Tattoo in watercolor style

The tattoo culture develops every year, month and even day, new techniques, interesting solutions, original plots and ideas appear in it.

There is a place for all human feelings and emotions, because a talented and experienced master, it seems, is able to transfer any thought, any whim and impulse of a multifaceted human soul onto the skin as on a canvas.

In this article, we will talk about one of the most difficult and unusual directions in the art of tattooing, we will learn about incredibly expressive, bright, mysterious and exciting watercolor style tattoos and make sure that now not only children and professional artists, but also masters draw with watercolors. body painting.

History of occurrence and interesting facts

As you might guess, the name of the watercolor style means that it owes its appearance in tattoo culture to the direction in the visual arts, which uses watercolor paints. Diluting them with water, painting masters achieve the effect of transparency, lightness, weightlessness and create the most beautiful masterpieces that take the beholder into some extraordinary, magical, fairy-tale world.

The idea of ​​transferring watercolors to the human body entirely belongs to the talented American artist, and then the world famous tattoo artist Amanda Wachob. The girl's oil paintings often appeared in art galleries in New York and other cities in the United States, but already in 1998, Amanda realized that she wanted to delight with her masterpieces not only visitors to the exhibition halls, but also true connoisseurs of tattoos. Since then, human bodies have become the canvas for her paintings. The artist managed in an incredible way to transfer onto the skin charming careless strokes, bright droplets “accidentally falling” from the master's brush and funny stains, which are characteristic of the watercolor technique.

Quite recently, just a few years ago, no one took this trend in tattoo culture seriously - inveterate fans of the “old school” laughed at the owners of strange outlandish pictures, comparing them with children's drawings and not even suspecting what popularity they would gain after quite a bit. time style watercolor. Now this direction is recognized as one of the most difficult, interesting and, oddly enough, expensive. You will have to pay a big sum for a watercolor image on the body, but the result will be very impressive, such a work will delight the eye for a long time, delighting passers-by and casual acquaintances, and bright colors combined with the lightness and carelessness of lines will cheer you up even on the most cloudy day.

Implementation features and plots

Watercolor tattoos captivate their deliberate negligence, translucency, smooth silhouettes and intangible contours, play of colors, shades, halftones... The whole fantasy lies in the fact that the master does not have any special tools and auxiliary materials to achieve such an effect. In the arsenal of a tattoo artist, there are only dozens of containers with pigments of various colors, the usual tattoo machine that makes puncture punctures, filling them with paint, his talent and invaluable experience. Only due to competent, accurate mixing of several pigments in the right proportions, fine, rather jewelry, work and colossal patience create the very “watery” effect, which we perceive as a smooth flow, slight blur, softness and airiness of the pattern.

The beauty of watercolors is also that the size of the image and the plot, in general, do not really matter. Tattoos in this style, made by the hand of a professional, are already works of art in themselves, they are the embodiment of the inner world, the innermost dreams and desires, emotional impulses and unforgettable moments. However, it is still possible to identify some subjects that can best be realized using this particular technique.

• • Abstraction... Creative personalities almost always want to emphasize their essence, choosing extraordinary and intricate sketches, therefore, among the watercolor drawings, you can find a huge variety of the most unusual abstract plots that excite the imagination: large, sweeping strokes, allegedly made by chance; ornate, intertwining lines filled with paints; real colored rain or colorful splashes, similar to fireworks - and these are just a few of the millions of ideas that can only be imagined, and most importantly - brought to life.

• • Landscapes... How to resist and not fill a beautiful picture depicting a marvelous green meadow with bright splashes of wildflowers, or a piece of the beautiful ocean, as if coming to life on the skin and scattering small splashes of water around, or a distant space landscape with its vague stars and planets, which seems to be will it cover the whole body? These ideas are very difficult to describe in words, but they can be implemented in watercolor technique, and believe me, it will be incredibly beautiful.

• • Plants. Trees and all kinds of plant motifs, probably, will never cease to be favorites among girls who love tattoos, and even watercolor flowers - even more so. Delicate, sweet, bright, catchy - they all perfectly emphasize the girlish nature, femininity and the thirst for romance that does not fade away with age.

