Whether you are looking to add to an existing collection or get your very first piece of body art, here are some styles and aesthetics to look out for in 2023. Although your personal sense of style and meaning should always inform your forever-ink choices, it is great when the two coincide to have you staying stylishly up-to-date.
Colour
Perhaps it is the fallout of the pandemic, but we will continue to see full colour, bright, and life-affirming pieces. Some will even be looking to add colours to existing tattoos, giving them a renewed vibrancy and aesthetic.
Watercolour techniques will continue to evolve with different types of pigmentation. And if you want to add something with colour to an existing black and grey style collection, we will also see more chrome, which would make the departure a little less jarring.
One trend that we are very excited about, which also often features a brightly coloured aesthetic, is anime and gaming-related imagery. Although, depending on the game, it may be bleaker and doomy-gloomy (looking at you, Last of Us, which is bound to see a rise in popularity with the HBO show out).
Small and eclectic tattoos are here to stay
While anime and bright colours may be immediately stand-out pieces, the trend for smaller tattoos continues to stay strong. Be that micro realism, sticker-like imagery, or more delicate blackwork; small is here to stay for now. Particularly on trend is the sticker collection, often instead of a fully conceptualized sleeve.
Perhaps it is a symptom of our attention span growing smaller, but we seem to like to keep our choices open for when inspiration strikes next. Potentially, it is also due to the entry point to getting a tattoo today being a lot smaller, with more artists about and society at large no longer batting an eyelid, and as such, it feels easier to get something smaller just because we happen to like it in the moment
Low-back and visible placements
In terms of placement, we saw the lower-back tattoo begin to make its way back (no pun intended) into the good graces over the past couple of years, and in 2023, it has made a definitive comeback. This is, in part, due to younger influencers embracing a 90-s aesthetic. The spiky tribal is still there, although in a finer version, but so are delicate fine-line pieces and dotwork ornamentals.
We will also see smaller tattoos in more visible places. For those who have already done the fingers, the next stop is the neck or the ear. Why not pair it with a stacked lobe for maximum personalization?
BTW Have you seen our guide on how to up your piercing game this year, you can check it out here.?
