Many artists use different types of black inks and white inks to create a contrasting tattoo. Pistol Pete prefers to use Dynamic, Eternal, and Fusion for ink, all of which are all very popular due to their credibility in the market. These brands last much longer and create a much better result, showing the difference between a student-level tattoo and a professional artist tattoo.
Black and grey tattoos are a unique category due to the contrast created with black and grey tattoos that cannot be achieved through other forms of tattooing. The contrast creates a much more believable optical illusion to the viewer's eye. A person with a darker complexion would need more balance, using less black in the tattoo and more white highlights to accent the areas that wouldn't be as visible, in order to achieve soft shading in the tattoo. Pistol Pete uses several different types of needles most importantly a 5-7 magnum shader, or a round shader which has seven needles, is a circular configuration for finer details in the shading.
Pistol Pete also uses round 'magnum shader' needles which have two flat rows of needles, used to create a soft shade. Pistol Pete uses up to 15 needles to create very soft shades, then uses smaller configurations of needles to pack in solid black. Pistol Pete uses a different type of needle (to create highlights for the piece) which is similar to the ones used for shading but much smaller. Pistol Pete uses a liner consisting of between three and seven needles in a round configuration to create the finest details.
Black and grey tattoos have been around since the beginning of the art form, and are normally split into two categories, black and gray realism and traditional black and gray. Black and grey realism use all shades of black, from pitch black to the softest gray. Softer grays are achieved by adding witch hazel or distilled water to the ink. Most tattoos in this style are designed primarily as portraits, using heavy black backgrounds to make the subject matter pop out more to the viewer's eye.