Tattoo trends come and go. We have seen an era when barbed wire wrapped around the arm was the in thing. We have dealt with the fall out of the lower back tattoo trend and there have been many others that have come and gone. Not all trends fade but, some do.
One of the newest trends seems to be black out tattoos. Black out tattoos are a style of tattoo where a portion of the body if fully saturated with black ink or “blacked out”. The origins of this began as a way to cover up art that either looked bad, was not done properly, or represents something that the person is not into or a part of anymore.
Recently it has become popular as a way to create negative space designs. Negative space tattoos emphasis an image but contrasting it with black ink against the skin. Essentially it is reversing the image, using your skin as the main subject. To create a leaf, for example, the leaf would be outlined but the inside of it would be left free of any ink. Instead, a full layer of ink surrounding the image would be placed, causing the image that is still the color of the client’s skin to stand out.
It is interesting to see this concept that started as the ultimate cover up be molded into something unique. That is something that is constantly happening in the world of tattoos. When an industry is made up of artists and creators it is inevitable that many unique things will come from it but, we will have to see where this trend goes and if it sticks around of fades.
