Tattoos Using The Color Marsala

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Pantone is a printing company that began in 1962 and has since become the authority on color and color communication. The printing company has been producing Pantone Guides for over 50 years and these coordinating swatches have shown to be in great conjunction with the nature of the times. Pantone states that “color has always been an integral part of how culture expresses the attitudes and emotions of the times” with their company marketing their color guides as a reference for the designers and artists of each decade. During the 1960s, Pantone chose colors that emphasized the rise of youth counterculture, with colors like Hot Pink, Vermillion Orange, and Grass Green gaining popularity. By the 1970s, brights were out and earth tones were in, so Pantone began creating guides with colors like Burnt Sienna, Carafe, and Rust. When the 1980s rolled around, Pantone was highly inspired by generation MTV and the vibrancy of the time, creating guides that featured colors like Radiant Orchid and Royal Blue. Then in the 1990s, grunge and graffiti culture were all the rage, so colors like Lead Gray and Overcast begun to appear.

And while Pantone still continues to create color guides that reflect the ambiance of the times, in 2000 the company decided to create a landmark annual celebration known as Color of the Year. Pantone decided to expand upon the concept of creating colors that reflected the times by honoring a color every year that they determine through bi-annual conventions in a different European capital. For two days twice a year, Pantone meets with various representatives from the world’s leading color standards groups and together they determine what the color of the following year will be. Pantone then connects with magazines and other outlets of the press to display this color so that people around the world may be inspired by it over the course of a given year.

With prior Colors of the Year like Radiant Orchid, Emerald, and Tangerine Tango, the Color of 2015 came as quite the surprise for many color enthusiasts. Marsala, the color of 2015, strongly contrasts the vibrant and lively colors of it’s predecessors, as it is an earthy and muted reddish-brown tone. Pantone explains that they chose the color Marsala for 2015 because of its versatility. Unlike some of the colors chosen in past years, Marsala is appropriate for both men and women and is a flattering shade on many skin tones. Marsala has been incorporated throughout 2015 through the clothes we see on the runway, the fabulous room decor sold luxury in stores, and of course, it has played it’s part in the tattoos that we wear on our skin. It’s fair to say that tattoo artists and clients probably weren’t looking to Pantone directly for color inspiration but never the less, the hue still made numerous appearances because of the uniquely neutral quality that it possesses.