Celtic knotwork-- is color or black and white better?

Question

Okay, so I designed my own art and now I'm wondering if knotwork looks better if it is black and white, or full color. I can go either way-- I love well done color tattoos, but I also like the simplistic bare design of black lines.

Don't worry-- this one is unique :) It's a jester hat done in knotwork, I'll post a pic when I can.

Answer 1

Remember that even tho its your own artwork, everyone has celtic knotwork right now. For a reason tho, it looks really good. But if you want it to stand out REALLY do some nice coloring. If you want it to be traditional, no color. Maybe a hint of green. Thats it.

Answer 2

I think most Celtic knotwork looks best in black and white, with hints of grey for shading.
If it's a tight piece of knotwork, then colours can make it look too busy.

Also, traditional knotworks in books were filled in certain shades of green, blue, red, and gold. I'm not sure if modern tattoo inks would be too bright to replicate those shades.

Answer 3

I would really like to see the piece to give an opinion on it but you need to discuss this with the tattoo artist.

A lot of self-drawn tattoo art needs to be worked on with the tattoo artist - much depends on placement and size, too.

Celtic work in the tattoo world is most commonly black/gray shading - we almost never add white to these pieces.

Green is a common color added when the requests include color and often that is also shaded to stay soft.

Answer 4

In my opinion, celtic knotwork should be done in color, like greens or gold (something Irish :P), but that's just personal preference. I designed one that I'm going to get, and I'm going to have it look like green stone embedded in my skin. That sounds nifty, right?

Answer 5

I have a Celtic cross on my left arm and it is basically 90% black, but with a small amount of green in there to highlight certain areas and it looks FAB.

Answer 6

COLOR

it makes it more interesting. and plus we irish don't use black and white.