Last week we learned about Old School and how it influenced the Western tattoo world, today we are going to talk about New School. There are so many styles and techniques when we talk about tattoos that one can be easily confused, especially with two similar terms. New School is actually very different from Old School, in looks and often in subjects. Let's dig in this tattoo style deeper.
New School Tattoo Style
New school is one of those tattoo styles that have had a huge surge in popularity in the latest years, especially thanks to the progresses in the tattooing industry. New school tattoos most prominent feature is the use of very bright colors: this has only been possible thanks to technology that made the use of colors almost limitless to artists. Bright saturated inks, large "strokes", vivid pop of colors and cartoon-like shapes and volumes are what is today called New School: there isn't one defined style, or most common subjects but you'll definitely know a new school tattoo when you see it. You'll know old school tattoos from the use of a limited color palette (mostly primary colors) and 2D shading; new school is all about colors you can't find in nature and extreme 3D, almost graffiti-like shading. The outlines are also heavy, like cartoons and graffitis. New school tattoos can have old school subjects like nautical, owls, gypsies or animals, but they also often feature horror themes like zombies (always cartoon-like though), bubble lettering and even hip-hop themes.
Many tattoo artists are choosing to explore the possibilites of new school deeper and deeper because it gives them an extreme freedom of subject and technique, and an almost unlimited tool to make customers ideas come true in tattoo shape. What's really cool about new school is that it doesn’t really follow the traditional guidelines of tattooing, they can be abstract, go extremely bold with colors and without a care in the world about what style should that tattoo fit into.
Last but not least guys: New School is not Neo Traditional. Neo traditional is a reinterpretation of old school (traditional) with brighter colors, more 3D shading and the natural evolving implied by more modern equipments. New school may have grown from the same roots, but it is now something totally different.
Check out the gallery below to see some cool examples of New School (and be aware that it almost doesn't have anything to do with old school traditional subjects anymore).
Photo credits: Skull - Bow Owl - Zombie Dog - Heart and Dagger - Mom&Dad - Full Back Cat - Arm Owl - Corset Lady - Peacock - Sugar Skull
