There are a lot of tattoo styles to choose from when it comes to picking the right ink for you. Whether you’re drawn to the traditional tattoos or the neo-traditional tattoos, or if you’re fascinated by the contrast in blackwork and the subtle shades of black and grey tattoos, the world of tattooing offers endless possibilities.
As humans, we’ve been expressing ourselves by marking our skin for a very long time, with influences from Polynesian or Asian cultures, or even the bold designs inspired by pirates and criminals. Regardless, tattoos have become symbols representing us for thousands of years.
Today, we continue to honour the ancient art of tattooing, appreciating it for both its aesthetic pleasure and its significance as a rite of passage. With so many styles available, we’ve tried to embody the infinite world of tattooing in this guide, even though it’s nearly impossible to capture the sheer variety of tattoo options.
A tattoo is as unique as the individual who wears it, so ultimately, it comes down to your personal preference. You might even choose to mix and match different styles because the possibilities are truly endless.
Types of Tattoos styles- The short Answer
[su_note note_color=”#D3D3D3″ radius=”6″]Tattooing offers a vast array of styles, from traditional to blackwork, reflecting deep cultural influences and personal expression. This ancient art form, symbolizing individual identity and rites of passage, allows for endless customization, making each tattoo uniquely personal[/su_note]
Types of Tattoos Styles: Unique Styles are discussed given below
Tattooing offers a vast array of styles, from traditional to blackwork, reflecting deep cultural influences and personal expression.
1. Classic Americana Tattoos (Old School Traditional)
Old School Traditional tattoos, often recognized as Traditional American tattoos, are some of the most well-known Western tattoo styles. These tattoos might be the first style that your parents or grandparents picture when you mention getting a tattoo, as they embody the spirit of counterculture rebels and America’s tough-guy history.
The traits of traditional tattoos include bold, saturated colors, a simple color palette, simple shading, and thick black outlines that create precise and crisp two-dimensional images. The elemental and clean designs often feature symbols and motifs like pinup girls, fierce animals, hearts, roses, and daggers.
This style is attributed to Norman Collins, better known as Sailor Jerry, who mastered his craft from Japanese hand poke tattoo artists. These tattoos are deeply tied to ocean and nautical imagery, reflecting the nautical achievements of sailors at sea.
For example, a King Neptune tattoo symbolized crossing the Equator, and a sparrow tattoo was earned for traveling 5,000 nautical miles, about a quarter of the earth’s circumference. The Classic Americana tattoos have also inspired newer styles like New School, Neo Traditional, and Realism. If you choose this style, your tattoo will age well and likely never go out of style.
2. New School Tattoos
New School tattoos are like the rebel teen compared to the grand-daddy of old school tattoos. Originating in the 1970’s, this style brought a modern take to tattooing, pushing the boundaries and customising ink with a unique flare. The traits of new school tattoos include bold, heavy outlines often in black, and vibrant, in-your-face colours.
The designs are playful, with disproportionate and exaggerated features, much like cartoon-ified characters from a comic book tattooed onto your body. This heavily stylised tattoo design blends the older feel of classic Americana with the experimental designs of graffiti, hip hop, and pop art, but doesn’t quite venture into neo-traditional or abstract territory.
3. Neo-Traditional Style Tattoos
Neo-Traditional Style tattoos are a fascinating evolution of classic Americana tattoos, blending the old school themes with a modern and colourful approach. While it’s easy to confuse them with classic Americana, the neo-traditional style stands out with its lush, decorative details and a much broader range of motifs.
Unlike the traditional ink that often features anchors and mermaids, neo-traditional pieces can showcase everything from animals to florals. This style is characterized by pronounced line-work, dark, clean outlines, and lush colours from a larger palette. It incorporates highly illustrative elements of art-nouveau and art deco aesthetics, including colour gradients and the use of white ink to highlight details.
The neo-traditional style honours the old school but brings in a touch of luxurious detail and romanticised scenarios, often featuring portraits, Native Americans, and skulls. Unlike the new school style that might mock the strictness of the old school, neo-traditional tattoos remain true to the art of tattoo aesthetics while offering a more refined and intricate design.
4. Black and Grey Tattoos (Modern Monochrome Tattoo Styles)
Exploring the world of tattoo style, the Black and Grey Tattoos stand out with their monochromatic effect, where black ink, grey ink, and white ink blend into each other, creating a spectrum of shades of grey.
