Styles

This list explains the common styles. Which of them we tattoo depends on who is working at the studio right now — the artist profiles will tell you exactly. Your style not here? Ask anyway.

• Fineline

  Fine, continuous lines and almost no solid fill.

  Very fine needle groupings, little to no shading. It lives on clean line work — and on not choosing the motif too small: fine lines set too close together bleed into each other over the years.

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• Blackwork

  Large areas of solid black, hard contrast.

  From geometric patterns to fully blacked-out areas. With hardly any gradients involved, blackwork usually ages well — but it demands a design that also works as a pure black and white shape.

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• Black & Grey

  Shades of grey, no colour.

  Depth comes from shading rather than colour. A classic for portraits and realism, because transitions can be controlled more finely than with coloured pigments.

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• Realistic

  A photographic reference, a photographic result.

  Portraits, animals, objects. It stands or falls with the reference: a blurry photo will not produce a sharp tattoo. It needs space — realistic motifs the size of a matchbox rarely end well.

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• Old School

  Bold lines, clear colours, a fixed visual language.

  The traditional American style: strong outlines, a limited palette, motifs with a history — anchors, swallows, roses. It demonstrably ages better than any other style, because line and fill are deliberately set coarse.

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• New School

  Cartoon-like, exaggerated, strong on colour.

  Exaggerated proportions, bold colours, plenty of movement in the motif. Closer to illustration than to a reference image.

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• Neotraditional

  Old school with more detail and depth.

  Keeps the strong outlines but allows finer shading and a wider palette. Common for animal and botanical motifs.

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• Japanese

  Large connected motifs following a fixed pictorial order.

  Irezumi thinks in body sections rather than single motifs: a dragon, koi or wave sits in a composition together with wind and water fields. Almost always a project across several sessions.

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• Lettering

  Type as the motif.

  From calligraphy to Chicano script. The wording is settled before the needle starts — typos are the most common reason for a later cover-up. We send you the stencil to read first.

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• Ornamental

  Patterns that follow the body.

  Mandalas, ornaments, borders. It is not laid onto the body but designed around it — which is why the final stencil often only takes shape on the day.

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• Dotwork

  Built from dots, not fills.

  Shading comes from the density of the dots. Time-consuming, but very even in its effect. Often combined with ornamental work.

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• Maori & Tribal

  Solid black patterns with a fixed formal language.

  Strong, interlocking black shapes. With Polynesian motifs, part of the consultation is which forms carry cultural meaning and which can be used freely.

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• Cover-up

  A new motif over an old one.

  Not a style but a task: the old tattoo dictates how dark and how large the new one has to be. Best to ask with a photo attached — there is no judging it from a distance.

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