So, whether you’re after tattoos design in the style of your favourite artist, or want to peruse the latest styles and trends, check out these examples of fantastic tattoo art design – and discover the creatives who are pushing the artform ever further…
Sasha Unisex
Combining precise shapes and bold, in-your-face colours, these tattoos are quite simply a thing of beauty. The geometric aspect makes them triumph over the usual tattoo offerings, with Sasha Unisex’s creations proving a hit across the world.
Operating out of her studio in St. Petersburg, it seems Sasha is booked up for months in advance with just about every tattoo lover wanting a piece of her art on their body – who can blame them?
. Kenji Alucky
Tattoo artist Kenji Alucky specialises in the stippling method. This is where the tattoo design is made by inscribing countless tiny black dots onto the skin to produce something truly remarkable. Combining an array of influences, his work is spectacularly intricate – producing awe-inspiring patterns and imagery.
Facu Ontivero
Working as both a graphic designer and tattoo artist, Argentinian creative Facu Ontivero creates gorgeous designs that feature animals, geometric shapes and beautiful pattern work. We love his homage to the stippling technique as well as the attention to detail.
Paul Booth
American artist Paul Booth began his own sign making shop at the age of 15 and subsequently learned airbrushing and Repo work. He’s since become one of the most sought-after tattoo artists on the metal scene, working for bands such as Slipknot, Mudvayne, Slayer, Pantera, Soulfly, Lamb of God, and Sepultura.
Dmitriy Samohin
Hailing from Odessa, Ukraine, Dmitriy Samohin is a master of bold, realistic pieces with incredibly intracate detail. A self-taught artist, he’s been in the business for more than 10 years and his workshops are much sought-after at tattoo conventions.
Matt Houston
Matt Houston is a tattoo artist originating from London currently working at Gastown Tattoo Parlor in Vancouver, Canada. His work reflects the traditional style whilst integrating his own influences. One of our favourite pieces is shown above – a wolf wearing a feathered headdress whilst spitting blood. Matt Houston is constantly pumping out decent work, so don’t be shy to check out his blog.
Jean Le Roux
Jean Le Roux has an original illustration style that’s generally focussed on animals and portraits, exaggerating the expressions of his subjects in a captivating manner. Jean Le Roux graduated as a graphic designer and followed his passion into illustration, which led to an apprenticeship at Black Garden Tattoo. Jean is constantly posting illustrations on his blog so give it a gander.
Gakkin
Gakkin, who works at Harizanmai tattoo studio in Kyoto, takes a new approach to traditional Japanese themes, strongly influenced by manga, graffiti and graphic design. But although his tattoos are defiantly 21st-century, Gakkins still follows many of the traditional rules of Japanese tattoo design, such as: “Never put momiji [message dolls] and sakura [cherry blossom] in the same drawing”, and “Tigers should always go with bamboo”.
Ollie Munden
Ollie Munden, or MEGAMUNDEN as he’s known to many, is a prolific illustrator and artist and his tattoo art designs have graced the body parts of such designers as Aardman’s (and CreativeBloq regular) Gavin Strange. Check out this cool skull design, entitled Sugar Skull, commissioned by Luke Olney and inked by Into You Tattoo.
David Hale
David Hale is an artist living in Athens, Georgia, where he runsLoveHawk Studios. This is just one of his incredible tattoo art designs and its symmetry and almost geometric feel makes it classy for such a large piece. This particular piece is also slightly reminiscent of the work of the brilliant Aske of Sicksystems but in all, Hale is a remarkably original artist.
Jason Donahue
Artist Jason Donahue works at the Idle Hand tattoo studio in the Lower Haight district of San Francisco. His work has shades of Tamara de Lempicka, often with Native American themes. His minimal use of colour is both subtle and striking, and his style looks great on both smaller hand pieces and larger coverings.
David Corden
When it comes to detail (and to be honest, creepiness) there’s no one better than UK artist David Corden. His gothic pinups are inspired designs that are visual masterpieces in their own right: this amount of detail has to be applauded.
En
En works at Genko Studio in Nagoya, which is well known for his modern spin on traditional Japanese tattoo designs.
This illustration features a koi – a symbol of love and a recurring element in traditional Japanese tattoos. The hints of orange, red and blue give a modern look to the traditional design of the koi.
Jon Burgerman
How ace is this tattoo art design from everyone’s favourite doodler Jon Burgerman? It goes to show that tattoos don’t have to be dark in their themes to look stylish. Burgerman has designed many more pieces of cool body art, all in his unique character art style. To see more of his work check out these Jon Burgerman tattoo art designs.
Loic Zimmermann
When fantasy and concept artist Loic Zimmermann wanted to see how one of his tattoo art designs would look on his body, he recreated himself as a digital double using Maya, ZBrush,Photoshop CS6 and Mental Ray to design and pre-vis a tattoo that was then unwrapped, printed on a carbon paper, and then applied to his real skin with accuracy before the inking could start. And here’s the final design: it’s bloody brilliant.
Fat Punk Studio
Fat Punk Studio is a Somerset-based design studio specialising in T-shirts, prints, giant wall murals and, of course, killer tattoo art designs. The finished design will run down the client’s right arm and, according to the studio, contains loads of personal elements such as roses with Marshall Speaker cones at their centres. “Get ya tattoo guns out people and stay tuned for more updates as the inking gets underway,” it says on the studio blog. We can’t wait.
Adriaan Machete
Not only is this artist a sublime master of his craft, he also has a very cool name. Adriaan Machete is the kind of name you expect from a tattoo artist. Check out this awesome, if gruesome, leg design: vibrant turquoise against pink with clever line work make the characters pop.
