Pin-Up Tattoos
This special pinup girl is the ultimate symbol of good luck. She’s most often depicted with horseshoes, playing cards, and dice, alongside diamonds, jewelry, and money.
This pin up tattoo design is one of many that depict seductively posed women performing what was believed to be a prototypical ‘man’s job’ in the 1950’s. The cow girl pin up version is unique to the Western U.S. lifestyle, and taps into the attractiveness of beautiful women engaging in men’s hobbies.
As one of the most popular sailor jerry pin up tattoo designs, the Hula girl represented exotic women and Sailor Jerry’s love of Hawaii.
This pinup girl is a cartoon character styled after a jazz age flapper. Her rounded, youthful features represent virgin beauty.
American Flag Pinup Girl:Â the pinup girl who appears wrapped in the star-spangled banner is a symbol of American patriotism. She represents American beauty ideals and pride for the United States.
Possibly the most famous American sex symbol, Marilyn Monroe led a full pin up modelling career and had a series of minor film roles. The most iconic Marilyn tattoo design shows her dress blowing up in the wind. ​
featured in a film titled, ‘Pinup Girl,’ Betty Grable was an icon for soldiers during the WWII era. Her signature pose showed her back to the camera, flaunting her ‘million dollar legs.’ Tattoo designs of Betty Grable honour one of the most classic American pin up girls in history. ​
This playful version of the pinup girl symbolizes the temptation of women’s beauty.
Done in American traditional style, Sailor Jerry’s pinup girl tattoos often feature simple, bold contours with faded colour within the black borders. His pin up girls show the extremes and ideals of feminine beauty. These are the images men would take with them when they were apart from women for months at sea.
As one of the most explicit expressions of femininity and beauty, pin up girl tattoo designs have generated a lot of interest and controversy. They originated in World War II era, when men from the Navy and Armed Forces went abroad. The name ‘pin up’ came from the idea that men would pin photos or posters of these seductive women on their walls to gaze upon, in months spent apart from real life women.(1) This is a predominantly Western tattoo to have and I personally love these designs due to the use of a beautiful female form keeping the body beautifully youthful even in old age.
Pop Culture tattoos
Matt Daniels is a British tattoo artist with a following of 27.1k on Instagram (2) he mainly focuses on tattoos in the nature of pop culture icons such as Sonic, Deadpool and many more.(some exampled above) His tattoos range depending entirely on what you’d like. His minimum charge is £50.
Tattoos in Japan have a long rich history but were often demonised by traditional media and is rarely spoken of today. "Japanese prohibitions against tattoos have historically been aimed at the working classes, women and ethnic minorities, and today the bearer of a full-back tattoo is increasingly likely to be a sensitive salaryman rather than a punch-permed thug."(1)
Back in theJomon Period clay figurines were molded with marks that modern historians perceived as either tattoos or scars. Later in the third century, Chinese records noted that all Japanese males had heavy tattoos covering their person. the end of the Edo period gave birth to some of japans most well known arts; kabuki, ukiyo-e woodblock prints and, tattooing. Among regular people of the time the keenest to be inked with large tattoos were firefighters seeking protective symbols of carp or water dragons and those working near-nude in the city’s humid summers — carpenters, delivery men and palanquin bearers; though in the 19th century, the invasion of Japan by westerners ended this golden age of tattooing. “To avoid occupation by Western countries, Japan needed to appear civilized,” says Yoshimi Yamamoto, author of the 2005 book, “Irezumi no Sekai” (“Tattoo: The Anthropology of Body Decoration”). “One of the ways to project this image was to ban tattooing, which the Japanese government thought foreigners would regard as backwards or barbaric.” (2) . The ban against tattooing remained until 1948 when they were lifted by U.S. occupation forces. Finally, Japanese tattooists were allowed to work with, in the following decades, a number of exchanges developed between Japanese tattooists and their U.S. counterparts.
Tattoos in America were first ushered along by the United Kingdom, after the Prince of Wales donned a tattoo of a cross; America had to also do this... Most tattooed Americans were soldiers getting tattooed for good luck, covering themselves with reminders of their lives back home for moral. American tattoo art's first function as a sort of patriotic act inspired many styles that would come to define it. Artist Paul Rogers, owner of the Iron Factory, got his start tattooing soldiers with eagles and birds. He'd go on to influence Ed Hardy and others, both with his technology and his aesthetic, which included American flags, plump hearts and buxom women. And, although the U.S. Navy disapproved of pinup tattoos for a period, they were still popular among its members. Those would-be soldiers with tattoos that were deemed inappropriate due to nudity would go so far as to add clothes to their preexisting tattoos. small towns were introduced to tattoos via travelling circuses, where women would appear beautifully tattooed which caught the eye of many civilians.Women participated in the tattoo industry, which they hid beneath the surface of popular culture through the 1950's and early 60s. It wasn't until the 1970s, when "the macho world of ink" was opened to women. More feminine designs such as subtle shading and floral patterns became popular.By 1979, female tattoo artists such as SuzAnne Fauser struggled to make their mark in the industry.The future of tattooing with naturally be helped by the internet and allow it to continue evolving in ground-breaking ways in order to deliver the best possible content and services for the millions of tattoo-culture followers out there. The gap between the tattoo fan and the artist will get smaller and smaller with these new internet-based platforms and it will be easier to find a tattoo artist you connect with and get custom designs/inspirations from all over the world.
