Bold black lines help keep color from spreading, large shapes and designs help with the ability to easily form highly legible tattoos these are all things that New School keeps close at heart. Many of the rules set forth by Trad artists long ago help with the clarity and healthy aging of tattoos. One of the few things people don’t notice about New School tattooing is how its foundations are cemented within American Traditional. In this guide, we look at the origins, stylistic influences, and artists that make up this incredibly saturated New School tattooing aesthetic.

With foundations in American Traditional, Neo Traditional, as well as anime, manga, video games, and comic arts, there are few things this style does not borrow from. Intensely vivid tones, eye catching characters, rounded shapes, and cartoonish concepts make New School tattooing a highly animated aesthetic that pulls from many different places for its style. The Artists Within New School Tattooing.Michela Bottin, Kimberly Wall, Brando Chiesa, Laura Anunnaki, Lilian Raya, Logan Barracuda, John Barrett, Jesse Smith, Mosh, Jamie Ris, Kike Esteras, Andres Acosta, and Oash Rodriguez all use aspects of New School tattooing.New School tattooing is highly influenced by video games, comic books, tv shows, Disney movies, anime, graffiti, and more.Much like American Traditional tattoos or Neo Traditional tattoos, New School tattoos use bold black lines to help keep color from spreading, and they also use large shapes and designs to help with the ability to easily form highly legible tattoos.Vivid tones, eye catching characters, rounded shapes, and cartoonish concepts are part of the style of New School tattoos.In this article we explore the origins, styles and artists who work within the New School tattoo aesthetic. According to Aitken-Smith’s Tattoo Dictionary the flower further incorporates “symbolic interpretation of transformation, mysticism and illumination.” What does a skull tattoo symbolize?Ī skull tattoo design traditionally represents death or decay but can also have other meanings, including as a visual symbol of rebellion and alienation, or as a marker for life.New School Tattoos: Origins, Styles, and Artists The rose is an almost universal symbol for love in tattoos design. When applied together in body art the skull and rose tattoo represents duality, symbolizing the struggle between life and death, the contrast of good and evil, the balance between beautiful and ugly. Skull and Rose Tattoo FAQs What is the meaning of a skull and rose tattoo? Pretty skull tattoos balance the small aspects with attention to fine details, balanced color and shading that put the tattoo artist’s concentration and commitment to getting the little things right, to the test. You don’t have to be huge to be a tattoo banger! Small tattoos featuring skull and roses are just as difficult – in the case of the bad ass single needle tattoos above, even more so – than larger works. Are you enjoying these skull and rose tattoo ideas?įor more skull tattoo design click on the links below for inspirational galleries below: If you’re inexperienced and looking to make a big splash with neck ink, then maybe taking a test run with a temporary tattoo would be a good idea as it’s guaranteed to change perception, not just of you, but of your ink collection. These examples utilize strong American traditional elements in color and heavy black. Neck tattoos are now an increasingly popular placement for body art enthusiasts, whereas in the past they were purely for those with limited space, or for rebellion and alienation. As wider tattoo popularity, the internet, and sharing of global ink culture has increased, the choices in tattoo design ideas, placement, and mixing of symbolism has increased with it. Skull and rose tattoos have been a staple of American tattoo art since before there were tattoo machines.

Neo traditional skull sketch