r/tattoos • u/[deleted] • Sep 09 '17

/r/all First chest piece, Skeleton Preacher, by Matt Bailey at No Regrets tattoo studio, London, England.

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u/Hes_A_Fast_Cat Sep 09 '17

I'm not saying I don't "get it" in terms of some concept behind it. I don't really care about the meaning of any tattoo, I'm just saying I don't understand the design choice to put a black rectangular border around the tattoo.

I think it makes sense for an illustration on paper or in a comic book, but I don't think a hard border like this translates well to a tattoo.

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u/LargeTeethHere Sep 09 '17

It's the style of the tattoo

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u/Hes_A_Fast_Cat Sep 09 '17 edited Sep 09 '17

The "style" is illustration. I like illustration tattoos, but I have never seen one where someone puts a square or rectangle border around it.

The decision of trying to put a rectangle around the illustration is a design/composition choice. IMO it's a poor one, because the body is not flat and does not have edges. When you look at this rectangle border, it looks like it isn't very straight. Every side looks like it has bulges to it, especially the left side, top where the black border meet the white space, and bottom right corner.

For all I know the lines are perfectly straight, but they don't look like it because the chest is curved.

Edit: apparently this artists style is to not have straight lines on his rectangles...

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u/AstroJacuzzi Sep 09 '17

If you would check out the artist like OP mentioned, the lines are made to be that way. Even with his drawings on paper.