Sins Of Style
I want to elaborate on my interpretation of the styles of tattooing that you will see us do. A short few paragraphs written by a relative youngster, doesn't begin to do these ideas justice. But they may help newbie's get a bit more info.
Black and Grey
Firstly it's distinguished by its' limited pallet, the use of white doesn't change the way in which this style is labelled. The imagery can be anything from naturalistic portraits to simple shaded symbols. It is often a little faster to apply than full colour tattoos and can deal fairly well with the African sun. For these reasons it is sometimes used to cover very sensitive areas of a collectors body, and, or spots that get a lot of sun. Black and grey tattoos get smoother with age. Some people will get a black and grey piece when they are not sure if they like colour tattoos or not. Or they are just not sure which colours to go with. This sometimes results in the collector later choosing to continue getting black and grey pieces around the first and setting aside the other arm, leg or whatever for colour work. It is also possible to do tattoos that are just black shaded. This leaves the option open to add colour later but still looks finished when it just has the black shade. Putting colour into a grey shaded area can make the colour look dull or muddy. A good black and grey piece can be picked out from a bad one by noticing a few things. A variety of grey shades, a good use of both smooth shades and textures. The use of enough black to define the main image from the background, and ensure the tattoos longevity during the owners long bastard life.
Western Traditional
You might hear it being called old school, Americana, sailor style or a mix of these. I was taught and stuck to Western traditional as the name for this style, due to the fact that its' roots are not only limited to the influence of America. Western European along with British tattooers had a hand in the development of the style. Old school is a relative term. Tattooing is similar to music in that respect, it really just depends on when you tuned in. I know my mom doesn't think the 80's are old school. So I prefer western traditional, it gives credit where credit is due and acknowledges the years to come. Content wise there are many constants, but also no limits to what can be tattooed in this style. The consistent line width and heavy use of black are what make it similar to some Asian tattoo styles. Early western tattooers incorporated some style from the east. To make a piece look even more like it was from the past, some bright colours and previously unavailable colours should be left out. These early tattoos that we draw inspiration from were not heavily detailed. There was not a lot of grey from what I have seen. It is a lot about where you put the black shades in, and the use of colour that can make or break this style. I have been put on to the thought in recent years that these tattoos look the way they do, because the tattooers of the era had limitations. They, as I said had less colours and were not often able to achieve great detail, they also hadn't gotten into grey shading. The thought now is, why are we sticking to these limitations that are now self imposed. Should we use every available new development to better the tattoo, or should we just get down and put in some solid tattooing like the first electric tattooers did.
Custom
To us a custom tattoo means that it has been drawn by the artist who is doing the tattoo for the client. It will either be drawn from scratch using just the concept supplied by the client, or from reference from things like photographs, nature books, client sketches or Google image printouts. It is tattooed on one client only. We photograph it, and it is displayed along with our other custom work.