Will We Regret our Ignorant Style Tattoos?

A new tattoo style has taken over the younger generation of tattooed people. It’s simple, it’s whimsical, and these new simplistic tattoos will hold up for years. Ignorant style tattoos have all line work, simple designs, with no color and typically, no shading. This street-art style of body modification was popularized by graffiti artist Fuzi after he started tattooing and sharing his work online. Are these tattoos the same kind of fad as the tribal armbands and tramp stamps that came from the ‘90s? As someone who tattoos in a similar style for a living, no, these tattoos will hold up to the test of time and can be traced back to older styles of tattooing.  

In order to understand the cultural significance of these tattoos, we must take a short journey through tattoo history. The oldest tattoos ever discovered, belong to a “cool” guy named Otzi the Ice Man. Otzi was found in an iceberg, and his remains have been dated back to around 3250 B.C. He has 61 tattoos, all consisting of simple lines that were presumed to have been tattooed on him as some type of ancient therapy. I often hear from my clients getting small tattoos is a form of therapy for them too. While for modern tattooed people it may be more mental than physical therapy as it was for Otzi, I think this link is still important to mention. Five thousand years later, people are getting small, simple, tattoos for similar reasons they did back then. The tradition has and will carry on for generations to come. 

Flash forward to the 2010s when technology has made the world of tattooing more accessible to everyone. Instagram makes sharing the permanent artform you once were only able to find in tattoo shops or magazines easy to find. You can now bring in designs from Pinterest, Instagram, or whatever online source you choose to a parlor and have that design on your body forever. Along with the rise of social media, we see the rise of online shopping, making purchasing a tattoo machine easier than ever. Although tattoos have always been a way to publicly show your link to a counter-culture, Instagram makes it easier to show off these tattoos and popularize them quickly. While people have been tattooing what could be called ignorant style tattoos, due to their simplistic appearance, at home for decades, we can now share them online and anyone anywhere can see them. People covering their thighs with easy line-work practice tattoos quickly becomes something of interest in and out of counter-culture. These once sketchy style tattoos hit mainstream media, and with the help of professional artists, like Fuzi, the ignorant style of tattoo is born. 

Something older generations often say to me when they see some of my art is “why would anyone get that on them forever?” Now, I can’t blame them for not understanding why someone would want a cartoon frog wearing a flower as a hat or Bart Simpson with an earring and heart-shaped eyes, but my clients always find a way to connect the tattoo back to themselves in a meaningful way. As I tattooed what I thought to be just a silly frog design onto a client, he told me all about his great aunt who collected frogs and how my drawing reminded him of her. These pieces are simple but often carry deep meaning for my clients. Even when the tattoos don’t, I usually find people get these little tattoos with friends and people important to them, creating a memory that will last forever. 

Many millennials I meet with blue butterflies, tribal suns, or “live fast die young” tattooed on them say they regret it because it has no real meaning to them or wasn’t well thought out. Without social media, you had to go into a tattoo shop and look through books until you found something of interest. It wasn’t really something you could look for on Pinterest and think about for months before even getting the tattoo. Custom tattoos are also more popular now. I make about 75% of my living off of very specific customs. People can pick out every kind of flower, any animal, whatever they please. Often times when people bring in an ignorant style tattoo either from my flash or an idea that they have, they tell me, “I’ve been thinking about this for months.” Sometimes, even when it seems to be a day-of decision, my clients will still make comments similar to this. Overall, the culture and stigma around tattooing are changing. 

I can’t say that nobody will regret the tattoos they get when they’re 18, but I can say this new trend is a trend that won’t age in the same way the tattoos of the 90s did. Ignorant style tattoos will look good forever, can be easily hidden, and depict the art style of the 2020s. We have the world at our fingertips and have the time to think for long periods of time before getting our tattoos, much different from the tattoo culture of the past. Small, linework tattoos have been around since cavemen were walking the earth, and will continue to hold up for generations. We will not regret these ignorant tattoos as people may regret their blue butterflies from ‘92.