This design technique, devoid of any colour, emphasizes heavy shading and contrasting elements, offering a modern take on traditional themes. Renowned for its realism and hyper-realism, the black and grey tattoo uses smooth shading executed by a soft hitting tattoo machine.
The tattooist might employ a grey-wash technique, previously achieved by watering down black ink but now enhanced with white ink to add depth. These tattoos are far from boring, delivering a significant impression with every single drop of colour used, or rather, not used.
5. Chicano Tattoos
Chicano and Chicana tattoos are deeply rooted in the identity of Mexican Americans in the USA, drawing inspiration from the Mexican Revolution, Los Angeles low-riders, and Pachuco culture. This influential style captures the essence of a gangster’s paradise, with designs often born behind bars.
Tattoo enthusiasts appreciate the traits of Chicano tattoos, which include smooth black and grey tones, detailed work with well-defined contours, fine lines, and soft shading that create high contrast designs. These tattoos often incorporate shadows and several images in a mosaic style, giving them a modern yet inspired look.
Santa Muerte, or Holy Death, often depicted as a woman looking defiant with guns, masks, and money, is a common theme, inspired by iconic films like Mi Vida Loca and characters such as Jay Hernandez’s El Diablo in Suicide Squad. This style is associated with the futility of being and high justice, beautifully expressed through realistic surrealism
6. Stick and Poke (Handpoked Tattoo Styles)
Stick and poke tattoos are a return to the roots of tattooing, using just one needle and a rod-shaped instrument like a pencil. This DIY type method, often favored by both the professional artist and the experienced tattooist, brings a unique simplicity and elemental nature to the design.
The handpoke method emphasizes thick lines and bold lines, with one ink, usually black, to create small, decorative patterns. Despite the lack of a machine, this style can elevate a basic piece to a level of raw beauty that pays homage to the basic principles of traditional tattoos.
7. Realism (Photo-realism Tattoo Styles)
Realism tattoos are a form of body artwork where the artist carefully engraves the world onto your skin. These photo-realistic tattoos require a significant investment of time and money but offer a classic way of capturing something specific.
Realistic tattoos can portray people, animals, nature, scenery, and objects, often in black and grey, full colour, or a mixture of both, creating a striking visual impact. The traits of this style include the ability to accurately and proportionately depict any person, place, or thing, even imaginary ones like dragons.
Common themes include portraits, often done in medium to larger pieces to accommodate the fine details. With the advancement of tattoo machines from traditional to medical grade technology, this style has become more refined, with experts in realism easily identifiable by their critical eye for detail.
Through techniques like fine lines, contrast, shading, and 3D effects, using different needles and tones, the desired effect of etching a photograph onto your skin comes to life.
8. Hyper Realism
Hyper-realism tattoos look real, almost as if they’re truly on your skin. This style has incredible depth and shading, giving an unreal quality that’s almost ironic. People often want to touch the ink to verify if it’s part of your reality.
9. Portrait tattoo
In the realm of tattoos, the portraiture sub-genre within realism is renowned for its photo-realistic depictions that capture the true likeness of real people with hyper-realism.
These works are crafted by expert portrait tattoo artists who achieve eerily accurate renditions full of character and personality. Whether immortalizing a family member, hero, or pop icon, these tattoos represent the ultimate compliment.
Typically found in larger sizes and black and grey scale, they require a significant level of detail and are perfect for those who appreciate this style’s ability to make one think and judge the art’s intent and execution.
10. Realistic Trash Polka
Discover the Realistic Trash Polka, a tattoo style that truly stands out with its collage-like structure that mixes images of photographic realism with literal trash like newspaper clippings and cigarette butts.
Created by German tattoo artists Simone Pfaff and Volko Merschky, this sub-genre of realism uses a daring palette of black and red, though you might often spot variations in blue. Known for its bold style choice, it combines typography, hand-writing, and print materials, often highlighted with smudges or splashes of red paint or ink.
Its unique name reflects its elements—a playful yet gritty blend of photorealism and the trash aesthetic. Incorporating surreal, abstract, and geometric elements, this style is not just a visual experience but an attitude in itself—a one-of-a-kind choice that will definitely smack you in the face with its intensity and originality.
