Tattoo styles.
Every tattoo style has its own history, look, and specialists. Browse the 26 styles below to learn what defines each one and to find artists who tattoo it. Want the deeper story behind each style? Read our guide to tattoo styles.
Black and Grey
A grayscale color palette using various needle sizes to achieve a highly detailed, smooth appearance.
Illustrative
A style rich in language of narrative elements that can be drawn and tattooed in a variety of visually interesting ways.
Realism
A style where the tattoo consists of portraits or landscapes that mimic the fine detail of a photograph.
Neo-Traditional
A style infused with a darker color palette and elements of nature, and put together with surrealist flair.
Script and Lettering
Tattoos with fonts in old English, handwritten lettering, paint splatters, etching, or other fonts for various effects.
Watercolor
This style is created using splatters, blurs, and shades to mimic the style of watercolor artwork.
American Traditional
This style features bold black outlines and pitch black shading contrasted with very bright colors.
Fine Line
A delicate style built from single-needle line work, ideal for small to medium pieces with thin, precise detail.
Japanese Traditional
A style where Japanese images and symbols are used to convey a specific meaning.
Portrait
A photorealistic style focused on capturing the likeness of people or pets, where every line and shade is rendered to evoke the s…
Anime
A style inspired by Japanese animation and manga, featuring stylized characters and cel-shaded color.
Geometric
A style built from crisp angular shapes and clean line geometry, blending mathematical precision with bold composition.
Abstract
An artistic style that conveys abstract ideas without using visual references from the surrounding world.
Trash Polka
This style looks a lot like collaging with a combination of naturalistic and photo-realistic elements and geometric graphics and …
Blackwork
An ornamental design style with massive black tint areas, complex geometrical and symmetrical patterns.
Ornamental
A timeless style that can incorporate singular art images among intricate free flowing design patterns.
New School
A style that veers from traditionalism to create patterns and ideas that haven’t been used before.
Polynesian Tribal
A geometrical style originating in Hawaiian and Samoan tattoo traditions.
Sacred Geometric
A style using shapes and patterns found in nature and that are perfectly symmetrical.
Artists coming soon
Tribal
A style made up of black silhouettes. Most are based on ancient tribal designs.
Artists coming soon
Bio-Organic
This style is an abstract representation of elements that can be found in the natural world.
Artists coming soon
Freehand
A style where artists don’t use stencils to create a more artistic design.
Artists coming soon
Hyper-Realism
A style where the design is so life-like that it’s hard to believe it’s a tattoo.
Artists coming soon
Pointillism
A style that creates images of complex patterns and gradients by using pure colored and variably spaced dots.
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Biomechanical
This style features robotic parts, working gears and 3D skin illusions.
Artists coming soon
Nordic Tribal
A style originating in Viking tattoo traditions.
Artists coming soon
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