Why not surrender to the sirens of fashion in the form of a tattoo?
At least 550 tattoo artists from all over the world gathered in Paris for three days, the high tattoo crowd is reborn from the ashes! The Mondial du tatto, created in 2013, unfortunately went bankrupt, canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to the health crisis. One of the founders, French Tin-tin, says: “The prison caused many shops to close, it was very difficult for many tattoo artists.” Good news, this Friday he’s launching a new international tattoo exhibition called Tattoo Planetarium.
The Grande Halle de la Villette in Paris is hosting the 1ʳᵉ edition of this convention until Sunday, where artists will tattoo, present and exchange their work. “I hope that I will please the people who will come there. Many thought it would never come back. It is a highly anticipated event across the planet. More than 50 countries are represented,” says Tin-tin happily.
Minimalist tattoos with fine lines, holographic or metallic effects, hand knocking, lightning designs or even a mix of fine art and pop culture, what are the main tattoo trends in 2022? “If you want a successful tattoo, trends and tattoos are contradictory! According to Tin-tin, he immediately alerts Maud Dardeau, a “fantastic Bordeaux tattooist” who does tattoos “in the style of Gustave Doren’s illustrations”. So why do fashion and tattoos go together?
“There are several different styles of tattooing. The trend is back in fashion, as a rule, it does not work with tattoos. All fashion trends pass, the problem is that the tattoo remains, “explains Maud Dardeau.
“Fashion doesn’t stay with the times”
Choosing your tattoo based on what’s in fashion is likely to put you in the past box. “In the 1980s, then Big Blue, all have dolphin tattoos. Today it is quite rare. Tribal bracelet in the 1990s. All the things that we see a little too much, inevitably, after a short while, “adds Tin-tin. Right now, “there are maybe a few too many pocket watches and compasses and loose things. in how many years they will pass quickly, “the expert continues.
Maud Dardeau warns again: “Some people get tattooed because of the trend, which I would say is as wrong as trendsetting.” “What is fashionable does not stay with time. We see small things in the photo, it is very beautiful. But the skin ages, if the tattoo is too small and thin, it will fade or stain over time. The priority for a tattoo artist is to do something that is not done just for a nice photo on the Internet, the goal is for the tattoo to grow old with the person and accompany him throughout his life.
“Each artist creates his own trend”
Same story for the creator of Tattoo Planetarium: “The big trend is that there is no longer a trend. Each artist creates his own trend. With the explosion of tattooing, “more than just a fad, a real social phenomenon,” according to Tin-tin, there are more and more tattoo artists.
“Twenty or thirty years ago, there were ten or twenty times less tattoo artists. Today comes a whole wave of people with new movements, new creativity. We were more into style during the old fashioned tattoo old school, today some tattoo artists come out of art school, into painting, architecture, design, etc. A lot of things that will interact with the tattoo,” said Maud Dardeau.
If there are technical developments in the world of tattooing, “before the tattoo artist was a bit mechanical, now the new rotary machines turn by themselves, you just need to connect them”, according to Tin-tin, “there is first of all a great artistic evolution. I started tattooing forty years ago. “When we started, tattoo artists came from the streets more than the art scene. Nowadays, we really have artists in our craft.”
“Don’t let people end up with the same thing”
Tin-tin explains, “There are a lot of tattoo artists now that use machines that create very fine lines. These tattoos tend to fade often, it’s a style we try not to defend too much because we try to avoid all tattoo artists and tattoo artists doing the same thing and ending up with the same thing on people’s arms »
“When a customer comes to us without a specific idea of what he wants. We tend to slow them down and tell them to look up and study tattoo artists to find the one that will most likely stick with the true artistic style. This will avoid ending up with a tattoo you’ll want to get rid of ten years from now,” advises the tattoo artist.
“Fashion investment is wrong”
What areas of the body should be tattooed? “Ten or fifteen years ago, people were tattooing themselves in discreet places covered with clothing. Today we see tattoos on the face, cheeks, neck, hands or wrists. Previously, these areas were tattooed when there was no space elsewhere,” Tin-tin notes.
The same observation in Maud Dardeau’s shop: “We will have young people who request an automatic tattoo on the neck or hand without realizing that it can still cause problems in everyday life. The tattoo artist tends to focus on the less visible parts of the body, especially the first pieces. And to add: “Especially when you’re young, sometimes you have choices that aren’t quite fixed and tastes can change.”
So, instead of giving in to fashion sirens and copying what we see on Instagram, to make your tattoo successful, go to the Tattoo planetarium salon this weekend and find a tattoo artist who will create a special creation.
Among the young French talents, Tin-tin recommends taking a look at the works of Abdel Pedro and Emma Rouquet in particular. “They were apprentices to me and fell in love in my shop. They just opened in Mulhouse. They have great stories and they are incredible artists,” says Tin-tin. And collectively Breton Amanda Banan, Maud Dardeau, “Michael Taguet whose realist style cannot be envied by Americans”, ShooBY or even Golem to mention. “The beautiful flower of French and global tattooing, everyone is there,” Tin-tin cheers.