11. Anatomical
Anatomical tattoos celebrate the complexity of the human body by depicting body parts such as the heart, brain, muscles, and bones with realism or hyperrealism. These tattoos can be both educational and a cool way to honour our anatomy, whether done in black and grey or full colour.
Often, these pieces range from small to medium in size and can be seen as both stunning and a bit gore, depending on the depiction of blood and bones.
An anatomical tattoo might serve as a reminder to take care of ourselves, not just physically but emotionally too, or to remember a time we overcame a medical condition or injury.
This style incorporates detailed realism tattoos that are easy to spot, making them a unique choice for those who appreciate the intricacies of body parts tattooed on the body
12. Biomechanical Tattoos
Biomechanical tattoos are a fascinating fusion where nature and technology meet under your skin, creating visuals that could have been inspired by Arnie in Terminator.
This style flows seamlessly with the body, mimicking internal machinery with elements like metal gears, wires, gaskets, and hydraulics replacing flesh, bones, and organs.
Each piece acts as a window to what lies beneath the surface, often executed in hyperrealism with a 3D effect that enhances the illusion of depth. The influence of sci-fi is evident, making each tattoo look like a cool, human-robot hybrid.
Although these tattoos might make you look like you have super-strength, they are purely a replica style—a dramatic play of biomechanical arms, legs, shoulders, torsos, and even necks transformed into futuristic artworks.
13. Horror Tattoos
For those fascinated by eerie art, horror-themed tattoos in realism style are perfect. Typically found on the arm, thigh, or back, these medium-sized tattoos bring chilling scenes to life, making your skin a canvas for the macabre.
14. Mandala Tattoos
Rooted in ancient Sanskrit, the word mandala translates to circle, though you’ll find tattoos in oval or lotus shapes as well. A pivotal part of meditation practices across Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian religions, these mandala tattoos carry deep spiritual significance. Traditionally, monks would craft intricate mandalas fr
om sand in temples or use them in prayer rooms within Hinduism to enhance focus. Now, embodying a tattoo of a mandala on your body is akin to embracing peace, love, and mindfulness.
The beautiful patterns, made of geometrical fine lines and shapes, start from a central centre and expand outwards, symbolizing balance and harmony in life.
Mandalas are circular by nature, making them an ideal choice for forearm, chest, or back tattoos. Each design is unique, tailored to reflect the individual working with the artist to build the perfect tattoo.
The symmetrically balanced, blooming circular patterns not only symbolise femininity, creation, and rebirth but also offer a slice of divine cosmic infinity.
Opting for a mandala tattoo is like choosing a piece of mesmerizing art that serves as a reminder to be grateful and live a life filled with infinity.
15. Geometric
For those drawn to the timeless beauty and precision of mathematics, geometric tattoos offer a truly spiritual experience.
These tattoos use mathematically accurate shapes and patterns—like squares, triangles, hexagons, and circles—to create immortal designs that hug the body perfectly and are often infused with deep metaphysical and transcendental meaning.
Rooted in the oldest tattoos from Polynesian cultures, which pay homage to nature’s math, these designs range from simple geometric elements to complex mandalas, featuring crisp, sharp lines and bold colors or in black and grey.
Each geometric tattoo can start small and expand, evolving from a half sleeve to a full sleeve, allowing for a unique, form-fitting piece that celebrates basic shapes in limitless patterns.
These tattoos, often combined with styles like realistic trash polka, become your new favourite feature pieces, offering not just beauty but a way to represent the harmony between geometry and art.
16. Custom Script Tattoos
Custom script tattoos allow you to convey a message with clear symbolism, whether it’s through initials, a single word, or an entire quote.
This style lets you spell it out directly, ensuring there’s no disguising what your tattoo says. Beyond mere aesthetics, each design holds a special significance, often making it one of the most personal tattoos you can opt for, similar in intimacy only to a portrait tattoo of a loved one.
Utilizing a variety of languages, from Latin letters to the Arabic alphabet, Cyrillic, or Kanji, the versatility is vast. These tattoos can integrate elements of traditional tattoos, with lettering and numbers being among the oldest tattoo styles known.
Whether expressing simple words, phrases, or entire passages, the custom script can be adapted to any size and placement on the body, offering endless possibilities for personal expression.