I wanted to do a more fun interpritation of the pin up girl and decided to draw my bat girls. the blonde girl sports a victory curl to show off a more all American style.
promarker edition
pencil edition
Inspired by Matt Daniels
Inspired by Matt Daniels
these designs were based upon my love for bats. I wanted them to have a cute kitsch style. I also based one bat on my love for drag.
This is a piece about my bat cream whom meant alot to me a few years ago. She is based upon an art doll I got from Etsy. I put her in a japanese inspired kimono outfit to link in with my japanese research. I enjoyed using hatching to imply shadow and weight on line to give nice depth.
Inspired by Matt Daniels
I wanted my tattoo designs to be based around things I like such as shows and animals (inspired by Matt Daniels) I based a majority go my coloured designs upon Daft Punk, V for Vendetta and Princess Jellyfish; these two things kept me very calm in difficult times and find them to be comfortable and things id want to remind me of my strength.For the simple black and white tattoo the technique of lining (simply outlining the shape) would be best suited for efficiency and cost. The coloured ones would do well with a "heal and hit" method which esentially equates to using super bright pigments initially and letting the colour fade into the desired shade(1). I believe in some of my designs I could have put more meaning into the designs and worked on using more techniques such as shading and dot work. I hadnet needed to scale up any of my designs due to my personal desire to want only a small to medium size tattoo due to cost and over all prefrence. The research task was heavily intresting and allowed me to look into important issues such as american veterans which most people would be able to find meaning to one way or another.
I wanted to create an anti patriotic American tattoo based around the way ex troops are treated in the us. I felt extremely hurt by the way American soldiers are treat after they have served their country.
I wanted to create rust on the helmet to show this is a long time thing. the censored band was big and obnoxious to show that this isn't covered by traditional media and thus censors these people. her eyes were closed due to her seeing so much horror in the world; the purple was a way to signify a bruise in a more aesthetic manner. her left side is bloodied due to all of the inner turmoil and bloodshed she has caused is weeping out of her due to the guilt, her long hair blown off due to the gunshot changing her as a person. her skin has yellowed due to age and the toxins pumped into her by war and her lips were puckered with smoke leaking out like the end of a smoking gun. her neck bares the visage of a brick wall like those seen in the towns they have to fight in; and the throat is choked as though theres no way she could talk even if she wanted to. I connected the tourniquet to the American flag and a dollar; the flag to show it is the fault of the government and the dollar to show the ,money is bled out of them, "none for lost souls being the key phrase of the piece. the pile of dust is to show she as a person is fading away due to what she's lost as a result of serving her country.
I wanted the main colour to be blue and green to use the connotation of a sadness and loss but chose to use warm hues to make the picture more aesthetically pleasing and lighter emotionally. I ended up not choosing this design due to the lack of a black outline and shading. I chose to create this in pencil and pro marker due to the tattoo artist Holly's advice.
I chose this due to its heavy meaning and I feel its something I wouldn't ever turn against, Id be able to use my body as a statement and have beautiful colours on me forever. As an artist I love to show my own work/design and what would be better than having a permanent portfolio of my own design work.
I believe id put this on my left shoulder blade as the curved shape compliments the placement. The price would probably be rather expensive due to the amount of colours and detail; due to these factors the minimum would be around £250-£400. I think my target audience would someone with an intrest in americana aesthetic and bright colours.
The prints came out really lovely and crisp initially. I did notice knocking the screen was something you had to be heavily aware of even when exherting the nessicary pressure for a fabric print, the amount of flooding needed is also a risk as too little it could come out patchy and too much could come out blurry. I believe both bat designs came out very well and Im very pleased.
The bag and T shirt print came out with varied results. the first shirt came out poorly which most likely would be due to my own mistake with not applying enough pressure. the bag came out better due to more experiance, pressure and placement.
I then printed a jacket which I am very happy with which I think looks lovely; some smaller liner are missing but I dont think it takes away from the overall aesthetic. A downloadable wallpaper has been added to the Moth Eaten Shenanigans store, link here.
