Illustrating the Tattoo

There are a couple of ways of defining the recent genre of ‘illustrative’ tattoos. The type can be defined by tattoo art that heavily references two-dimensional fine art; it can be defined by specific reference to exceptionally brilliant tattoo artists (who may or may not have once been art students who’ve chosen to put their BA to a less usual use,) whose work has helped to create the genre.  It can be defined by tattoos that are created with use of increasingly easy-to-use tattoo machines that can create air-brush, ‘painterly’ effects – the Air-pressured Neuma hybrid is one such example, though there are without doubt talented enough to achieve staggering results with the more standard (but custom tuned) machines.  Some choose to define the genre as “Any tattoo that you would want to put into a picture frame.” There are an ever expanding list of artists racing onto the fields of this beautiful trend, but this article couldn't be formed without the mention of the trail blazing Bugs and Austria's Waldi, both of whom's work you'd have to second take to check if it was a painting or a tattoo. Guy Aitchison is another huge indistry name promoting the artistic capabilities of illustrative tattooing; he holds intensive workshops and seminars, annually, at a few conventions in the states. His ‘USP’ is “reinventing the tattoo” – emphasizing the importance of drawing and technical skills and encouraging artists to interrogate their skill sets and put new life and effort into their work. Other names include Russ Abbott and Paul Booth – and many more, of whom we’ve catalogued here at Tattoo.Tv. The skills and creativity in the tattoo industry are ever on the rise. Thus: Illustrative tattoos are those of which you will catch a glance and find it impossible to believe that they aren’t paintings that an artist has carefully applied onto a subject’s skin. They are tattoos that completely defy the early traditional genres, where solid outlining and block colour would always be present to some degree. They are images that leap off the skin, or look like they glimmer, shine and flow. Fine line, a mastery of shade, form, light, colour and realism; illustrative tattoos, on one level, defy every definition of what a tattoo ‘should’ be by conventional definitions. Illustrative tattoos are on the line where tattoo art and high art are blurring.  In one way, you could say, they’re the future of tattooing. New, important, and absolutely amazing to look at.