RoryQ

Seems like there is a new regard for that spiky black tribal trend of the 90s again - and rightly so.
First it was a little bit ironic (black tribal creeping into traditional motifs) and now it feels like it is heading towards a wholesale reappreciation. People are like, wow, Leo Zulueta style tattooing can have massive visual impact and hold up well.

I always thought it was odd some people who loved recent geometric and black work might have turned their nose up at 90s tribal.
Paul O Rourke from All Star tattoos a lot of this type of thing and man, if this is what 90s fad tattooing looks like then they weren't as bad as I remember.
I don't think this ever went out of style for tough guys.


When it comes to later fads for feathers flocks of birds - where it's more about iconography than just style - I wonder can you think of them as just being new entries to the pantheon of popular flash. A feather is not to my taste, but it's no more arbitrary than a swallow in some ways.
Now, Victorian dressed animals smoking pipes... I can't stretch to getting on board with those.

Lately I've been really admiring nice script.
Dan Sinnes' work is probably my favourite.
I also really like looking at Norm's work but if I'm honest I struggle with some of the less readable stuff he does - it's cool, just not for me.

Lately I've been really admiring nice script.
Dan Sinnes' work is probably my favourite.
I also really like looking at Norm's work but if I'm honest I struggle with some of the less readable stuff he does - it's cool, just not for me.

Seems to me that when we talk about directions trad tattooing can go in it's worth bearing in mind the distinction between form and content.
The form of trad tattooing is all the stuff that leads people to say "bold will hold". The sticker quality, readability, outline, use of black, bold colours etc.
But that has no necessary connection to the content. You could use the form to illustrate anything, and people do... So we have espresso shots... Skeletor... Wrestling holds...
But there's a reason panthers, Eagles and whatnots have such a long track record. They're archetypical images full of emotion and strength.
A hipster gentleman riding an old timey bike, done in a traditional style, will almost certainly date. But a swooping eagle? Or a crying baby head. They won't go out of date anytime soon.
The question then becomes whether there's a better way to organise / draw that swooping eagle, or how you make it different.

Lots of mention of Filip Leu, Aaron Cain and others on here. There's even a guy with a Leu back piece hanging around.
I don't really get why you'd come into this particular thread, which is clearly about traditional tattooing, and start ranting about people (supposedly) not recognising true greats of tattooing...
If you think someone needs some love then why not be constructive and start a thread?

Seems to me that when we talk about directions trad tattooing can go in it's worth bearing in mind the distinction between form and content.
The form of trad tattooing is all the stuff that leads people to say "bold will hold". The sticker quality, readability, outline, use of black, bold colours etc.
But that has no necessary connection to the content. You could use the form to illustrate anything, and people do... So we have espresso shots... Skeletor... Wrestling holds...
But there's a reason panthers, Eagles and whatnots have such a long track record. They're archetypical images full of emotion and strength.
A hipster gentleman riding an old timey bike, done in a traditional style, will almost certainly date. But a swooping eagle? Or a crying baby head. They won't go out of date anytime soon.
The question then becomes whether there's a better way to organise / draw that swooping eagle, or how you make it different.

I don't think traditional tattoos necessarily inspire a 'fuck yeah, that's awesome' reaction in most people straight off the bat. A segment immediately - absolutely - and maybe more since they really came to fore as a genre in the past few years, but I think it's fair to say that most people (and a lot of collectors) are more readily able to recognise good tattooing when it comes in the form of accomplished japanese style, black and grey etc.
It probably took me at least five years of collecting and looking at tattoos a lot before I started to "get" traditional (maybe I was a slow learner). Even then, it was even longer before I understood what was going on with some of the more folksy approaches to it.
To me the thing about traditional tattoos is that although you could say that there is a flash lexicon there ready to use, the devil is in the subtle details. A Bert Krak crawling panther will be a very different beast, excuse the pun, to an Uncle Allen take on the same starting point. I love that aspect of it. Looking at stuff from particular artists and seeing where they've gone with it. You get the really whimsical and fun, like Jesse Gordon Jnr, you get the real traditionalists, like Tommy T. here in Dublin and people who are doing a really distinct personal folk style like Mario Desa (or at least, that's what I see there, apologies if I'm wrong :P ).

Lots of mention of Filip Leu, Aaron Cain and others on here. There's even a guy with a Leu back piece hanging around.
I don't really get why you'd come into this particular thread, which is clearly about traditional tattooing, and start ranting about people (supposedly) not recognising true greats of tattooing...
If you think someone needs some love then why not be constructive and start a thread?

Lots of mention of Filip Leu, Aaron Cain and others on here. There's even a guy with a Leu back piece hanging around.
I don't really get why you'd come into this particular thread, which is clearly about traditional tattooing, and start ranting about people (supposedly) not recognising true greats of tattooing...
If you think someone needs some love then why not be constructive and start a thread?

