Traditional Tattoo Designs

Traditional tattoo designs are frequently referred to as old school tattoo designs. The old school designs are usually quite plain and simple and are based on certain themes. Traditional designs are using heavy black outlines with minimal color and a lot of black shading. So the Traditional tattoo designs are normally a bit darker and have either simple or no colors at all. The tattoos usually have only a several details and the colors are done in blocks. The old tattoos usually have a two dimensional shape and have no in-depth illusion. This traditional tattoo designs feature traces its roots back to 1900s, when it was widespread having plain graphic symbols reproduced on skin cheaply and quickly, with limited equipment at the artists’ disposal. Many traditional tattoo designs are portraying military and nautical motives and themes, as navy and army men were the primary tattoo customers. The old school designs stayed popular because of their background and simplicity.

Nowadays, those artists who practice traditional tattoo designs, in order to have their work considered as truly traditional, have to adhere to some very distinct and specific set of visual rules. These rules apply on the ways that some motive or a theme can be drawn or colored. This is the reason why the tattoo artists of today use designs from great artists like Jerry Collins and Lyle Tuttle as basis for any of their traditional designs. This is why there are that many traditional tattoo designs which are directly copied from a sheet which is prepared in order to allow mass replication.

If you are interested in a true traditional tattoo then you should make sure that you are getting a tattoo which really meets the standards of a traditional tattoo. It is therefore important 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 fake 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.

One of the latest and newest aspects of traditional tattoo designs is the so-called "neo-traditional" tattoo genre, which has grew in popularity in recent times. As the name suggests, these are a combination of the traditional design with some trendy influences. The result of this is usually something more original and an interesting tattoo in general. A good example would be a traditional shaped design with different shades of black and thicker lines while it has a variety of beautiful colors inside the outer lines. This neo-traditional tattoo style presents a great compromise for a person who appreciates the aspects of both styles and is torn between the modern and traditional themes.