Tattoo Design

Traditional Tattoo Design


Traditional designs are using heavy black outlines with minimal color and a lot of black shades. So, they are usually darker in appearance and the color choice is limited to simple colors such as average blue, green, red and yellow. Colors are used in blocks with very few details. Also, they are being styled in such a standard way that everything they portray appears as a two-dimensional shape, without any three-dimensional depth.

Traditional designs usually lack a lot of complicity since they were done years ago with less advanced equipment and the tattoos were made fast at lower prices. Many traditional tattoo designs are portraying military and nautical motives and themes, as navy and army men were the primary tattoo clients. This traditional style preserved its popularity throughout the years, thanks to its historical significance, clearly readable simplicity and traditional American roots.

In order to make real traditional designs, tattoo artists have to work with a set of rules which will make their tattoos really traditional. These rules mostly apply on certain motives and themes and how these could be colored or drawn. For their basis traditional artists are using the work of respected and well known pioneers of this style, such as Sailor Jerry Collins, Don Ed Hardy and Lyle Tuttle. That is why a large number of traditional designs are being taken directly or interpreted from the sheets of tattoo designs prepared for mass replication, widely known as “flash”.

Those collectors who would like to get a real and fully “traditional” custom tattoo should be aware of the strict guidelines these tattoo designs imply. It is therefore wise that you choose a tattoo artist that is familiar with these guidelines and can give you the traditional tattoo with a twist of yourself or the artist. If they do not pay heed about this aspect of traditional tattoo designs, a person may end up with a “knock off” or “untrue” traditional tattoo, which will be discerned by all the people knowledgeable in the art of tattooing. Of course, this may not be important to you at all. Read the rest of this entry »

Floral Tattoo Designs


As the popularity of tattoos has spread to include the female members of society, you can bet your bottom dollar that floral designs have always been one of the most popular choices for them. The reasons for this are absolutely obvious: floral designs are pretty; they can rely on the use of plenty of colors and they can add a tasteful and elegant definition for any woman.

The most popular species of flowers that are used in tattoo designs include the rose, orchids, lilies and daisies. These will always be able to represent a piece that is dainty and feminine and this is what definitely seems to appeal to many women.

There are definite trends wherein women seem to favor having their pieces placed. These choices allow the wearer to expose the piece when she wants to, but be able to cover it at all other times. The shoulder and lower back area are probably the most popular locations nowadays; but the underside of the wrist, lower ankle and even the foot itself are also fashionable. A quick word of warning here though, if you are looking for a tattoo to be done on the foot itself – this can be a notoriously painful location as there are a lot of small bones in this region.

It is funny to see how fashions change and adapt as far as tattoos go, as around twenty or thirty years ago, floral tattoo designs were quite restricted for men. Of course, you had the ever popular and ‘old school’ choice of a rose with the name of a loved one associated with it, but today floral tattoos are becoming increasingly popular among the guys.

In fact, men think nothing of opting for quite feminine-looking designs and will even go as far as full sleeves worth of this body art. The youngest generation to come onto the tattoo scene are especially keen on this style. Read the rest of this entry »