Art & Design,Tattoo ArtMAY 30, 2023

106 American Traditional Tattoo Designs That Are Real Statement Pieces

Justina Čiapaitė, Justė Kairytė - Barkauskienė and Emma A. Smith

With tattoo trends changing almost as often as the trends on social media, some tattoo styles still defy time, gaining immunity to any and all passing-by trends. Want to guess which tattoos we are talking about?

Yup, you’re absolutely right; it’s American traditional tattoos! To honor this never-dying trend, we’ve rounded up some of the most beautiful specimens done in recent days, and although these old-school tattoos did change during the period of their natural evolution, the core still stayed the same.

Traditional American tattoos, also known as old-school tattoos, are a distinctive style of tattooing that originated in the United States in the late 19th century, gaining their full-on popularity in the early to mid-20th century and keeping it to this day, too. These tattoos are characterized by their bold and icon-like designs, vibrant, often primary colors, and thick black outlines.

Now, these designs did not come out of nowhere and were heavily influenced by the maritime and military culture of the United States. Basically, it was the thing of all G.I. Joes and Marines.

Of course, most of these iconic tattoos were done by someone who couldn’t be called a full-fledged tattoo artist but rather someone with the apparatus and some basic ink. However, at the very same time, tattoo culture started forming, and in that time, two very prominent artists became well-known and helped tremendously in shaping the American tattoo style - Norman “Sailor Jerry” Collins and Bert Grimm.

And yeah, although these old-school tattoo designs might not look exactly like their predecessors nowadays, this style is still very important in shaping tattoo culture. It has spawned several new tattoo styles, like neo-traditional and new school, which use the same iconic designs and bold outlines but add more depth and shadowing to the designs.

Overall, traditional tattoos played a huge role in shaping tattoo history, and the style is still as popular as it used to be. And if you were looking for something bold and timeless, this list might be just it!