Ricardo Durrant

Ricardo Durrant is the tattoo artist behind Soulraven Studios in Half Way Tree, Kingston. His work is mostly black and grey: portraits and realism, fine-line florals, script, anime and character pieces, and the kind of cover-ups that make the old tattoo disappear into the new one.

Black and grey Flower and bird tattoo on the neck, by Soulraven Studios in Kingston, Jamaica

Look through the portfolio and a hand becomes recognisable. Soft, controlled shading that gives faces and animals their weight. Line work that stays clean at the smallest sizes. Compositions that follow the muscle and the bone underneath them rather than sitting on top of the skin like a sticker. Most of it is black and grey, because that is what reads best on the skin of the people who walk into the studio, with colour used where it earns its place.

The studio’s approach is direct. Bring your idea and your references; be honest about the budget; sit for a consultation if the piece is custom, large or a cover-up; pay the deposit; turn up on time and rested. In return you get a design made for your body, an artist who takes his time, and a studio that clients describe over and over with the same words: clean, professional, patient.

Soulraven Studios has grown into one of Kingston’s best-known tattoo studios largely by word of mouth and by what clients post afterwards. The Instagram account, @soul__raven, carries more than 900 posts of finished work and a following of over 41,000, and the studio holds a 4.8 rating from more than 90 Google reviews. The studio also offers piercings, and Ricardo trains apprentices through the Soulraven tattoo course, so the room is often a working classroom as well as a studio.

Tattoos are sharp and the line work one of the cleanest I’ve seen. Equipment is also top tier and the studio is super clean too.
Omar V., Google review

Based in: Half Way Tree, Kingston 10, Jamaica
Works in: Black and grey realism, portraits, fine line, floral, script, anime and character work, cover-ups
Studio: Soulraven Studios, Shop 5, 9½ Courtney Walsh Drive
Instagram: @soul__raven, 41K followers, verified
Google: 4.8 from 93 reviews

Start your tattoo Follow @soul__raven

Approach

How the work gets made.

Designed for the body

Every piece is planned for its placement: how the arm turns, where the shoulder curves, how the skin will move and age. That is why a placement photo is part of the consultation.

Black and grey first

Depth comes from light and shadow, not from colour. Solid blacks and smooth greys hold their shape for decades and read cleanly on every skin tone.

Honest about what works

If a reference is too detailed for the size, if a cover-up needs to be bigger, if a colour will not show on your skin, you will hear it at the consultation, not after the tattoo.

A calm room

Clients keep describing the same thing: a clean, comfortable studio and an artist who is patient with nervous first-timers and exacting with the work.

Recent work