The traditional style, also called old school tattoo style, is known for its bold lines, bright colors, and iconic designs like roses, anchors, and gorgeous lady heads. This style of tattooing is one of the most well-known and beloved aesthetics within the tattoo community. They’re gorgeous from the get go, age beautifully, and are filled with the history of tattooing. You can’t really go wrong with a piece in this genre!

Though classic realism has been a part of the fine art since as far back as the Renaissance, it only found its way to the world of tattoos recently, cropping up around the latter half of the 20th century. Since then, this new tattoo style has become increasingly refined and extremely popular. As it now stands, you can find jaw-dropping color and black and grey portraits of pretty much any celebrity you can think of as well as realistic depictions of nature and just about anything else imaginable, even the surreal.

The watercolor style is currently in vogue. It’s in extremely high demand by the most recent generation of tattoo enthusiasts, who seem to be looking for modern tattoo types to match the new millennium. It looks like what it sounds like, as if rendered with a brush dabbled in watery pastels. However, looks can be deceiving, while it’s easy to create this aesthetic when working with actual watercolors on paper or canvas, doing it with ink on the human body is no simple feat.