully offbeat kind of tattoo you could ever get yourself. The customer who wants a blackout tattoo is rare. 
© Hanumantra Lamar Internationally, there’s a different story unfolding. Mickey Malani, co-owner and partner, Body Canvas—who is based in UK—gives us a clearer picture on blackout tattoos and the trend that’s building around it. “In India, I’ll still give this trend another 2 to 4 years before it actually catches on. Abroad, of course, it’s already a thriving form of body art,” he informs.
- They could be a free thinker, a liberal soul; someone who is a cult in his, or her own self,” Vikas says, while adding that out of 1000 customers, he will get only 1 of whom would opt for something like this in India;
He goes on to talk about how there is a select group of really cool international tattoo artists who are really pushing the bracket on such tattoos—Chester Lee and Hanumantra are some that are worth checking out.
