Russ Abbott

08/28/2026

Megan Carroll asked me to continue her gothic architecture inspired collection down her arm. We started this with her chest, then her back, butt, and ribs, then stomach and thighs, and now her right arm. I created the design first on my iPad using a Tattoo Smart 3D model to get the placements all dialed. But, the only way to make it fit exactly the way I want is to draw it on the arm. So her session started at 11am and we didn’t start outlining until 4:30pm. That’s what it takes sometimes. Photo credit Josh on Leica Q43.

08/23/2026

A nearly completed AMEKUMI アメクミ leg sleeve.

This piece brings together two areas of my work that I’m especially excited about right now: Kumiko-inspired ornamental tattooing and a deeper exploration of color.

Much of the green scrollwork you see here is freshly tattooed using colors I mixed myself from base pigments.

There are still a few things left to finish before I call this one complete. I’m looking forward to seeing how these greens settle in as everything heals.

AMEKUMI アメクミ
Kumiko-inspired ornamental tattooing

08/22/2026

This week I added a lot of warm palette scrollwork for Rebecca Wolfe Smith. I worked in a couple of existing tattoos and helped her tie the room together. One more session is needed to fine tune and dial it all in.

08/21/2026

08/15/2026

I’ve spent the last several years exploring how the geometric language of Japanese Kumiko can be adapted to tattooing.

I’ve started calling this evolving body of work AMEKUMI アメクミ — my approach to Kumiko-inspired ornamental tattooing.

This piece is a good example of where that exploration has taken me: repeating Kumiko patterns drawn across the body and integrated with ornamental forms, rather than treated as isolated geometric panels.

I’m working on more of these projects now, along with a new edition of my pattern book under the AMEKUMI name.

More soon.

AMEKUMI アメクミ
Kumiko-inspired ornamental tattooing

07/18/2026

Here’s the start of a new AMEKUMI アメクミ… I chose to draw this directly on the skin to ensure the pattern would wrap the arm seamlessly as the tattoo design continues up and around the arm.

07/10/2026

Michel Parisay helped me test a few of the base colors I’m going to be working with to create my ink set. We already got some good data in the process. Some of the yellows that have better lightfastness properties also looked more transparent, allowing more redness from the irritated skin and blood to show through. This is the kind of thing that might make a tattooer avoid the color, but what happens if it heals brighter and lasts longer? I’ll have to wait and see. Also working on a more lightfast orange by mixing a newer yellow and a warm red. Early results seem promising, but the healed result is what matters most.

06/23/2026

I’m about half way through the first phase of building my new tattoo ink palette. I’ve already designed the color wheel too, but now I have to take it from the digital mockup to physical samples of inks. Eventually I’ll select about 80 total colors, get them mixed into bottles, digitally sample the colors, and plug them into my new color wheel.

06/16/2026

Back in 2015, a bunch of you supported the Abbott Color Wheel on Kickstarter and many more collected them from suppliers around the world. I love hearing from people who say that it helped unlock color tattooing for them!

A long time dream may be coming true for me. This year, I’m building a tattoo ink system from the ground up. I’ll be working directly with the experts and asking the tough questions I’ve been wanting to ask. I’m going as deep as I possibly can on this and I’m treating it with the upmost care.

If you want to tell me something to look out for or you have a question you’d like to know an answer to, let me know. I have the opportunity to help facilitate a better product and improve education for future generations of tattoo artists so let’s hear about specific problems you’ve had with your inks in the past. Let’s hear what colors you love too! What colors you can’t live without.

Throughout the year, I’ll also try to share a bit of the discovery process and reveal more of what I’m working on and what I’m learning along the way.

06/15/2026

Back in 2014, I set out to organize the entire line of Eternal Ink into a color system that included a color wheel, with each ink arranged by hue and value, along with a series of gamut masks that allow the artist to quickly visualize color schemes. This was a prototype that was printed and glued to a double LP record package. I’ll post the final printed and manufactured 1st edition soon, but I wanted to share some of the work that came first as I’m currently embarking on a new project that would never have been possible for me if I didn’t do this first. If you want to learn how deep the color theory rabbit hole goes, I recommend you to follow the account Peter Donahue and follow along here as I attempt to develop the next tattoo color system using everything I’ve learned in the last decade.