Meaning of New School | BlendUp tattoos

The new school tattoo is a style that mixes vibrant colors with a firm and outlined line. It is distinguished from old school by the strong, but not necessarily uniform, line, as traditionally, and by the use of a greater number of colors and techniques such as gradation and shading. Most of new school tattoos are composed by cartoon characters or that resemble these figures, since the inspiration for this type of tattoo is, since its emergence, in graffiti, comics, and psychedelic style.

A strong characteristic of tattoos is that the artwork is worked in perspective and in three dimensions, giving the impression that the drawing has relief on the skin. Its origin was in the west coast of the United States, around the 60's decade, soon after a big hepatitis outbreak, due to the lack of sterilization products and the needles reuse in many people, it was approved a new and stricter health code, before that the tattoos used to be directly associated to delinquents and bandits. With the Disney popularization, the new "tattooed" people, as they were known at that time, started to be more and more interested in a more colorful and stronger tattoo style than its predecessor? that had a limitation of three to five colors per work done.

Psychedelic New School Tattoo by Winston the Whale

In the beginning, the designs were usually inspired by Disney productions, which had become icons at the time. Soon after, more and more tattoo ink colors started to be produced, which boosted the style even more. Nowadays, we can notice the evolution of the traces, with three-dimensional effects and more serrated edges, but without losing its essence. It is worth remembering that there is not a rule to be followed, it depends on the tattoo artist's exclusive creation.

The new school can be considered an expression of the generation that grew up with their heroes in comic books and cartoons, but this style has been growing more and more, as the materials developed for tattooing become more diverse and improved, allowing new techniques to emerge and others to be reinterpreted.