Ask anyone with a tattoo why they choose to have indelible art on their skin, and they’ll probably respond that it has something to do with self-expression. While there are many reasons people decide to acquire tattoos, either on skin or on skull graphic tees, they frequently come down to some self-expression.
Getting a tattoo (or tattoos) is a great way to express who you are, how you view the world, and what’s important to you. People want to have their external look reflect these things. Many people choose fashion as a less permanent form of self-expression. After all, a person’s clothing typically reveals a lot about who they are.
For instance, a person wearing ripped jeans and a leather jacket communicates differently than someone wearing a business suit and a button-down. Although tattoos and fashion have come to be associated with self-expression, there is more to it than that. Fashion and tattoos are inextricably intertwined; they have impacted one another historically and are still doing so today.
This connection may result from the perception of fashion and tattoos as distinctive, if not always conventional, forms of art. While clothes, especially avant-garde fashion, are frequently considered art and are even on display at museums, tattoos have a more direct artistic connection because they are physical works of art drawn onto a person’s skin.
Fashion inspired by Tattoo: It is no surprise that tattoos and fashion are closely related since both are visible on the body. Temporary tattoos have also been used on models at Paris Fashion Week to enhance a designer’s aesthetic for runway displays, such as the most recent Victor and Rolf show in spring 2020. Over the years, the tattooing and fashion industries have drawn inspiration from one another, as shown by the abundance of fashion-inspired tattoo examples found online. There are tattoos inspired by literal fashion, such as
- a red high heel inscribed onto a wrist
- a sleeve full of Louis Vuitton emblems,
- and instances of tattoos, such as pictures of sewing machines or dress forms.
Designers have used fashion as a blank canvas to express themselves by adorning garments with actual tattoos and tattoo-like patterns. The interaction between the body and the clothes that cover it is another topic explored through clothing usage. Like fashion enthusiasts and designers who have used tattoos as permanent self-expression, fashion designers and their businesses have provided many sources of inspiration. Tattoos can frequently be contrasted or enhanced by the wearer. Even the graphics and motifs on clothing have drawn inspiration from tattoo designs. One of the first and best-known examples of this occurred in 1971 when Issey Miyake produced his line of outfits inspired by tattoos, featuring flesh-toned skirts and bodysuits with tattoo-style images of famous rock and roll musicians like:
- Janis Joplin
- Jimi Hendrix.
The bodysuits and dresses virtually gave the wearer the appearance that the outfit was tattooed onto their skin rather than just being a piece of clothing.
The tattoo trend of the twenty-first century: At the start of the 20th century, sailors used tattoos to signify their profession. They were worn as a symbol of lengthy sea trips. comparable to your “curriculum vitae.” For instance, among the designs, swallows stood for lengthy navigations and anchors for the opposition. People viewed as “outsiders” at the time, such as circus performers or gang members, frequently wore tattoos.
However, it also applied to confident women who chose to have face tattoos as a status symbol rather than use expensive makeup, which was very popular then. Tattoos have been extensively discussed in the canons of beauty and fashion. Until recently, haute couture favored models with flawless skin, like a perfect white canvas. But this viewpoint only altered in 1971, when fashion designer Issey Miyake unveiled a line in New York. His goal was to defend the Japanese tattoo, but he did it with an open-minded and somewhat hostile attitude toward the higher classes.
This collection, built on transparency for both men and women, had a solid political undertone because it questioned the standards of haute couture and its conception of the marginalized.
Since Issey Miyake’s collection from the 1970s, fashion designers have continued to draw inspiration from tattoos. For instance, Jean Paul Gaultier imitated Miyake in 1994 with a clothing line with tattooed patterns on translucent mesh and flesh-toned fabric.
More recently, runway fashion has become more heavily influenced by tattoos, like:
- Leggings, sleeves, and even complete menswear-inspired outfits covered with tattoo-style patterns in the Comme des Garçons Homme Plus autumn and winter 2015 collection.
- Demonstrating the punk-inspired motifs of his collection, Junya Watanabe used tattooed models in his spring 2017 catwalk show and even put black tattoos on untattooed models.
- Aside from Victor and Rolf in 2020, Demna Gvaslia was one of the most recent fashion designers to use tattoos as inspiration for his 2019 spring collection blatantly.
- A blouse from this particular collection was reminiscent of the sheer tattoo tops worn by Jean Paul Gaultier in the 1990s and evoked tattoo-like imagery.
Designers of fashion trends and tattoo artists: While there is no doubt that fashion has influenced tattoos and vice versa, some tattoo artists have also entered the fashion world. The most well-known of these artists is Hardy, a tattoo artist from San Francisco who has achieved enormous fame and respect. From there aroused the revolution of tattoo apparel. Tattoo apparels were trendy in the early 2000s and have gained back its glory in present times among youngsters. Tattoo Apparel like tattoo inspired tshirts have again gained popularity in the field of fashion. Manufacturers like Tattee have been designing statement T-shirts, and people are just Awestruck by their creative use of Tattoo on T-shirts.
Let’s Create a Statement With Tattoo T-shirts
Tattoos might not come to mind when you think of fashion. Similar to how you might not instantly think of style when you come across an incredible tattoo designer or artist like the greatest tattoo artist at Certified Tattoo Studios or clothing line Tattee. However, the two have a long history and continue to impact fashion today. Most tattoos today are done for artistic or aesthetic reasons, and the fashion industry is following suit by using permanent tattoo designs printed on fabrics.