The sensation of feeling how the needle with ink goes through the skin and begins to leave a mark for life is one of the most exciting experiences that can be felt. This is precisely why the art of tattoos is in vogue and more and more people are looking to use their skin as a canvas to turn their body into a "map" full of stories and life.
But tattoos are no longer just big jobs that take up an arm, mid-back, or even part of the face. "Most people seek to get a small, original, minimalist tattoo that symbolizes something with geometric or very realistic shapes, they opt for something that reminds them of a person, experience or life motto," explains Carl, who has just been tattooed by a Fort Worth tattoo artist.
New Designs
Carl wears on his arm the brilliant micro-realistic face of his dog Poty, who has been in his life for the last ten years: “He is my companion, my best friend, and that is why I wanted to give myself this gift”.
Micro realism is one of the most requested types of tattoos today. Clients who come to studios like LoTattoos and Fine Art in Fort Worth, TX, on a daily basis: a family member, the portrait of their favorite artist... any image can be transferred to the skin.
But it is not the only trend of the moment. Many other people opt for small details, tattoos in fine lines and very discreet in which they include phrases that have accompanied them throughout their lives, small motifs such as a space rocket or a wave and that are closely related to personal experiences.
“It is one of the best ways to give yourself a gift that reminds you of who you are and defines you,” says Carl, who has already had 5 tattoos done at a tattoo shop Haltom city and, he assures, has many more on the list for the coming months.
Abstraction and Watercolor
Undoubtedly, customers who go through tattoo studios are increasingly looking for more original, striking and personal options. One of the strongest in recent years is watercolor tattoos, a tattooing formula in which, thanks to stains made in different colors, the result gives the sensation of being
precisely a painting made in watercolor although, that yes, in the skin of the client.
From the aesthetic point of view, more and more people opt for geometric type tattoos, in which based on stripes, circles, motifs and even structures with a sensation of 3D depth, they show off true and very personal works of art on their legs and arms.
It is clear that the art of tattooing is here to stay and that customers are increasingly demanding and are not only looking for someone who knows how to tattoo them, but also true artists who are able to capture their personality, tastes and desires on their skin.
"In the end, it is something for life and trusting the best professionals is the best decision that can be made in this regard," explains Carl, who is already a regular client of his studio due to the variety of tattoo artists, each one of them they specialized in a different type of tattoo.
You see it and it intrigues you. On the outside it seems that you are present in the conversation, but inside your mind is a kind of Sherlock: you try to decipher the shape, what it means, if there are 10 more hidden there, and mainly how much it hurt. Suddenly someone in the conversation (or you) gets the courage to ask, and what it means is deeper than you thought.
Between the story of why he did it and the meaning, you go from spectator to designer, because you even begin to visualize what yours would be like. Do you see what just happened? Someone's skin became a storyteller; he communicated and managed to connect in some way, which leads us to think that "content" is not exclusive to screens or social networks.
Look, to break this down, let's start with the basics. According to the University of Wisconsin (it is Minnesota, in fact, but we have something for Wisconsin) among the many definitions it can have, communication is basically sending and receiving messages that convey meaning using verbal or non-verbal means, which at the same time they are defined by the context.
Now, keeping this in mind but leaving aside what we commonly understand as communication, including the media or even the meme you were seeing before reading this, what better example of expression and messages than a tattoo?.
In addition to breaking with tradition -and probably with your mother's heart-, a tattoo starts from the same basis of what it means to communicate: this, together with the skin, becomes a non-verbal medium that emits, and even receives all kinds of messages. It ceases to be ink on the largest organ of the body and becomes the story, the moment, or the symbol of a particular context.
Regardless of the fact that some do it more for taste or fashion than for meaning, its communicative essence is always there. By wearing it on the skin, a much more significant medium than any other, it does not matter if it is a worm or a portrait, it is a message for whoever did it and for whoever sees it.
Plus, tattoos have been carriers of messages for thousands of years, and Smithsonian's website Cate Lineberry (yes, it's not all Wikipedia) explains how from Ötzi , the 5,200-year-old frozen mummy, to the Maori in New Zealand, tattoos have represented from protection, medicinal uses, fertility, slavery or punishment, to a high social status.
They are repeated throughout history in different cultures but at the end of the day they intend to communicate something: although the purpose varied, the medium connected them.
Now, from Ötzi to 2018, has anything changed? I gave myself the task of probing among friends and acquaintances what a tattoo is for them, and they all agreed on something: it is a mark on the skin that aims to express or remember a particular moment.
Just like when you take a photo so you don't forget something and talk about it or remember it later, the same thing happens with a tattoo, and as Poncho, an engineer who currently lives in Barcelona, told me, “It’s a way of marking milestones in your life."
So, the next time you see someone with tattoos, instead of drawing your own conclusions, remember that they are a unique and ancient content platform. Personally, the idea of making one is more and more present: Most people want something that has to do with the sea, with Spirit (the indomitable
steed) and the faces of family. What do you think? Want to go down in history with something that tells your story? Contact us today.
