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Tattoos have progressed a lot in the last couple of decays. Even though the art of tattooing has existed for centuries, it wasn’t until ten years ago that we started to see some out-of-this-world designs. Hyper-realistic portraits were almost unimaginable before the 2000s, and all you could see was traditional tattoos that all fitted one theme.

But lately, we saw even more progress. Tattoo artists in 2016 out did themselves again. Not to say that previous generations didn’t have beautiful tattoos, but this year we saw some really artsy and interesting designs. If you are in love with this art form, then we have prepared for you some tattoo trends that are certainly going to carry over into 2017. These designs were popular this year, but we will definitely see improved versions of them in the next one.

Minimalistic tattoos

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This style was popularized by celebrities in the past couple of years. Minimalistic tattoos are pretty simple in design, they are usually microscopic pictures of objects that have meaning to the owner of the tattoo. This trend was one of the most popular ones in 2016 and there is no reason it won’t carry over to 2017. The real appeal of these types of tattoos is that even the newbies in tattoo world can get them without having to worry about them covering large parts of their bodies.

Blackout tattoos

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Completely opposite of minimalistic tattoos are blackout tattoos or so-called Blackwork designs. In 2016 we saw a growth in popularity of body parts completely covered in black ink. These tattoos on first glance look like body paint, but they are in fact body parts covered in permanent pitch black ink. For some people, this might be too much, but for us, it kind of has that strange alien appeal. This design is nothing new, the inspiration was drawn from Polynesian tattoos and graphic art. They require an extreme amount of time to finish and they are absolutely permanent. With current technology there is no way of removing or covering them, so make sure this is what you want.

Cubism tattoos

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Cubism is an art direction that was created by Pablo Picasso. This extremely popular painting style was bound to appear in tattoo art and it wasn’t until tattoo artists like Sasha Unisex that we saw it go into the mainstream. Sasha managed to perfectly transfer cubism principles to human skin. She uses blocks of color to create one big image of an animal, flower or any other object that the customer wants

Many artists have started to create these types of tattoos under her influence and now we will centrally see this trend expand to 2017. Offers for custom tattoos that follow basic cubism principles have skyrocketed in the past year, so if you’re interested in getting one of these, this is a perfect time.

Hyper-Vibrant tattoos

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Lastly, on our list are tattoos with vibrant colors. When people think of tattoos the automatic association are black and gray ones with occasional white color parts. Now, in 2016 we saw a huge increase in popularity for colorized tattoos and not just any colors, but hyper, bright colors that just pop out of someone’s skin. A lot of young people are getting these styles and they will certainly continue to get them in the future. These tattoos are a perfect way to break the stereotype of dark and blend tattoos.

As you can see tattoos are only getting crazier and more sophisticated in design. We are finally starting to see artists express themselves through this art form like we have never seen before. We hope that you found these designs interesting and make sure to keep an eye on them, we will be seeing a lot more of them in 2017.