Current Tattoo Trends

Black And Grey

The tattoo is done in shades of black and gray only. This style originated in the prisons of North America, due to the prisoner's difficulty in obtaining colored ink. When several tattooists, e.g. California's Jack Rudy and Good Time Charlie Cartwright, saw the work they realized that there was great artistic potential in adapting it for use in tattoo shops outside of the prisons. They developed the refined, detailed style that has become popular these days.

Traditional

Traditional style refers to the Western or American tattoo: arranging scrolls of words amongst decorative vignettes, flowers, hearts and animals. The style was first developed to accommodate busy shops of the 40s and 50s near military bases (it is a quick way to tattoo) and the limited color palette then available. This type of tattoo is very stylized, quite two dimensional, and often executed with little regard for art. The lines tend to be thick and bold, the colors are rarely shaded or life-like, and the images tend towards iconic, cartoon-like, and little effort made to make things look realistic. Common design elements include hearts, anchors, birds, panthers, simple flowers (roses in particular), and names.

New York

"The New York Style" of tattooing is known for its direct, no nonsense aesthetic. Influenced by Augustus "Cap" Coleman, The New York Style has historically exhibited a bold outline and bright, bold colors.

Bio-mechanical

A style popularized by illustrator H. R. Giger, the designer of the creature from the Alien movies. Bio-mechanical work usually involves flesh intertwined with machines.

Fineline

Delicate outlines, often highly detailed. The success of the finished tattoo depends a great deal on the artist's use of negative space, and his or her refraining from adding yet more detail. An overly detailed fineline tattoo, or one that was not carefully planned out, may dissolve into mush after a few years. Fine line tries to reproduce an effect similar to looking at a drawing or painting on the skin. This type of tattooing falls into the categories "color work" and "black and grey". The desired effect is that of the skin being just another type of canvas or medium for the artist.

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Tribal

Bold, black, silhouette style designs. Most of this work is based on ancient tattoo designs of the South Pacific Islands. These designs, more so where they are strongly based on traditional forms, are usually abstract. But this is not always the case, as tattooist in the west have modified the traditional designs. The easiest way to characterize tribal style blackwork is that it consists of a combination of discrete design elements, each of which is self contained, abstract, and without shading. These elements are grouped which may or may not have a separate specific meaning.

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Realistic

Photographic quality work, usually portraits or nature scenes. Images taken from photos, best done by someone who can render realistic photographic images. Usually done in black and grey ink. The danger with finely stippled realistic tattoo work is the same danger inherent in all tattoos. The pigment 'bleeds' by osmosis, spreading under the skin, which can turn a once finelined tattoo into a dark, fuzzy blotch over a couple of years and finelined work is that which suffers most, quality-wise.

Celtic

Celtic tattooing refers to tattoo work based on Celtic styles of art and design. Scroll-work in particular, Celtic knots, and traditional design elements such as griffins and other stylized mythological creatures, arm bands utilizing triskaleons or interweaving knot-work designs, and the Celtic cross and circle are motifs representative of this category. These are much harder for artists to do, and is best done by someone who specializes in it. Also usually done in just black ink.

Skin&Ink Tattoo magazine article about Captain Bret's Celtic Tattoos

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Custom

Original work designed by the bearer, either on his/her own or together with the tattooist. Custom designs are prevalent among people looking for a tattoo which fits their personality, set of beliefs or is chosen to mark a special event in their lives. The design itself can be widely varying, depending on taste, budget and attitude of the bearer.

Oriental

This style of tattooing is more concerned with approach than subject matter. It utilizes the entire body as canvas, rather than the western approach of adding a tattoo here and there. The Oriental style usually incorporates swirling patterns and figures from eastern mythology into the designs.

This style is characterized by flowers with symbolic value (particularly chrysanthemums), fish (again with symbolic value), such as carp, the familiar dragon imagery, and background fill-work reminiscent of water and waves. These images are often stylized in a particular fashion that follows the design rules of traditional Japanese art. Individuals in traditional Japanese dress may also be part of the images.

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Scratcher / Handpicked

Handpicked or scratched refers to nonprofessional tattoos. Prison tattoos falls into this category; work that is most likely done with a single needle, often a sewing needle or a pin, dipped in India ink and then pricked into one's own skin or the skin of a friend.            

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Gangsta Tattoos

Only God Can Judge Me

Nothing symbolizes gang members' commitment to their gangs more forcefully than the gang tattoo.

These symbols proclaim the individual's allegiance to the group in a way that is both permanent and deeply personal - being written on the body itself.

Tattoos have long been a means of identifying oneself with a group or culture. Gangs were one of the first groups to use tattoos as a means of denoting identity and affinity, but groups as diverse as the military, sports teams, and even the popular Rappers and band members have used matching tattoos as a visible sign of the members' bond with one another.

Old English Letter Stomach Tattoo

But while society has often imposed tattoos in order to identify the tattooed as criminals, many people have also embraced these stigmatizing marks. Being an outlaw can be a source of pride as well as shame. Gang members in particular take pride in branding themselves as outside of the boundaries of conventional society.

Only god can judge me

GANGSTA STYLE

Tattoos are also used to express gang members' often fatalist philosophy of life.

Gangsta Style Tattoos are often done in black and gray style and often depict firearms, bullets, secret letters and numbers, old English and fancy elaborate script letters and names, names of hometowns, neighborhoods, street names and numbers, clowns, clocks, tombstones, cell bars, crosses, phrases such as “my vida loca” deceased friends names, dogs, diamonds, women, dead presidents, money, power, respect, tears, smile now cry later, cash rules. mob,rip,ballers only, dice, cards, death is certain life is not, crowns, aztec designs, grenades, jesus, saints, smile now cry later.