Step Aside Black and White: Watercolor Tattoos Take Center Stage as the New Standard

Forget about black and white tattoos, since watercolor ink is the new gold standard in the tattoo industry.

Robson Carvalho, a talented tattoo artist based in Sao Paulo, Brazil

Robson Carvalho can be found in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo. His graphical approach is described by an extensive list of adjectives and adverbs, including scrappy, free, watercolor-enlivened, and pastel-like. His tattoos look like they were taken directly from one of his sketchbooks, and in most cases, that is exactly what happened. The tattoos on Carvalho capture that free-form pen technique. His expertise gives the impression that, rather of using a tattoo machine, he traced a doodle using a marker and a brush. The imperfection is what gives the work its immaculate quality: some of the lines become muted, some of the colors disappear, and some ink splatters as though the pen nib had slipped and fallen.