Our artists focus on consistency and composition to ensure your script perfectly matches your vision, whether you choose to embellish a single word or keep a long script in a simple font.
17. Minimalist
Embracing the Golden Rule: Less is More, minimalist tattoos stand out through their simple, understated, and often small designs. These tattoos are about making big statements without the need for elaborate designs, capturing the essence of minimalistic tattoo style.
They’re defined by solid black lines, sometimes in colour, with no shading or very little shading. Whether tucked away between fingers, on ears, or even in your mouth, these minimalist pieces invite admirers to ponder the endless possibilities that lie within their fine lines of ink.
This style is symbolic to the wearer, often remaining inscrutable yet appealing to others, and is a great way to introduce oneself to the world of ink.
It’s particularly favored for its easy to choose and easy to hide nature, and perhaps the best thing about them is they are over in minutes, perfect for both the experienced tattoo enthusiast and the newcomer alike.
18. Traditional Japanese (Irezumi)
The Traditional Japanese tattoo, Irezumi, has sustained its allure from the Edo period (1603-1868) to modern times, deeply entrenched in folklore and the tales of heroes from the Suikoden.
These tattoos feature mythological creatures like dragons, kirins, and phoenixes, alongside lotus flowers and tsunami waves, each element rich with symbolism and depicted in bold, curvy lines and traditional colours like black, red, and blue.
The Japanese style is known for its large pieces that often cover the back, arms, legs, and torso, crafted under rigid rules to maintain its cultural integrity. Irezumi was once outlawed until 1948, associated historically with the Yakuza and used for covering up the marks of Japanese criminals.
Today, however, it stands as a respected art form, each Oriental piece a work of art on your skin, requiring commitment to both time and the process, reflecting a legacy that is nothing short of eternal.
19. Blackwork
Blackwork tattoos, with their roots in the bold black lines of tribal tattoos, represent a postmodern genre where imagery often includes geometric shapes, thick lines, and dotwork.
This style falls into a broad category of tattooing, transformed by modern tattoo artists who put their own spin on an ancient form, moving away from traditional ink and spiritual meanings like those of the Polynesians, towards a focus on aesthetics.
Blackwork pieces use only black ink, but the simplicity ends there; they achieve complexity through the use of negative space, various techniques, and heaps of modern shapes, patterns, and images.
These tattoos are not only a style statement but are also practical for covering up older tattoos, though once applied, they are challenging to remove. Traits of this style include crisp, all-black designs with intense shading and thick outlines, making them perfect for those who love the bold and dramatic.
Whether you’re new to ink or an old pro, the blackwork style offers a therapeutic experience as the widest set of needles travels across your skin, layering to achieve the darkest black.
20. Silhouette
Silhouette tattoos capture the essence of a shadow—imagine a light shined on an object or person, and the shape that appears on the wall behind it; that’s what gets tattooed. These tattoos might feature just the outline or a filled-in version of the shape.
Traditionally crafted using a deep, clean blackwork method, these styles have evolved in popularity, with new variations including the shape of an object being filled in with a completely different image, blending reality with artistic creativity.
Such tattoos offer a stark, dramatic look that makes them a favorite for those who prefer bold, minimalist art. Whether exploring more about tattoos through blogs or understanding how they intersect with other forms of art, like in The Greatest Tattoos in Film, the silhouette style continues to intrigue and inspire.
Frequently Asked Question
What is the hardest style of tattooing?
Micro-Realism tattoos, a descendant of Realism tattoo, are considered the hardest tattoo style to master. These tattoos involve miniature images crafted with the tiniest of needles, demanding exceptional precision and making them a popular celebrity tattoo choice.
Final Thought
In this comprehensive guide to the world of tattooing, we’ve journeyed through a myriad of styles, from the bold hues of Classic Americana to the intricate details of Neo-Traditional and the stark contrasts of Black and Grey tattoos. Each style offers a unique way to express personal identity and artistic taste.
Whether you prefer the historical depth of traditional designs or the modern twist of newer genres, the choice of a tattoo ultimately reflects one’s individuality and the timeless artistry of this ancient practice. As you consider your next piece, remember that the perfect tattoo is not just about aesthetics but also about the personal connection and meaning it holds for you.
