Top 10 Tattoo Trends of 2014

Inked Mag Staff

December 11th, 2014

Top 10 Tattoo Trends of 2014

2014 was a pretty crazy year for tattoo innovation. It saw artists truly pushing the limits of what can be done on skin, whether it was Little Swastika successfully pulling…

2014 was a pretty crazy year for tattoo innovation. It saw artists truly pushing the limits of what can be done on skin, whether it was Little Swastika successfully pulling off a connecting ten person back piece or the week long 2 of a Kind tattoo collaboration at Into the Woods Gallery proving that the best tattoos sometimes need the eyes and hands of multiple artists and styles. 2014 was all about stretching the artistic boundaries, so here’s our list of the top 10 tattoo trends of 2014.

**10. Portraits of Walter White**
As someone who just spent the last month binge watching *Breaking Bad* (and falling in love with Jesse Pinkman), I understand the allure of wanting to “immortalize” Mr. White as the great character he is, yo. What’s even more exciting is that these portraits would even impress the ruthless Heisenberg since many have been done by some of the top realism artists around, such as Paul Acker, Pony Lawson, Anam Q, and Steve Wimmer (whose work is pictured above).

**9. Head Mandalas**
Out of all the badass head tattoos out there, the head mandala is probably the daintiest. While so many people have frowned upon visible tattoos throughout the years, head mandalas really help to emphasize the artistic nature and subtle beauty that tattoos can add to the body. Apart from the fact that they probably hurt like hell, they also add even more flair to the half-shaved head craze. (Tattoo by Rodney Taylor)

Who could forget this hilarious “Bacon” tattoo Bang Bang tattooed on Cara Delevigne.

**7. Stormtrooper Tattoos**
*Star Wars* tattoos have been big for a while, and they are sure to stay popular as The Force continues to help the franchise grow, but 2014 saw stormtrooper tattoos in a completely new light. Stormtroopers made a boom as Hello Kitty hybrids, sexy pin-ups, unconventional sugar skulls and even *Singin’ in the Rain* spoofs.

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**6. Legolism**
Who doesn’t love Legos? Legos are so popular right now that they even made a motion picture about them, so why wouldn’t there be tattoos, too? Max Pniewski is probably the biggest supporter of the Lego tattoo fad since he is after all the self-proclaimed inventor of Legolism, a combination of putting Lego characters into custom realism work. I mean just look at his Lego Iron-Man, so well saturated, and also so damn cute.

**5. Eyes**
Whenever you watch tattoo reality shows, the judges (and your friends on the couch) seem to go after flaws that appear in eyes. In fact, so many people were criticizing and complaining about the difficulties of tattooing eyes that tattooer Cris Gherman one day decided to specialize in depicting eyes with ink, like the one above. Now, having a giant detailed third (or fourth, or even fifth) eye is one of the hottest tattoo trends out there right now. Now if only we can find a way to see out of them, too…

**4. Optical Illusions**
Now you see them….now you don’t. In what is becoming the new “ripped” skin tattoos, optical illusion ink has made a huge surge in 2014. After realism and New School took off many people thought that tattoos couldn’t get anymore complex. Well, they were wrong. Thanks to shading, texture and body flow, artists have been shaking up what the eye thinks it sees all year long. Just check out the tattoo by Paul O’Rourke above, it almost looks like it’s actually swirling!

**3. Rose Morphs**
When you think of tattoos, traditional images of skulls, daggers and roses always seem to come to mind. As time has gone on, however, many artists have taken these traditional tattoo images from Sailor Jerry times and put their own spin on them. Meet Andres Acosta, the man behind the morph rose. Texas-based Acosta is best known for his signature tattoos that combine every day objects with a realistic rose. This style caught on pretty quickly as a trend many artists around the globe are trying to master as well.

**2. Micro-Portraits**
The dynamic trend setting duo that is Cara Delevingne and Bang Bang struck again after Bang tattooed a micro finger portrait of a lion on Delevingne. The taboo that was once a hand tattoo has now been transformed into a ten-digit canvas for images of your favorite animals, celebrities, and icons. If you’re someone like me and want to get a micro-portrait of your cat, check out Lazer Liz Markov who did the fox above or Bang Bang, both located in NYC.

**1. Street Fighter Arms**
This fun optical illusion tattoo first surfaced when *Street Fighter* fans incorporated their own limbs (I’ve seen both arms and legs) into the limbs of *Street Fighter* characters. Needless to say, this caught on. Now people can go out and embrace one another as part Superman, Popeye, Naruto, and any other character they could imagine. One dude even got a tattoo of a crucified Christ, which was both haunting and beautiful. (Tattoo by Alina Fokina)

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