• • Animals and insects. Among the terrestrial fauna, there are plenty of creatures that deserve to become the center of a watercolor tattoo composition. Girls choose beautiful and light butterflies, bees, all kinds of birds, fish, kittens. If a person associates himself with some animal or would not mind possessing certain qualities and skills, then he can choose this image for himself and implement it in a tattoo. By this principle, images of wolves, tigers, lions, jaguars, foxes, dogs, horses have probably gained popularity. Among birds, owls can be especially distinguished, which have long been in the spotlight as a symbol of wisdom and secret knowledge. Don't be surprised to see also watercolor whales, octopuses, jellyfish, seahorses, bats, elephants, giraffes, deer and even bears.

• Fabulous and mythical creatures. Who among us would not like to believe in fairy tales, visit magical worlds, be able to fly and have magical powers? Alas, being engaged in everyday affairs and worries, we become so far from these beautiful fantasies. But you can always leave a piece of the fairy tale with you, enjoying its presence every minute.

Lovely pegasus, mysterious Cheshire cat, little fairy, fearsome dragon и fire phoenix - any fantastic creature, character or even a whole fairytale story can decorate your body and become a reminder of childhood and cherished dreams.

And this is far from all the ideas that can be realized with the help of watercolor technique. Among the tattoos in this style, you can find talismans, amulets, silhouettes of people and objects, memorial and sacred symbols, images of cities and constellations. In watercolor there are no limits, no frameworks, no conventions, any fantasy can become a reality, even if in the form of a drawing on the skin.

Combinations with other styles

As beautiful and self-sufficient as the watercolor itself is, there is always room for experimentation. In modern tattoo art, courage is only encouraged, it is she who helps him develop, become more interesting, multifaceted and impressive.

It seems difficult to imagine a painting technique with its features in a composition with some other style, but nothing is impossible, as they say. For example, a competent combination of graphics and watercolors is a great help for creating various animal drawings. Such tattoos look very bold, fresh and unusual, as if a frame, a sketch of straight and clear lines, suddenly gets rid of geometric shackles, gaining freedom and reviving on the human body.

Among male fans of tattoo culture, the combination of watercolor with trash polka is becoming popular. Sketches made in this manner turn out to be very original, especially if an interesting and well-thought-out plot is chosen. Trash polka slightly suppresses the softness and romanticism of the watercolor technique, without making the image too rough, but rather adding to it the spirit of freedom, rebellion, protest and a certain brutality.

Realism, interspersed with watercolor motifs, literally begins to play with new colors. Imagine that magic suddenly appears in familiar and understandable things, objects and pictures, making them brighter, making them change, blur, dissolve or completely flow into something else, which has its own meaning, different from everything we know.

Watercolor and gender stereotypes

Because of the features already known to us, the public very quickly and unreasonably endowed this style with the label “only for women”. One may agree with this statement or not, but nevertheless it is somewhat unfair.

Tattoo culture, like, ideally, any other direction in art, is absolutely free from stereotypes, patterns and constructs, it is, first of all, fertile ground for the manifestation of imagination, the implementation of the most daring, contradictory and sometimes unimaginable ideas, thanks to which it still remains a lot daredevils and innovators.

Yes, for girls, watercolor is a style in which you can create a beautiful, colorful, truly feminine tattoo, thereby emphasizing the romantic nature and your desire to be the center of attention. However, a man can also, by choosing a drawing suitable for the inner world and state, with the help of this direction, show his individuality, reveal and demonstrate himself to everyone as a creative person. There is a place in watercolors for deliberately masculine subjects - symbols of strength and superiority, images of powerful animals and even such classic attributes of the “old school” as skulls, weapons, maps, ships, anchors, watches and compasses. They can be perfectly combined with a light watercolor style of execution, complementing it, making it deeper, more interesting, bolder.

There are no only female and male tattoos, because the art of tattooing destroys all stereotypes, constantly proving that fantasy has no boundaries, there are no rules for it.

Photo of a tattoo in the style of watercolor on the head

Photo of tattoo in the style of watercolor on the body

Photo of tattoo in the style of watercolor on the arm

Photo of a tattoo in the style of watercolor on the leg