Seems to me that when we talk about directions trad tattooing can go in it's worth bearing in mind the distinction between form and content.
The form of trad tattooing is all the stuff that leads people to say "bold will hold". The sticker quality, readability, outline, use of black, bold colours etc.
But that has no necessary connection to the content. You could use the form to illustrate anything, and people do... So we have espresso shots... Skeletor... Wrestling holds...
But there's a reason panthers, Eagles and whatnots have such a long track record. They're archetypical images full of emotion and strength.
A hipster gentleman riding an old timey bike, done in a traditional style, will almost certainly date. But a swooping eagle? Or a crying baby head. They won't go out of date anytime soon.
The question then becomes whether there's a better way to organise / draw that swooping eagle, or how you make it different.

I don't think traditional tattoos necessarily inspire a 'fuck yeah, that's awesome' reaction in most people straight off the bat. A segment immediately - absolutely - and maybe more since they really came to fore as a genre in the past few years, but I think it's fair to say that most people (and a lot of collectors) are more readily able to recognise good tattooing when it comes in the form of accomplished japanese style, black and grey etc.
It probably took me at least five years of collecting and looking at tattoos a lot before I started to "get" traditional (maybe I was a slow learner). Even then, it was even longer before I understood what was going on with some of the more folksy approaches to it.
To me the thing about traditional tattoos is that although you could say that there is a flash lexicon there ready to use, the devil is in the subtle details. A Bert Krak crawling panther will be a very different beast, excuse the pun, to an Uncle Allen take on the same starting point. I love that aspect of it. Looking at stuff from particular artists and seeing where they've gone with it. You get the really whimsical and fun, like Jesse Gordon Jnr, you get the real traditionalists, like Tommy T. here in Dublin and people who are doing a really distinct personal folk style like Mario Desa (or at least, that's what I see there, apologies if I'm wrong :P ).

Lots of mention of Filip Leu, Aaron Cain and others on here. There's even a guy with a Leu back piece hanging around.
I don't really get why you'd come into this particular thread, which is clearly about traditional tattooing, and start ranting about people (supposedly) not recognising true greats of tattooing...
If you think someone needs some love then why not be constructive and start a thread?

Lots of mention of Filip Leu, Aaron Cain and others on here. There's even a guy with a Leu back piece hanging around.
I don't really get why you'd come into this particular thread, which is clearly about traditional tattooing, and start ranting about people (supposedly) not recognising true greats of tattooing...
If you think someone needs some love then why not be constructive and start a thread?

Lots of mention of Filip Leu, Aaron Cain and others on here. There's even a guy with a Leu back piece hanging around.
I don't really get why you'd come into this particular thread, which is clearly about traditional tattooing, and start ranting about people (supposedly) not recognising true greats of tattooing...
If you think someone needs some love then why not be constructive and start a thread?

I don't think traditional tattoos necessarily inspire a 'fuck yeah, that's awesome' reaction in most people straight off the bat. A segment immediately - absolutely - and maybe more since they really came to fore as a genre in the past few years, but I think it's fair to say that most people (and a lot of collectors) are more readily able to recognise good tattooing when it comes in the form of accomplished japanese style, black and grey etc.
It probably took me at least five years of collecting and looking at tattoos a lot before I started to "get" traditional (maybe I was a slow learner). Even then, it was even longer before I understood what was going on with some of the more folksy approaches to it.
To me the thing about traditional tattoos is that although you could say that there is a flash lexicon there ready to use, the devil is in the subtle details. A Bert Krak crawling panther will be a very different beast, excuse the pun, to an Uncle Allen take on the same starting point. I love that aspect of it. Looking at stuff from particular artists and seeing where they've gone with it. You get the really whimsical and fun, like Jesse Gordon Jnr, you get the real traditionalists, like Tommy T. here in Dublin and people who are doing a really distinct personal folk style like Mario Desa (or at least, that's what I see there, apologies if I'm wrong :P ).

Seems to me that when we talk about directions trad tattooing can go in it's worth bearing in mind the distinction between form and content.
The form of trad tattooing is all the stuff that leads people to say "bold will hold". The sticker quality, readability, outline, use of black, bold colours etc.
But that has no necessary connection to the content. You could use the form to illustrate anything, and people do... So we have espresso shots... Skeletor... Wrestling holds...
But there's a reason panthers, Eagles and whatnots have such a long track record. They're archetypical images full of emotion and strength.
A hipster gentleman riding an old timey bike, done in a traditional style, will almost certainly date. But a swooping eagle? Or a crying baby head. They won't go out of date anytime soon.
The question then becomes whether there's a better way to organise / draw that swooping eagle, or how you make it different.

