Black and Gray Tattoo Designs

Where do black and grey tattoo designs come from? You may know that it’s rooted in the art of jails and prisons. These tattoos are black and grey not because of some kind of aesthetic reason, but because of the necessity. Prisoners have been using safety pen as tattooing machine and burned paper as an ink: that’s why the only colors were black and different shades of gray. After getting out of the prison, the inmates popularized the art among their criminal friends.

Being a taboo tattoo art at the first time, black and grey tattoos became more popular on the streets and progress in tattoo art equipment made them the real mainstream. The first shop dedicated to the single needle fine line black and grey tattooing was the “Goodtime Charlie’s Tattooland”. But until now many black and grey tattoo designs involve patterns dedicated to the street or gangster life — it’s still an essential part of this style of tattoo art.

If you start to look for the designs made in black and gray, you’ll find a variety of different ideas: full sleeves, back pieces and even bodysuits! Nowadays this art isn’t limited to inmates and gangsters. Black and grey tattoos are made universally by everyone who wants to have a fascinating design — made in shades of grey every design will look special!