How important is "originality" in a tattoo design?

meaningful tattoos for women quotes image

Check out this quote from an interview with Pat Fish (a woman tattoo artist world famous for her Celtic designs). It came out in 2003:

"College students cast about for something with meaning. The great default is something written in Japanese. It's low commitment, and they can feel wicked and tattooed. Frankly, a tiny kanji looks better than a miniscule rose. We call those 'zits on sticks.' The most common tattoo we do, besides kanji, is suns. Especially on girls' lower backs. For the last four or five years, we've done at least one a day. I hung a sign on the front door of my house that says, 'This is the bungalow that suns on butt cracks bought.'" ......

"We work out of files. I have a file of just suns. That way, I don't have to keep drawing the same thing. After the customer looks at 500 different suns, one-third will pick the same sun. It's the logo for this generationâLeo Zulueta's tribal sun. Then they can make it even more meaningful by putting a kanji in the center! My mantra about that is, 'The baker doesn't complain when the muffins sell well.' So, if we bake another dozen kanji, we're happy to do it!"
(source: http://www.luckyfish.com/controversial.html)

Hmmm...Whatâs the âlogoâ for THIS generation?

Here is the artistâs cynical viewpoint. Most are probably sick of doing the same âunoriginalâ pieces. (Earlier in this article she says âThatâs what employees are for!â)

But there is also a value in the standard design; everyone needs to be familiar with it so its âstandardâ meaning comes across. If every traffic light used different colors to mean âstopâ and âgo,â it would be really confusing.

Your thoughts?
I walked by Pat Fish's shop today (it's really close to my house) and peeked in....there is a whole HUGE wall of kanji flash, with the meanings of each character! I can really sympathize with her cynical attitude, but this just made the shop look really bad!

Answer
I completely feel sorry for tattoo artists who do 3-4 tramp stamps a day. As a piercing apprentice I feel as if I might scream every time some generic girl comes in to get either her tongue, her belly button, or both pierced. You can't blame people though, we're all victims trying to look cool. Some of us might not go out and get tattooed on a whim, but we will express it in other ways.

Are rib cage tattoos the new tramp stamps?

delishin1

They're becoming very popular among young women and seem like an excuse to lift your shirt and show off.
I'm not saying it makes a person trashy. I mean it just seems like the"in" thing these days, as lower back tattoos aka "tramp stamps" were when I was a teen. What makes the rib cage more meaningful than another body part and why are they so much more common now than ever before?

Answer
Personally, I think that having tattoos on the rib cage is a beautiful spot. Just because it's common among girls of a possible stereotype doesn't mean it's become "trashy" to get a quote or something in this area. Yes, showing off the tattoo will require you to lift your shirt. But the placement could also be very meaningful. If you'd like a tattoo that you don't WANT to show off to the world, the rib cage is a good place to put it.

Many people who modify their bodies do it simply for themselves. Whether the world is impressed or displeased is a secondary concern. I think that you should only get tattooed if it's something meaningful or personal to yourself - as all of my tattoos are.

So I don't at all think any tattoo PLACEMENT is trashy. The only thing that can make a tattoo "trashy" is if it's a profane, meaningless, or ridiculous piece of work.

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Title Post: How important is "originality" in a tattoo design?
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