TLDR:

• The Starbrite Signature Series is a range of curated ink collections developed in collaboration with professional artists on the Starbrite Pro-Team, each designed around a specific style, application, or color philosophy
• There are nine collections in the Signature Series ranging from the Lunar Graywash Set for black and grey work through to specialized portrait, floral, realism, and fantasy color palettes
• Each series was developed by a specific artist whose real-world technique and color preferences shaped the palette, making these sets more intentional and style-specific than a generic color selection
• The right Signature Series depends entirely on the style you do most, the color relationships you work with most often, and whether you need a ready-to-use specialty palette or a complement to your existing core ink selection
• These sets work best when used alongside the core Starbrite single-bottle range rather than as a complete replacement for a foundational palette

What Makes the Signature Series Different From a Standard Ink Set

The Starbrite color range is one of the broadest in professional tattooing. The single-bottle collection covers the full spectrum from primary colors through complex mixed tones, specialty colors, and skin tones. For most studio applications, building a palette from the core range is the most flexible approach and the one covered in depth in the how to choose a tattoo ink set guide on the StarBrite blog.

The Signature Series serves a different purpose. Rather than providing a general palette that covers everything at a basic level, each Signature Series collection digs deep into a specific creative territory. The colors in a Signature Series set are not the obvious primaries and secondaries that every studio needs. They are the nuanced, precisely mixed tones that a particular artist uses constantly in their specific style, the tones that are difficult to mix reliably on the fly and that make a real difference to the quality of the work when they are available ready-to-use.

This makes Signature Series sets most valuable for artists who already have a foundational palette and are looking to expand specifically into a style or application that one of the series addresses. An artist who does portrait work will get far more from the Payne Portrait Series than from a generic expanded color set. An artist who specializes in floral and botanical styles will find the Floral Series covers exactly the nuanced tonal range their work demands. The specificity of each series is its greatest strength.

All nine Signature Series collections are available through the signature series collection. This guide covers every series in detail, including who developed it, what it contains, and which artists and styles it serves best.

Lunar Graywash Set: For Black and Grey Specialists

The Lunar Graywash Set was developed by Sam Chacon, a black and grey specialist whose work is characterized by subtle shadow gradients and exceptional fine detail. The set reflects his approach to grey wash work, which prioritizes smooth, controlled tonal transitions over bold contrast.

The Lunar Graywash Set contains four calibrated grey wash tones plus Starbrite Brite White for highlight mixing. The four grey tones are called Light Moon Quarter, Half Moon, Three Quarter Moon, and Full Moon, ranging from the palest possible wash through progressively deeper values to a near-black foundation tone. The inclusion of Brite White completes the value range by giving artists the ability to push into the lightest possible highlights without the unpredictability of custom dilution.

This set is the most practical entry point in the Signature Series for studios that do any significant volume of black and grey work. Rather than mixing custom dilution ratios before every session, the Lunar Graywash Set provides a consistent, professionally calibrated tonal range that eliminates batch-to-batch inconsistency and session-to-session variability. For a complete deep dive into grey wash technique and how to use this type of calibrated set in practice, the grey wash tattoo ink guide on the StarBrite blog covers every aspect of grey wash work.

Best for: Black and grey realism, portrait work in black and grey, Chicano style, traditional black and grey, and any artist who wants a reliable calibrated grey wash set without mixing their own dilutions.

The Lunar Graywash Set is available at StarBrite Colors.

Floral Series: For Botanical and Naturalistic Color Work

The Floral Series was developed by Mark Duhan, a Pro-Team artist renowned for floral and botanical tattoo work. The set reflects his approach to the complex, nuanced color palette that realistic and stylized floral work demands, colors that fall between the obvious primaries and secondaries but that are essential for convincing flower petals, leaves, and organic textures.

The Floral Series contains tones that span the warm pinks, corals, and lavenders of flowers alongside the varied greens, muted yellows, and naturalistic neutrals that appear in botanical contexts. These are not the saturated primaries of traditional color work. They are the more complex mixed tones that give floral realism and neo-botanical work its organic, naturalistic character.

