Many people consider tattoos and piercings as intriguing forms of body art or body modifications. The importance and significance of each tattoo or piercing may vary from person to person.
Tattoos and piercings are a great avenue for self-expression. You can express your personality, individuality, and sense of style through these works of art. Moreover, tattoos and piercings can be empowering as they allow you to take ownership of your body, challenge societal norms, and assert your identity.
Each tattoo or piercing also carries its own meaning that is personal to the owner. For instance, they can represent important life events, personal milestones, relationships, or pay tribute to loved ones. They can also serve as an emotional and therapeutic outlet for those in healing. Specifically, you can detail your journey or closure through a tattoo or piercing, helping you cope with traumatic experiences, loss, or personal struggles.
Tattoos or piercings can also represent long standing traditions and cultural significance. For some cultures, this body art may serve as rites of passage or markers of social status. Also, they may be connected to specific cultural practices, rituals, or beliefs.
Take a Peek at These Tattoo Techniques
Tattoo artists use various techniques to create styles and effects to enhance the tattoo design. Some common tattoo techniques include linework, shading, color packing, blending, and pointillism, among others.
Read on to get to know the following tattoo techniques:
Linework
Linework is a tattoo technique that involves drawing clean and precise lines to create the basic structure and shape of the tattoo. The lines can range from delicate to bold and thick lines, depending on your desired effect. The main goal of the linework technique is to create a visually appealing design using only lines.
The most common tattoo designs that use the linework technique include geometric patterns, mandalas, botanical elements, and other intricate designs.
Shading
Shading is a tattoo technique that involves creating various tones and gradients to add depth, dimension, and texture to the tattoo design. Tattoo artists use different tattoo needles for smooth transitions between the light and dark areas of the design. By layering and blending different shades of ink, artists can realistically create the illusion of highlights, shadows, and textures.
Color Packing
Color packing is a tattoo technique that involves filling in areas of the tattoo design with solid and consistent colors. To successfully achieve good color packing results, tattoo artists saturate the skin with multiple passes of the tattoo machine to ensure even and vibrant colors.
After the first round of color packing, artists may also add additional layers or touch-ups until they achieve their ideal vibrance and saturation of the colors.
Blending or Gradient
Blending or gradient tattoos involve striving for a gradient effect by creating smooth transitions between different colors or shades.
To achieve good results from blending and gradient, artists blend two or more colors together, creating a gradual shift from one color to another. Moreover, artists can also use blending and gradient to create a gradual shift from the light area to the dark area of the design.
Pointillism
Pointillism is a tattoo technique that involves creating a design using tiny dots only. To achieve pointillism, artists vary the size, density, and spacing of dots to create different shades, textures, and tonal effects. For instance, the shading appears darker when the dots are closely placed together. In contrast, the shading appears lighter when there are large gaps between the dots.
Despite its beauty, pointillism can be time-consuming. Therefore, it is necessary for the tattoo artist to have the utmost patience and precision to implement this finely detailed technique.
Be In Style With These Tattoo Styles
Are you ready to try the following common tattoo styles at your next tattoo session?
Realism
Realistic tattoos aim to showcase the appearance of real-life subjects with great detail. Artists use various tattoo techniques, such as shading and highlighting, to bring images of people, animals, or objects to life. Since realism is a greatly technical style, artists are expected to have keen attention to detail to pull off the highly lifelike designs.
Geometric
To successfully create a geometric tattoo, artists use precise lines, patterns, and shapes to create symmetrical and intricate designs. These types of tattoos often use animals, nature, and other objects as references. Then, artists incorporate geometric elements like triangles, circles, and hexagons to bring the designs to life. The main focus of the geometric tattoo style is to create designs using clean lines and geometric symmetry.
Tribal
Tribal tattoos are heavily based on traditional tribal cultures. To create this tattoo style, tattoo artists incorporate bold, black patterns with abstract or symbolic meanings to their designs. They may also incorporate repetitive lines, cultural symbols, and geometric shapes.
Script and Lettering
The script and lettering tattoo style involves using elaborate fonts to immortalize quotes, calligraphy, names, and other significant words on an individual’s skin. Although this style may seem simple, artists are still required to be extremely detail-oriented. This would mean paying extra attention to the spelling, spacing, alignment, font, and overall flow of the text.
Get Pierced Via Your Method of Choice
People usually get piercings as a form of self-expression. There are different ways you can fix your piercing depending on the kind of piercing that you have in mind.
Here are some of the different ways that you can get pierced:
- Needle piercing. Needle piercings require the piercer to use a sterile, hollow needle to pierce through your skin. This is one of the most common and easily available piercing methods. Moreover, needle piercing is also considered to be one of the safest and more precise piercing methods. For instance, you have a lower chance of experiencing tissue damage with needle piercing as compared to a piercing gun.
- Piercing Gun. With this piercing method, the piercer uses a spring-loaded mechanism to force a stud or earring through the earlobe. Just like needle piercing, using a piercing gun is also one of the most common piercing methods.
- Dermal Punch. With the dermal punch piercing method, the piercer uses a specialized tool to remove a small circular area on the tissue. As a result, the piercer creates an opening where they can insert jewelry, like an earring. You can get a dermal punch piercing anywhere on your body as long as the area is flat. The most common areas include the ears, cheekbones, and nape.
Piercing Types That You May Like
There are four main kinds of piercings: ear, facial, body, and oral piercings. Read on to know more about the piercing types for each kind.
- Ear piercings. The most common location for ear piercings is on the earlobe. However, you can also get piercings on the following areas of your ears, among others:
- Helix, or the outer rim of your ear
- Tragus, or the small, triangle-shaped cartilage in front of your ear canal
- Conch, or the inner cartilage of your ear
- Facial piercings. You can get piercings on the following parts of your face:
- Nose (nostril, septum, or bridge)
- Eyebrows
- Lips
- Tongue
- Cheeks
- Tooth
- Body piercings. You can also get piercings on various parts of your body aside from the usual face and ears. Here are some body parts that you can get pierced:
- Navel
- Nipple
- Nape
- Collar
- Hip
- Genital (clitoral hood, labia, or frenum)
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, people get tattoos and piercings for completely different reasons. The inspiration behind this art may come from personal experiences, cultural backgrounds, and individual preferences.
Whether you’re getting a tattoo or piercing, remember that proper aftercare is important to avoid infection and other complications. You must also take good care of your tattoos to ensure that the colors last longer and are preserved for a long time.
Looking to advance your personal style with a tattoo or body piercing that is uniquely you? Drop by Ink By Finch today to explore our extensive range of tattoo techniques, designs and body piercings, and you may just find one that speaks to you. Our years of experience in the body modification industry has made us a reputable and reliable studio to get your first (or next) tattoo or body piercing. Here’s how to look for us.