The 'Zoology' Genre Tattoos

To start with a few obvious statements: people most often get ink done because they want an aesthetic image on their bodies that has meaning. The vast, varied cornucopias of mammalian and reptilian life with which we share this earth are often wonderful sources of meaningfulness and inspiration to our own humble species. Thus we inevitably arrive upon the subject of ‘animal tattoos’ – which I’ll break down further for matters of precise specification: photo-realistic, zoologistically detailed portrayals of creatures of all known classifications. They most definitely fit into the most recent genres of ‘tattoo,’ their very existence being owed to the huge advances made in the field of ink realism, increasing creativity and boundary pushing, a rising interest in possessing a tattoo across more and more professions, cultures and classes. Animals – Sparrows, tigers, bears, cats, wolves – have always been extant across all the traditional genres of the tattoo canon. More obvious facts – all the creatures you might possibly think of will have been given meaning, mythology or symbolism at some point in human history. Their image becomes twined with human vocabulary: tigers are proud, strong, fierce; a lizard is curious, sly, shy; cats are mysterious, enchanting, dark. This vast back catalogue of ‘animal meaning’ will never be separated from our understanding of creatures in art. My point, however, is this: high detail and photo realism re-invigorates, re-investigates the old genres and gives new spin and new meaning to it all. There is, for example, the increasing tendency of zoologists, biologists, veterinarians and those generally in the animal profession to illustrate on their bodies their love and dedication to the subjects of their work. A disturbingly vivid, three-dimensional beetle might rest, inked on the shoulder of an entomologist. A full colour, accurately shaded and marked giraffe lopes across the shoulder of a zookeeper. Word has it that even the PETA activists have gotten in on the trend. Zoological ink is a genre as hard to do well as all other photorealism, a clear indication of increasing skill in the industry and the interest that is rising alongside it. We approve – and on one final note, there’s a strong niche within the genre to get your dearly loved pet dog or cat marked onto yourself, with detailing right down to the last hair. It’s not the love of the animal experts alone..