What distinguishes the Floral Series from simply buying pink, green, and purple is that the tones have been specifically mixed and tested in the context of floral tattooing by an artist who does this work at the highest professional level. The balance between each color in the set reflects the actual relationships that appear in real flowers and botanical subjects, making the palette work together cohesively rather than as a collection of independent colors.

Best for: Botanical realism, watercolor floral styles, neo-traditional florals, and any artist whose work regularly features flowers, leaves, and organic natural subjects. Also useful for artists who do portrait work where floral elements and natural backgrounds are part of the composition.

The Floral Series is available at StarBrite Colors.

Payne Portrait Series: For Portrait and Figure Realism

The Payne Portrait Series was developed by the late Brooklyn Payne, a celebrated portrait realism artist whose work set a standard for skin tone accuracy and detail in tattooing. His palette was specifically developed to capture the nuance of facial features and skin detail that portrait realism demands, with tones that enhance subtle transitions and render facial structure with accuracy.

The Payne Portrait Series contains a selection of tones that cover the specific color relationships that appear most frequently in portrait work, from the warm highlights of lit skin through the cooler midtones and into the deeper shadow areas. The tones reflect Brooklyn Payne's personal approach to building skin color in the dermis, a palette refined over years of portrait specialization.

For portrait artists who work primarily in color, this series provides a curated starting point for skin tone work that has been tested and validated in real portrait sessions. Combined with Starbrite Brite White for highlight work and a selection of deeper shadow tones from the core range, the Payne Portrait Series gives color portrait artists a professionally developed foundation rather than requiring them to build their skin palette from scratch.

This series should be considered alongside the full guidance in the skin tone tattoo ink guide on the StarBrite blog, which covers the broader principles of skin tone matching and portrait palette construction across different Fitzpatrick skin types.

Best for: Color portrait realism, figurative color work, and any artist who does regular skin-inclusive color realism where accurate, nuanced skin tone rendering is central to the work.

The Payne Portrait Series is available at StarBrite Colors.

Earthtone Series: For Natural, Organic, and Muted Palettes

The Earthtone Series was developed by Hal Sawyer, an artist celebrated for his mastery of subdued earth tones and sophisticated color theory application. The series reflects his preference for muted, naturalistic tones that create harmony and warmth without the saturation of primary-based palettes.

The Earthtone Series contains a range of warm browns, muted ochres, soft greens, and complex neutrals that appear in natural contexts, animal fur, wood, stone, earth, autumn foliage, and similar organic subjects. These are colors that are genuinely difficult to achieve by mixing standard primaries, because the characteristic quality of an earth tone is precisely that it sits between the obvious hues in a way that feels natural rather than constructed.

For artists who work in naturalistic styles, wildlife realism, landscape elements, or any aesthetic that prioritizes organic warmth over bright saturation, the Earthtone Series fills a genuine gap that the core primary-based color range does not cover as effectively. It is also a useful complement for artists who do traditional Japanese work where the complex natural tones of backgrounds, water, and environmental elements require a more nuanced palette than vivid primaries alone provide.

Best for: Wildlife and animal realism, nature-based tattoo styles, Japanese traditional environmental elements, illustrative work with organic subject matter, and any artist whose aesthetic leans toward warm, muted naturalism over bright saturation.

The Earthtone Series is available at StarBrite Colors.

Kirt Silver Series: For Fantasy, Cartoon, and Saturated Color Work

The Kirt Silver Series was developed by Kirt Silver, an artist known for his exceptional work in cartoon and fantasy tattooing and his ability to use color in ways that are bold, expressive, and immediately arresting. His Blue Freeze shade became one of the top-selling Starbrite colors of all time, which speaks to the quality and distinctiveness of his color choices.

