Gone are the days of stars and filigree and old JD Crow designs. For the last decade custom work has become the only way to get gorgeous work. But many of those custom designs, especially the cute ones, have ended up having an almost cultish following. I remember the “first” girl who got the feather disintegrating into birds, it was posted by a friend. Within a month or two suddenly every girl had to have bird silhouettes or a feather disintegrating into birds. Trends are great, but you can practically date your tattoo by them, and they’re rarely unique.
Geometrics
These have been popular recently but they’ve always been big and bold designs taking up large areas of skin. Instead, this year look at smaller, simple geometrics that are more accent pieces than whole sleeves. Otzi, the ice mummy, was found with simple geometric lines all over him and much of this interest in geometrics goes back to the first tattoos.
Silly Tattoos
With so many joke moments in 2018 already it’s not surprising that there’s plenty of “Tide pod challenge” tattoos out there already. Immortalizing the year’s stupidity is in full flourish.
Hand Tattoos
This is a difficult one because many businesses still look down on visible tattoos. The hands are also a very difficult area to get tattooed which means there’s a good chance that this is one trend you won’t have to live with forever. Most of these are simple line or dotwork designs and while they’re not likely to make a huge impact they’re still hard to hide.
New School
The “new” tattoo style is now celebrating around 50 years, but it’s also going back to it’s roots. The dotwork and hash shading of the trash polka movement is mixing in giving tattoos a lithograph style that combines with clean lines and color.. This juxtaposition is perfect for people who don’t want to pick just one style.
Neo Traditional
Neo is still going strong. The old skool revamp uses traditional images with clean even lines and a very specific grungy color palette to create a juxtaposition of old and new. This is one of the most popular styles to date with smooth color fades and bright colors.
Minimal Tattoos
The small simple tattoo has been steadily gaining in popularity over the past few years. Small, simple and clean lined appeals to many people with no limit on the theme as long as it’s in plain black.
Tiny Tattoos
While this is a trend that is sure to come back and haunt many people, the trend for doing insanely small ink has been big recently. The theory that newer techniques means an image will last longer is mostly customer hype. These will be cover ups in a couple of years.
Girls, Girls, Girls
With the fame of artists like Emily Rose and Kelly Doty growing getting tattooed by a female and getting a tattoo of a female figure is big. 2018 is the year of the woman and the tattoo industry is embracing that.
Trash Polka
As a unique style this came from Eastern Europe a few years ago and used to be unique to artists of that area. Find a specialist, because it takes a very unique design perspective to get this one right.
Fantasy
Speaking of girls, mermaids, princesses, unicorns, and other fantasy figures bring us back to childhood and a happier time so it’s no wonder these are popular with the younger crowd.
Gemstones
Sparkly crystals and diamonds, especially those that look neo-traditional or real are in with many girls. Pair it with a unicorn and you’ve got a happy sparkle goth.
Compasses/Watches
These are still big from last year and while there’s not a lot of variety people are still going for the antique style and pairing it with other more personal elements.
Watercolor
Another favorite leftover from 2017, this colorful style is a great way to make a simple design colorful without having to color the whole design or to jazz up a minimal black line tattoo.
Dotwork
A time consuming and extremely beautiful style, this takes time but has stunning results that appeal to black and gray enthusiasts and minimalists alike.
Hyper Realism
Another style that came out of Eastern Europe this uses an almost pixelated technique so that images come together at the end with multiple white highlights to really pop.
