You can call me picky, but when it comes to tattoos, one of the last words that I want to hear is “trendy”. The very concept of trendy – that is, cool today, completely lame tomorrow – is something that just shouldn’t be applied to anything as permanent of a decision as is a tattoo.
Unfortunately for me, trendy is absolutely a part of tattooing. Many people go to get tattoos based on pop-culture references which they feel are stylish, hip, cool, you name it. That hasn’t changed for decades and I certainly don’t foresee it changing anytime soon. Even though I don’t like the idea, I still do find it interesting to learn exactly what is currently trendy when it comes to tattoos. With that in mind, I headed over to UK website The List to check out a piece that they did on current trends in tattooing. There weren’t many surprises, for example tattoos on the fingers and hands are, according to Scottish tattooist Fiona McKay, the new tramp stamp.
“‘The hand is definitely the new tramp stamp, whereas two years ago you never saw it. The inside of the finger is a big thing now too – Rihanna and Lily Allen both have “shhh” tattooed there, so that’s probably why.’”
What did surprise me however, is something that studio manager of Edinburgh, Scotland’s Edinburgh Tribe tattoo studio said:
“‘People seem to be thinking more about how they’ll feel about their tattoo when they’re 60. Because tattoos are more mainstream these days, people seem more aware of what they maybe should and shouldn’t get done.’”
That to me is a really great thing. I don’t know whether or not I would consider it that as a trendy thing to do, but if more and more people are really taking the time to think their tattoos over before they get them done, then I don’t care what anyone calls it. It’s something that we definitely need to see more of. Still, despite the article’s insistence that bad ideas like celtic and tribal armbands have gone away to the tattoo graveyard, as long as what’s trendy is associated with tattoos, then it will always just be a matter of time before the next celtic or tribal armband cringe inducing replacement comes along.