The Best Tattoo: August 2010

8/26/10

Dragon Japanese Tattoo Style

Phoenix Japanese Tattoo Style

Dragon Tattoo Design from Tattoo Software

8/25/10

Traditional Japanese Tattoo Design

8/24/10

Phoenix Japanese Tattoo

8/23/10

Koi Fish Tattoo Ideas

8/22/10

Tattoo Lettering Ideas

8/21/10

Japanese Dragon Tattoo Design

8/20/10

Traditional Japanese Peace Tattoo

Koi Japanese Peace Tattoo

Dragon Japanese Peace Tattoo

8/18/10

A lot of people gaze at tattoos as a way to show off, become rugged, or just make a statement. Many of them are trying to express their feelings, lifestyle, or past. Over the years, tattoos have evolved into many unique designs, and they continue to grow and to satisfy the person getting the tattoo. Before getting a tattoo always do your homework to find the tattoo that you want. If you like long thick symmetrical designs, tribal tattoos are perfect for you.

Tribal tattoo designs are very detailed and can look very good on anyone, which makes it a great tattoo to have. Thousands of years ago, these tattoos were used by members of antediluvian tribes for identifying the members of their clan. Some of the tribes believed that tribal tattoos had religious or spiritual connotations. If you have an inclination towards notions such as life and death, you might find many such tattoo designs in the tribal tattoo art. Well, if you have a dark side, or you are obsessed with the notion of death, you will certainly like tribal skull tattoos. These tattoos are very appealing. If you are spell-bound by tribal skull tattoos, it's time to find out more about tribal skull tattoo symbolization.

Tribal Skull Tattoos: Symbolism

When planning on getting a tribal skull tattoo design, you should first understand what it symbolizes. The meaning of the tattoo must be in conformity with your way of thinking or your emotions. Normally skull tattoos mean death or relate to the dead. But there can be other meanings as well. The conception of death is very complicated in itself. It can be related to the spirituality world also. It can mean the transformation from life to the after world.

It can also be used to teach individuals not to be afraid of death since it comes naturally. Death is not the only meaning. Tribal skull designs can also be associated with dangerous activities, the thrill for adventure, etc. It can also be inked as a way to show others your wild and crazy side. Many men use it as a sign of masculinity or to scare others. One way that women show that they too can be fearless is to get a tattoo of a skull.

Tribal Skull Tattoo Designs

As is the case with any tattoo, the tribal skull tattoo designs depend upon your imagination and creativity. The thick line of tribal tattoos helps greatly in producing the style of the tribal skull design. You can get this tattoo anywhere. But the most outstanding place is on a person's arm, shoulder, and their back. The skull and crossbones tattoo is one of the common skull tattoo designs. You can also tell the tattoo artist to make an evil skull drawing with a banner on the skull that carries your name. There are literally endless possibilities of skull designs to make.

You can also include other design elements such as flames. Flames can be drawn around the skull. Many tribal skulls are just plain black and white but if you add color to yours that makes it more personal. Thick, dark-colored strokes around the skull look great. Most women make a skull tattoo more feminine by adding color even flowers, especially roses. If you want a scary or evil-looking skull tattoo, you could add horns to the skull or show a snake rolled around the skull. If you want something detailed, you could get the grim reaper skeleton skull tattoo. Another interesting suggestion would be to get merely a part of skull tattooed and display flames all around it. You can also make two swords underneath the skull. A lot can be done to make the skull look scary. You can darken the eye sockets. You can also use skull design as a piece of a larger tattoo.

Article by: Chris M James

8/17/10

Japanese Tattoos - A Brief History

The traditional Japanese tattoos known as 'horimono' became very popular among the people of the 18th century or the Edo period. The most popular choices for the designs of the tattoos were the images from traditional water color paintings, picture books and woodcuts. Understanding the history and background is as important to experience and enjoy the Japanese horimono tattoos as it is to preserve their traditions. The Edo period was like a period of Cultural Revolution for the Japanese. There were many changes that happened during that period at different levels of the society. A different class of people grew up out of the ordinary people of Japan, who found lot of interests in fashion, comedy, drama, novels, songs, and theatre. So, a unique and separate culture began to grow up.

As the society of Edo progressed, the ordinary people began to take pride in activities of fashion. Gradually, the Edo working class people began to imitate the heroes from the folk stories they used to read in the books (especially the picture books) and comics and other artworks as popularized by the famous woodblock artist Kuniyoshi. Getting highly impressed from these artistic works, the people began to tattoo themselves ritualistically and painfully with the designs based on folklore, such as dragons, Chinese lions, and giant snakes, and also with religious figures with the help of sharp needles for inserting pressed charcoal ink under their skin.

The people who carried out the process of tattooing were mostly the woodblock artists who simply had to exchange their wood-carving blades for long and sharp needles. With time, some of these people became so much involved with tattooing that common people began to accept them as tattoo specialists. This is how the unique Japanese traditional body art form, horimono was formed.

Today, it is very common to have tattoo conventions in Japan as well as in the West. But to have such conventions in the Edo period in Japan around 150 years earlier is itself a strong indicator of the Japanese having a long and rich history of tattoo culture. Even though there are no photographic record of their works and designs, lot of books are available today which describe the life and work of many tattoo artists of the Japanese Edo period.

One very famous tattooist from the Edo period is Horiuno. Horiuno was born in 1843. He became a tattooist at the age of 20. But before beginning to work full time from his age of 40, he travelled extensively throughout Japan, going from place to place like Osaka, Kyoto and Shizuoka. However, he continued doing his business well into his seventies and much of his work can be seen even today. Most of his customers used to work in the local construction and manufacturing industries, and in 1912, some of these people of the Kanda area formed the Kanda Choyu-kai, meaning "Tattoo Friends Society of Kanda", and after another 10 years, the society was extended to outside the Kanda area, and formed the Edo Choyu-kai.

All the members of this group, who are mostly labourers such as construction workers, carpenters and plasterers, meet every year at places like Ojinanushi-no-taki and Marukotamagawaen, take part in mass outdoor banquets, or in festivals such as the Asakusa Sanja-matsuri, and present their intricate and extensive body art tattoos with pride. Horiuno was known as the most talented tattooist from Japan and was famous throughout Japan and also overseas. However, at that time there were many other equally skilful tattooists in Japan, such as Horikane, Kyuta, Horiiwa, and Nekokichi.

If you have grown tired of your tattoo and want to have it removed there are a number of options available, home and DIY methods have worked for people but the highest success rate comes with surgical methods. To remove a tattoo with excision can be costly but it's far less painful with a greater success rate. Take a look at the effect of tattoo excision.

Article By: Robert T Jones

8/16/10

King Tattoo Design

King Tattoo Design # 1

King Tattoo Design # 2

King Tattoo Design # 3