Empire Ink - Empire Ink

Empire Ink Wash Systems and Black Inks

Empire Inks manufactures pre-mixed wash systems in Neenah, Wisconsin. Every bottle is weighed, dispersed, and colour-matched in a sterile facility. The Empire grey wash set includes 4-stage graywash, whitewash, and blackwash sets that give you reproducible value steps from Xtra Light to Dark without mixing caps on the fly. Artists working in black-and-grey realism, portrait, and dark illustration reach for Empire when they need safe and consistent ink that heals predictably.

4-Stage Graywash and Whitewash

Empire's founding product is the 4-stage graywash, black pigment in a clear carrier with no white added. It heals transparent and cool, like traditional shadow grey. The whitewash series adds a small amount of white to each stage, giving you semi-opaque milky greys that go in like a wash but heal with more coverage. Both systems of Canadian Empire tattoo ink ship as complete 4-bottle sets or individual 2 oz and 4 oz stages. Batch-to-batch consistency means the Medium you ordered last month matches the Medium you're ordering today.

Blackwash Series for Dark Realism

The blackwash system is Empire's newest wash line, a pigment-dense dark gradient with zero white. It's built for dark realism, blackwork shading, and illustrative work where you need graduated darks, not diluted greys. Higher pigment load means a higher price point, but you're packing more ink per pass. Each of the four stages is a separately formulated batch, not a single black cut with carrier. Tonally cool with enough warmth to stay alive on skin.

Single Blacks Named After Fine Art Pigments

Empire's single blacks are named after traditional printmakers' pigment families. Classic Black is a cool, medium-viscosity all-purpose black. Vine Black runs warm and thin, it lines clean and can be diluted into custom graywash. Mars Black is thick and opaque, built for packing large areas with mags. Ivory Black is Empire's darkest single black, delivering solid saturation in one pass. Each black is manufactured using the same sterile process and EU-certified equipment as the wash systems.

Empire Tattoo Artist Collaboration and Team

Founder Colt Brown owns Empire Inks Studio in Appleton, Wisconsin, and still tattoos black-and-grey portrait work daily. Team Empire includes artists like Alessio Vanzan, Angel Rose, David Vega, and Michael Perry, each with signature series ink sets available through the brand. Empire photos on their site show healed work, not fresh, the brand's tagline is "Fine Art First," and the proof is in how the ink settles after six weeks. The Atlanta area, Austin, Miami, and Warsaw all have artists running Empire inks as daily drivers.

What Empire Inks Are Known For

Empire is known for pre-mixed wash systems that remove the guesswork from black-and-grey work. Instead of mixing your own washes from a single black and hoping for repeatability, you stock four stages and know exactly what value you're getting every time. The brand also manufactures its own mixing mediums, Glaze, Glycerin, Propylene Glycol, and Witch Hazel, so artists can download Empire's carrier formulas and customize their own dilutions. Inks Empire added to your setup give you a limited palette that mixes predictably, whether you're working in pure black or building soft greys.

Empire Ink for Canadian Artists

Eikon stocks all three 4-stage wash sets, all 12 individual wash stages, the four single blacks, and Titanium White, right alongside the professional tattoo cartridges you're already running. Every Empire Inks product ships from Kingston, Ontario, with same day dispatch across Canada. Whether you're working portraits in Toronto, dark realism in Vancouver, or black and grey in Montreal, Empire built wash systems that dial in fast and heal clean. No mixing, no sorting, no chasing the right shade mid session.

Browse Empire grey wash systems, single blacks, and Titanium White below. Add what you need to your cart and we'll ship it today.