The Kirt Silver Series contains colors that sit at the more vivid, expressive end of the spectrum, tones that work particularly well in the context of illustration-influenced styles, pop culture references, fantasy and gaming aesthetics, and new school tattooing where bold, unexpected color relationships are part of the appeal. These are not the naturalistic tones of the Earthtone Series or the delicate botanicals of the Floral Series. They are the kinds of colors that make a design immediately stand out.

The inclusion of the legendary Blue Freeze shade alongside other Kirt Silver signature tones makes this series particularly valuable for artists who do any kind of fantasy, gaming, or pop culture work where vibrant, distinctive colors are part of the client brief.

Best for: New school, cartoon and animation styles, fantasy and gaming tattoos, pop culture references, and any style where bold, expressive, non-naturalistic color is part of the aesthetic identity.

The Kirt Silver Series is available at StarBrite Colors.

Rakel Tattoo Series: For Floral and Non-Traditional Portrait Work

The Rakel Tattoo Series was developed by Pro-Team artist Rakel, whose work is recognized for its strikingly distinct palette and its application across floral and non-traditional portrait styles. Her series was created to capture the specific color relationships that characterize her aesthetic, which blends the organic warmth of floral work with the nuanced skin-adjacent tones needed for her approach to portraiture.

The Rakel Tattoo Series fills a slightly different creative territory than either the Floral Series or the Payne Portrait Series. Where the Floral Series focuses on botanical subjects and the Payne Portrait Series focuses on realistic skin rendering, the Rakel Series sits in the space between, suited for work where flowers and figures intersect, for non-traditional portraits with decorative color approaches, and for floral work that incorporates skin and figure elements.

For artists who do heavily stylized portraits surrounded by decorative floral elements, or for those whose portfolio sits at the intersection of botanical and figurative work, the Rakel Series provides a palette that is more tailored to this specific creative territory than either of the other portrait or floral series.

Best for: Non-traditional portraits with floral surrounds, decorative figurative work, neo-traditional styles that incorporate both skin and botanical elements, and artists whose work blends the organic warmth of floral color with the nuance of portrait rendering.

The Rakel Tattoo Series is available at StarBrite Colors.

Subterranean Series: For Dark, Complex Color Work

The Subterranean Series was created by the late Scott Marshall, champion of Ink Master Season 4 and a highly skilled artist known for his exceptional color work across a wide range of styles. The series reflects Scott's approach to color work that has depth, richness, and complexity rather than the brightness of primary-based palettes.

The Subterranean Series contains colors that sit in the deeper, more complex end of the spectrum, tones that have darkness and richness without being muddy, and that create the kind of dimensional color work that Scott Marshall was celebrated for. These are colors suited for tattoos where the mood is more intense, more layered, and more visually complex than a bright saturated palette would support.

Scott Marshall's legacy continues through this series, which remains a meaningful part of the Starbrite catalog and a testament to his skill and color philosophy.

Best for: Dark and complex color work, biomechanical and darker illustrative styles, any style where rich depth of color is more important than bright saturation, and artists whose aesthetic leans toward moody, complex color relationships over vibrant primaries.

The Subterranean Series is available at StarBrite Colors.

Undertone Series: For Sophisticated Color Contrast Work

The Undertone Series was developed by James Mullin, an artist with a sophisticated approach to color that focuses on understated hues that complement and contrast with lighter tones in the Starbrite palette. The series was specifically curated to work with and alongside other Starbrite colors, functioning as a set of supporting tones that make the broader palette more cohesive when used together.

The Undertone Series contains tones that sit slightly beneath the main color action of a piece, the subtle background values, transition tones, and supporting hues that give a complex color piece its depth and visual coherence. These are not the hero colors of a tattoo but the sophisticated supporting cast that makes the hero colors work better.

For artists who think about color in layers and who value the nuance of how tones interact as much as the individual colors themselves, the Undertone Series provides tools that a standard core palette simply does not include.

Best for: Artists with a sophisticated understanding of color layering, complex multi-color compositions where supporting tones matter as much as primary colors, and any artist who wants to expand their palette specifically in the direction of more nuanced, supporting color relationships.

The Undertone Series is available at StarBrite Colors.

