Tribal tattoos

Tribal designs, which are usually black silhouettes, come in a huge variety of styles because they are based on the ancient ethnographic traditions of various native cultures. For a tribal culture every single element of the design, along with other factors, takes on a special meaning connected to the person. The starting point is a range of symbols (a sort of spiritual alphabet), which can be arranged in various ways. For these cultures, tattoos are a means of expressing a magical or spiritual belief and are considered powerful personal talismans. In the west, tribal tattoos are often combined with small subjects (butterflies, flowers, jewels) and have a decorative purpose. Designing a tribal tattoo is not as easy as it looks and cannot be improvised; each line must be very precise and balance with the other marks.

Celtic tattoos

The design of traditional Celtic tattoos is based on the Book of Kells, a religious text illuminated by Irish monks during the Middles Ages. The Celtic design consists of knots and interwoven lines that represent animals or abstract figures. They express spiritual values or qualities. For example the Celtic cross symbolises the contact between the earth and the sky; the Celtic knot is the cycle of life; the triskell is connected to the symbolic meanings of the number 3; winged animals represent rebirth or transformation and horses and dolphins are symbols of prosperity. A Celtic tattoo is usually created using black ink. The planning of a Celtic design is very complex and there are specific techniques used to create it. A new fusion style combining Celtic and tribal designs has recently been developed.

American style

Hearts, skulls, banners with names and flowers are some examples of a western, or to be precise American tattoo style, commonly known as traditional. Derived from the Old School traditional, there is now also a New Skool style that uses the same subjects but has more modern graphics. Many traditional style subjects are small, simplified and look easy to create. The design however, must conform to a series of technical characteristics, one of which is the use of well defined black lines, especially for the outline (the balance of the line is fundamental also in this case). The result is a stylised design that is very close to the idea of a symbol but with a comic strip feel.

Oriental style

Oriental tattooing creates designs on the human body like paintings on a canvas. The images come from the mythology of the Rising Sun and incorporate flowers, carp, splashes of water, clouds and dragons in a very complex and dynamic way. The method used to design one of these tattoos generally follows the rules of Japanese art and the style comes from a technique called tebori, which can be translated as «engraving by hand». One Oriental tattoo design that is now very popular in the west is the kanji, the name given to the characters in Japanese writing.

Realistic tattoos

The realistic style reproduces an image with the quality of a photograph. The most popular subjects are portraits and scenes from nature (especially animals). The realistic technique is also an art in its own right, both for the designers and the tattoo artists. When tattooing, the image must be transferred onto the skin carefully and with one eye on the future. Over time, the ink in a tattoo expands under the skin and the outline of a design tends to dilate a little and very fine details can become a mish-mash of lines or a vague blob. So it is very important to know how to plan and transfer a design onto the skin so that it will not become blurred over time, just like a photograph.

Biomechanics and other trends

One of the most innovative tattoo styles is inspired by the work of H.R. Giger, the Swiss artist who designed the extraterrestrial creatures for the Alien films. The style is known as biomechanics because it gives the impression that the flesh is being torn apart by mechanical parts (like the cogs of a machine, parts of a robot, electrical cables and so on). A biomechanical design reproduces every last anatomical detail like in a scientific textbook. It is absolutely essential to have a real artistic talent in order to tattoo or design this style.

There are of course other styles of tattoo designs. Some of them are extremely modern, while others come from a particular place and are connected to the art and tradition of that area . As far as the latter is concerned, we are entering the realms of ethnography once more but unlike with tribal designs, the style has more recent historical roots and may be related to Renaissance art or local traditions and folklore for example.