Traditional and Japanese are hands down my favorite styles of tattooing. A really interesting thing is happening in the development of traditional tattoos right now, where artists are keeping in tradition with the technique and tools of prior generations but really branching out in subject matter, concept, and style. For instance, look at the work of James McKenna, Aidan Monahan, or Slawomir Nietschke. All of whom keep with the bold line, heavy black, saturated color, negative space ratios, and dynamic designs, while exploring very interesting and wacky themes. Or even the less weird but still very advanced and finessed work of artists like Herb Aeurbach, Paul Dobleman, or Gordon Combs. It's a super cool and exciting thing to be happening within a particular school of thought and is what makes the style most interesting to me.
It seems to me that the general populace prefers realism or new school tattoos, or even the more painterly stuff. If that's your preference, I don't really care, but I do attribute it largely to ignorance and a magpie effect.

I don't think traditional tattoos necessarily inspire a 'fuck yeah, that's awesome' reaction in most people straight off the bat. A segment immediately - absolutely - and maybe more since they really came to fore as a genre in the past few years, but I think it's fair to say that most people (and a lot of collectors) are more readily able to recognise good tattooing when it comes in the form of accomplished japanese style, black and grey etc.
It probably took me at least five years of collecting and looking at tattoos a lot before I started to "get" traditional (maybe I was a slow learner). Even then, it was even longer before I understood what was going on with some of the more folksy approaches to it.
To me the thing about traditional tattoos is that although you could say that there is a flash lexicon there ready to use, the devil is in the subtle details. A Bert Krak crawling panther will be a very different beast, excuse the pun, to an Uncle Allen take on the same starting point. I love that aspect of it. Looking at stuff from particular artists and seeing where they've gone with it. You get the really whimsical and fun, like Jesse Gordon Jnr, you get the real traditionalists, like Tommy T. here in Dublin and people who are doing a really distinct personal folk style like Mario Desa (or at least, that's what I see there, apologies if I'm wrong :P ).

I don't think traditional tattoos necessarily inspire a 'fuck yeah, that's awesome' reaction in most people straight off the bat. A segment immediately - absolutely - and maybe more since they really came to fore as a genre in the past few years, but I think it's fair to say that most people (and a lot of collectors) are more readily able to recognise good tattooing when it comes in the form of accomplished japanese style, black and grey etc.
It probably took me at least five years of collecting and looking at tattoos a lot before I started to "get" traditional (maybe I was a slow learner). Even then, it was even longer before I understood what was going on with some of the more folksy approaches to it.
To me the thing about traditional tattoos is that although you could say that there is a flash lexicon there ready to use, the devil is in the subtle details. A Bert Krak crawling panther will be a very different beast, excuse the pun, to an Uncle Allen take on the same starting point. I love that aspect of it. Looking at stuff from particular artists and seeing where they've gone with it. You get the really whimsical and fun, like Jesse Gordon Jnr, you get the real traditionalists, like Tommy T. here in Dublin and people who are doing a really distinct personal folk style like Mario Desa (or at least, that's what I see there, apologies if I'm wrong :P ).

Genuinely curious- why go ahead and let him tattoo you it if you weren't happy with what he came up with for you?

You can have full coverage with trad, particularly if you really pack in fillers.
Oliver Peck has denser coverage up close than a lot of Japanese suits in a way. Hard to read though, even nearby.
Even without star background or whatever I'm reminded of a Stuart Cripwell bodysuit in progress that Id hesitate not to call "full coverage".
Just an aside.

You can have full coverage with trad, particularly if you really pack in fillers.
Oliver Peck has denser coverage up close than a lot of Japanese suits in a way. Hard to read though, even nearby.
Even without star background or whatever I'm reminded of a Stuart Cripwell bodysuit in progress that Id hesitate not to call "full coverage".
Just an aside.

You can have full coverage with trad, particularly if you really pack in fillers.
Oliver Peck has denser coverage up close than a lot of Japanese suits in a way. Hard to read though, even nearby.
Even without star background or whatever I'm reminded of a Stuart Cripwell bodysuit in progress that Id hesitate not to call "full coverage".
Just an aside.

You can have full coverage with trad, particularly if you really pack in fillers.
Oliver Peck has denser coverage up close than a lot of Japanese suits in a way. Hard to read though, even nearby.
Even without star background or whatever I'm reminded of a Stuart Cripwell bodysuit in progress that Id hesitate not to call "full coverage".
Just an aside.

You can have full coverage with trad, particularly if you really pack in fillers.
Oliver Peck has denser coverage up close than a lot of Japanese suits in a way. Hard to read though, even nearby.
Even without star background or whatever I'm reminded of a Stuart Cripwell bodysuit in progress that Id hesitate not to call "full coverage".
Just an aside.