Draz Palaming Series: For Color Realism Specialists

The Draz Palaming Series was developed by Draz, a Philippines-based color realism specialist who has been using Starbrite Colors for nearly a decade and whose work in color realism represents some of the finest examples of the style in the international tattoo community. The series reflects his approach to color realism, with tones that are specifically selected to work together harmoniously while also complementing other colors in the Starbrite range.

The Draz Series contains tones that reflect the particular color relationships that appear in color realism work, the complex mixed hues that sit between obvious primaries and that capture the subtle, naturalistic color variation of real-world subjects. Draz's nearly decade-long relationship with Starbrite inks means the series is calibrated specifically around how these inks perform in the skin at the professional level.

For color realism artists looking to expand their palette specifically in the direction of the nuanced, complex tones that separate great realism from competent realism, the Draz Series provides a meaningful addition to the core Starbrite range.

Best for: Color realism specialists, artists who do complex naturalistic subject matter where subtle color variation is critical, and artists at an advanced level in color realism who want a palette expansion informed by the real working practice of an internationally recognized color realism artist.

The Draz Palaming Series is available at StarBrite Colors.

Choosing the Right Series for Your Work

With nine distinct series covering different styles and applications, the decision comes down to an honest assessment of where your current palette falls short and which series addresses that gap most directly.

If you do black and grey work and want consistent calibrated grey tones without mixing your own dilutions, the Lunar Graywash Set is the most immediate practical upgrade. If you do floral or botanical work and want tones specifically developed for these subjects, the Floral Series or Rakel Series are the strongest options depending on whether your work is purely botanical or combines floral and figurative elements. If you do portrait realism in color, the Payne Portrait Series provides a professionally developed skin-focused palette. If your work leans toward nature, animals, and organic warmth, the Earthtone Series fills the gap. For bold, expressive, fantasy or cartoon-influenced color, the Kirt Silver Series brings that specific energy. For sophisticated color layering and depth, the Undertone and Subterranean Series address different aspects of complex color work. For color realism at an advanced level, the Draz Series provides a working specialist's palette.

No single series replaces a foundational palette. Each one complements it. The strongest approach is to build your core Starbrite palette using the guidance in the how to choose a tattoo ink set guide and then add the Signature Series that most directly serves your primary style.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Starbrite Signature Series? The Starbrite Signature Series is a collection of nine curated tattoo ink sets developed in collaboration with professional artists on the Starbrite Pro-Team. Each series was designed around a specific artist's style, technique, and color philosophy, resulting in palettes that are more style-specific and intentional than generic color selections.

Which Starbrite Signature Series is best for portrait work? The Payne Portrait Series, developed by Brooklyn Payne, is the most directly focused on portrait work. It contains tones specifically developed for skin rendering and facial detail. The Rakel Tattoo Series is also relevant for artists who combine portrait elements with floral or decorative work.

Which Signature Series is best for black and grey tattooing? The Lunar Graywash Set, developed by Sam Chacon, is the dedicated black and grey option in the Signature Series. It contains four calibrated grey wash tones plus Brite White, providing a consistent ready-to-use value scale for grey wash work without custom dilution mixing.

Can Signature Series inks be mixed with the core Starbrite range? Yes. All Signature Series inks share the same consistent Starbrite formulation as the core range, which makes them fully compatible for mixing. Custom tones created by combining Signature Series inks with core range colors produce predictable, reliable results.

Are Signature Series sets suitable for beginners? Signature Series sets work best as additions to an established foundational palette rather than as a starting point. Beginning artists are better served by a core color set that covers the full primary and secondary spectrum before expanding into the more specialized Signature Series territory.

How many colors are in each Signature Series? The number of colors varies by series. The Lunar Graywash Set contains five tones including Brite White. Other series typically contain eight to ten colors. Each set page on the StarBrite Colors website lists the specific colors included in that series.

Where can I buy the Starbrite Signature Series? All nine Signature Series collections are available directly at StarBrite Colors through the signature series collection, with each series available in multiple bottle sizes.