Trash Polka?

[Iwar]

I personally don't care for this style of tattooing, but I'm curious to hear what the rest of you think. To my untrained eye it looks like it's applied decently enough, but I suspect the "no outline" thing won't age with dignity...

[sboyer]

doesn't look like a tattoo to me. not my thing.

[CaptCanada]

Yeah, on a canvas it would look better, but as a tattoo meh.

[Petri Aspvik]

Volker does have some good stuff. Or this one I REALLY like. Infact, I liked just this one really :P

Btw. If I remember correctly, the trash polka tattoos are a collabarative effort between Volker and Simone Pfaff.

edit. collabarative? collaborative

[Ursula]

Personally I wouldn't care to have any of those tattoos or own any of that art as paintings either.

[cfgsteak]

Not my style...I would worry about aging.

That said, I like the first 2 pics...but I wouldn't want either actually on my body.

[Gregor]

Its beautifully applied but feels very faddy and trendy . kinda like tribal lol does that make sense ? its not very sincere to me its clinical. Math does a similar style but nicer imo Tattoo work : EVENMOREBLACK

[nicky papers]

doesn't look like a tattoo to me. not my thing.

truth.

[Scott R]

I can see this being very cool for the early 20s guys.

[Ursula]

They look like shitty t shirt designs except someone forgot the shirt part!

I know some of you like the artwork but I just don't. To me it's nothing new, nothing interesting, nothing that should be tattooed. The back pieces to me just look fucking stupid and are going to look way stupider in 5-10 years when they turn into black blobs (first one already is black blobs ha!). The second back piece, I can't imagine how the white and pink will last more than 1-2 years. I'd be scared to get that much red in a tattoo without outlines.

[Jaycel Adkins]

Just comes off as being a bit TOO derivative of Graphic Design AD work, which isn't something I would want permanently on my skin, so I agree with that sentiment expressed by people better versed than I. The whole stamped and/or type writer font wording on several of the examples posted by @Iwar leave me pretty cold.

BUT, the point about strong outlines made me think about Amanda Wachob, and I am curious what other people here think about her work in comparison and in contrast to work posted above.

[Ursula]

Visually I like hers better but I wouldn't get a tattoo like that, same reasons as before pretty much. The first chicks arm does just look like some child painted on her, I'm sure that was the idea though. I think it's stupid.

[dari]

The first chicks arm does just look like some child painted on her, I'm sure that was the idea though.

My kids have always been big on drawing on themselves, I think like most kids. Unlike most parents, we don't tell them no, or to stop. It was actually one of my son's preschool teachers that decided my son could color on himself in any fashion, saying that it was our "family culture." That being said, my two yr old daughter's "tattoos," as she calls them, rarely look as good, placement wise, as that first picture.

[abees]

doesn't look like a tattoo to me. not my thing.

correct. there's a certain celebration with some people about tattoos that don't look like tattoos.

[Jaycel Adkins]

Visually I like hers better but I wouldn't get a tattoo like that, same reasons as before pretty much. The first chicks arm does just look like some child painted on her, I'm sure that was the idea though. I think it's stupid.

Oh, I don't know. Maybe Jackson Pollack minus, of course, the texture. They actually remind me a bit of a video I saw about bioluminescence.

[jade1955]

Or this by Noon.

I just don't get why would someone want this sort of thing tattooed on them.

[Ursula]

ugh someone posted those noon photos in another thread... total shit. I think. The heart on the couple is one of the dumbest tattoos I've seen, ever. Just further proof that the general population has zero taste. At least on the last two the lines are clean, still ugly and look nothing like tattoos to me though.

[Raskolnikov]

Regarding the original Trash Polka tattoos, I would not have one done on me and I agree that they seem faddy, but I certainly recognise and appreciate the technical ability required to execute them. They certainly look like tattoos to me, albeit clearly different to (and perhaps deliberately in contrast to) most mainstream tattooing. I guess there are so many dreadful tattooists doing technically very bad work, but that many would consider to be recognisably 'tattoos', that I find it hard to dismiss this work which is at least shows talent and application to the task. Not a popular opinion, I know.

[dari]

I'm generally a romantic and a defender of the young and foolish, so I want to like this "tattoo concept," but I just can't pull it off. Maybe I could've gotten closer if he'd taken off that hat.

[Stewart Robson]

My personal problem with this stuff is that it doesn't deal with or derive from the basic motivations of humans or society.

All the long-lasting tattoo imagery addresses or springs from some basic element of humanity. Which is why they've lasted a long time.

My opinion is that this style of work (trash polka et al) is created with the main motivation to stand out from the crowd or be 'different'.

The drive to be original, different or special, is fundamentally flawed and certainly short-lived.

If tattoo designs derive from deep-rooted human drives and archetypes it's pretty much impossible for the concept to become dated. The execution is a different matter.

In my opinion all the best tattoo imagery comes from or symbolises basic human drives, or the needs of humans in society. Skulls, pin-ups, powerful animals, flowers, hearts, religious imagery, daggers etc, etc.

Most of the flash or portfolios (including tribal) in a decent tattoo shop will succinctly encompass the interesting bits of the human experience.

That's why the work posted in this thread rings hollow for me, regardless of the difficulty of the application.

[Ursula]

Ahhh @Stewart Robson, always able to express in an eloquent way what the rest of us mean by "This shit it stupid and looks even stupider". Thanks again!

[Valerie Vargas]

how did you do the @stewartrobson thing? that's cool!

[Ursula]

@Valerie Vargas - it's new thing they added last week, you just put @ in front of anyone's name, but make sure you put the space between first and last name like yours and Stewart's!

[Iwar]

how did you do the @stewartrobson thing? that's cool!

@Valerie Vargas, you just did, but you missed the space in stewart's profile name.

[Hrubarb]

These tattoos leave me sad or melancholy. Not only do they "ring hollow" as stewart said but I actually find them draining to look at