We had the pleasure of visiting the incredibly talented Veda Ink, also known as Karina, for an exclusive tattoo tutorial showcasing her mesmerising colour illustration techniques. Karina brought her signature style to life with an extraordinary tiger design, featuring a vibrant purple palette, a cartoon-inspired strip over its eyes, and dynamic dripping elements at the bottom.

During our time with Karina, she shared some insights into her approach to colour packing. While many artists use circular motions to embed pigment, Karina works at a precise 45-degree angle, ensuring her colours are rich and vibrant. She notes that while this method isn’t unique to her, it’s a tried-and-true technique adopted by many skilled tattooists.

Check out the video for invaluable tips from Karina! She walked us through her colour selection process, crediting much of her knowledge of colour packing techniques, colour theory, and blending to Volkan Demirci, a respected figure in the tattooing community. To achieve seamless blends in her work, Karina tests ink shades side by side on a napkin, then smudges them together to preview how the colours will blend together on the skin.

https://youtu.be/i_i5It_Dg34

We hope you enjoyed this tutorial – make sure to follow Veda Ink on Instagram to see more colour designs!

For this tutorial on how to tattoo a colour illustration tiger, Karina used the following supplies:

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