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Watercolors and borders

SeeSea

By SeeSea,
in General Tattoo Discussion

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SeeSea Hero

SeeSea

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I've heard that watercolor tattoos and tattoos with no border don't age well (although some look incredible). I like the abstract nature. I gather the top one won't read well after a short time, but what about the second one? It seems like it won't matter is much when the colors fade because there is an outline. Thoughts?

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Tesseracts Regular

Tesseracts

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I had a painting instructor who does really nice paintings. He's also a tattoo artist. However his tattoos don't look like his paintings at all. There must be a reason for that. Here are his paintings and here are his tattoos. They're different styles and they emphasize different things.

I love paint and I love the way paint looks, but human skin isn't like paper or canvas. I don't think it's just a matter of fading, some things look better on a flat computer screen than they look on an arm.

It seems to be that the best way to get something that looks like a painting on your skin, is to find a good tebori artist. For example, this bird by Horimasa has really nice subtle color transitions, more like a painting than like most tattoos. I also like how well white comes out with tebori.

Dotwork tattoos also look kind of like drawings or illustrations to me, here is one by Valentin Hirsch.

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Colored Guy Champion

Colored Guy

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I had a painting instructor who does really nice paintings. He's also a tattoo artist. However his tattoos don't look like his paintings at all. There must be a reason for that. Here are his paintings and here are his tattoos. They're different styles and they emphasize different things.

I love paint and I love the way paint looks, but human skin isn't like paper or canvas. I don't think it's just a matter of fading, some things look better on a flat computer screen than they look on an arm.

It seems to be that the best way to get something that looks like a painting on your skin, is to find a good tebori artist. For example, this bird by Horimasa has really nice subtle color transitions, more like a painting than like most tattoos. I also like how well white comes out with tebori.

Dotwork tattoos also look kind of like drawings or illustrations to me, here is one by Valentin Hirsch.

The artwork and tattoos in those links are simply stunning.

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SeeSea Hero

SeeSea

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@gougetheeyes - oh well, I thought outlines might have helped. But gee, props to the newbie who figured out big mistake #2.

@irezumi - Thanks, the thought counts. tl;dr is better than nothing.

@CultExciter - I figured. But after wrestling with the sucky search engine again, I said screw it, let me piss off some folks and ask. Maybe there should be a section here called, "Shit that's been beaten into the ground".

@Tesseracts - wow - both are pretty wild. I wasn't looking specifically for birds - they just happened to be two of the first examples I saw that illustrated my question when I was surfing. I wasn't implying I *liked* either one in particular. I was reading about tebori when you posted your tattoo - neat. I really like the transitions - it's more like a painting like you mentioned. Thanks for giving your perspective and giving examples - something to keep in my head for next time. (Oops, did you just put a thought in my head for a third one? O_o)

@Colored Guy - agreed.

Thanks, all.

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irezumi Champion

irezumi

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@CultExciter - I figured. But after wrestling with the sucky search engine again, I said screw it, let me piss off some folks and ask. Maybe there should be a section here called, "Shit that's been beaten into the ground" .

I have to say that this was a great response and I second your new thread idea. Thanks for making me laugh.

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SeeSea Hero

SeeSea

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Part of the problem isn't really the search engine, it's that single threads here go on to perpetuity. That's great to keep particular topics together like the backpiece experience thread, but it's terrible for sifting through search results. "Watercolor" returns a ton of threads (and that's fine) but if every thread has 100 pages and it doesn't tell me which of the 100 pages it's on ..... ugh.

And now back to your regularly scheduled program...

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Tesseracts Regular

Tesseracts

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Part of the problem isn't really the search engine, it's that single threads here go on to perpetuity. That's great to keep particular topics together like the backpiece experience thread, but it's terrible for sifting through search results. "Watercolor" returns a ton of threads (and that's fine) but if every thread has 100 pages and it doesn't tell me which of the 100 pages it's on ..... ugh.

And now back to your regularly scheduled program...

Most forums I've been on allow you to either search by thread or search by post. Seems this forum only allows you to search by thread... that's an inconvenience. However you can partially get around that by using Google to search LST.
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SeeSea Hero

SeeSea

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Most forums I've been on allow you to either search by thread or search by post. Seems this forum only allows you to search by thread... that's an inconvenience. However you can partially get around that by using Google to search LST.

Well, son of a bitch.

site:www.lastsparrowtattoo.com watercolor tattoo

Thanks for beating me over the head with something I already knew.

But that still won't stop me from complaining that the search engine sucks. ;-)

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SeeSea Hero

SeeSea

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Use the Advanced Search > Search Single Content Type > scroll down > boom

Ahh, all the way at the bottom there is the option to display as posts. That certainly helps! Thanks!

I'll update my review of the search engine from "sucks" to "annoying".

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Dan Hero

Dan

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I've heard that watercolor tattoos and tattoos with no border don't age well (although some look incredible). I like the abstract nature. I gather the top one won't read well after a short time, but what about the second one? It seems like it won't matter is much when the colors fade because there is an outline. Thoughts?

c39b9b1f549ba2fc8a78a435128c2997.jpg

I like that HB a lot(the style),I have also seen a lot of "watercolor" style tattoos that were beautiful IMO.

IMO a tattoo without outlines it would hold up fine,being mindful to keep it out of the sun and/or slathered in spf 50.

I have some color shading portions of my tattoos that don't have black outlines that have held up just fine.Black outlines can fade & get muddled together after years too,maybe worse than color.(just my opinions)

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Nikki Price Initiated

Nikki Price

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People worry too much about tattoos holding up over time. Live for the moment and get what you want. Lianne Moule and everyone at Immortal Ink are amazing.

I agree. Obviously it's a good idea to consider how your tattoo will look in the future, and artists shouldn't put anything they know won't last on peoples skin, but I like to see a bit of experimentation, a bit of a challenge to how tattoos 'should' look.

I have a dotwork realism tattoo, and I honestly have no idea what it will look like in 10/20 years, i've never seen anything of that age in that style, but i'm not worried, i'm actually sort of excited to see how it ages with my body.

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Gregor Champion

Gregor

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Everytime a new style of tattooing comes out people say the same thing. Theres a lot of 20 year old biomech tattoos out there that have aged really well and a lot that havent. It comes down to the artist I think and how good they are a their craft.

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Bexter Regular

Bexter

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I think watercolour tattoos can be really beautiful, I particularly love Lianne Moules work, and I think it can hold up well if it's done right. I'm tempted to get something in that style, and find out first hand how it lasts.

Lianne Moule's work is so pretty.

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