Why Is There Such a Lack of Education on Tattooing Dark Skin Tones?

This, of course, points to a larger problem of peoples' overall discomfort with Blackness and the tattoo industry's lack of diversity as a whole. Black people consistently deal with erasure from the industry, be it through discriminatory hiring or non-Black artists not showcasing their work on Black and Brown skin to begin with. In turn, this makes the learning process a lot more difficult for Black aspiring tattoo artists.

"It's a lot easier for some people to pretend they don't see colour than to acknowledge and accept that someone is not the same colour as them," Layne said. "If you don't acknowledge the truth of who someone is, you will not be able to properly meet their needs."

The obvious solution is for tattoo parlors to do a better job of hiring Black and POC artists, but also for them to educate themselves on the key things they should know about tattooing darker skin.

"There are so many talented Black people who want to learn traditional tattooing but aren't welcome in those spaces," Layne said. "It leaves a lot of aspiring tattooers feeling hopeless and many have no other options but to learn through trial and error by themselves. Tattoo apprenticeships in general have always been hard to get, but being Black makes it even harder . . . pretty much impossible in some places."