Surrealism

Surrealism is tough to define but often is described as having a sort of dream-like quality. In tattoos surrealism is getting more popular, these tattoos are weird and trippy, it’s easy to see why they’re gaining traction. There is a huge range of subject matter in surrealism, a really common one is a play on a face or bust combined with a surreal element. Surrealism really twists your mind and makes interesting artwork and by extension tattoos. 

Surrealism stemmed from an art movement in Europe that rose after World War One, the first 2:30 minutes explains it’s origins well. The rest of the video gets a little more technical but it’s pretty cool if that interests you.

Some surrealism tattooing is about copying surreal artists such as Salvador Dali works and putting those images into tattoos. There is also a genre of creating surreal pieces around the human body, twisting the way your mind interprets the body part. Creepy surrealism is quite big, the twisting of shapes and messing with the mind pairs so well with a horror or psychological perspective. 

Within surrealism there are also different styles like with any tattoo subject matter, it can be done in a myriad of ways. There’s pop art surrealism, realistic surrealism, illustrative surrealism, just to name a few. This subject is so versatile there is really no end to the creative possibilities you and your artist can come up with. In addition to these styles on their own some surrealist artists like to combine styles to really push that surreal quality.

Sources:

• https://www.tattoo.com/blog/surrealism-tattoos/
• https://www.inkedmag.com/culture/surrealism-tattoos#gid=ci0234feeb00012718&pid=deran-hall
• https://tattoo-ideas.com/tag/surrealism/
• https://www.trendhunter.com/trends/surreal-artworks
• https://www.reddit.com/r/surrealism/comments/e9v6l8/not_big_on_hand_tattoos_but_this_candle_concept/
• https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/surreal
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZE-coB0He6M
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtPBOwE0Qn0

Gatekeeper

Hi there! I'm Taylor, you may know me as Sterling Skull reception, or gatekeeper, or most recently Tater (thanks Chris). I love writing, creating and I love tattoos; so what better way to use my passions than to bring you a personal experience of our studio via a blog! Welcome, please stay a while!