The concept of tattooing the body is as old as the humanity itself. The history of tattooing is non recordable. But among all these early tattooing concepts the one we call as an old school tattoo is the one which got started in the 1920s and was popular until 1940s. The unique quality about the old school tattoo designs is the fact that they were very big and very bold. People generally carried the designs of huge ships, famous buildings or beautiful women as a tattoo on their bodies. This quality of bigness and boldness of the old school tattoos is what still brings them admiration from the new generation.

There are many reasons for the old school tattoos to be so bold but yet so simple in design. The first and the very obvious reason is that there was not any technology like there is in the present times. The people just had to rely on not so reliable machines to get a tattoo. Since the machine and the ink used to make the tattoo was not up to the mark the design had to be kept simple and big so that it was comprehensible and also so that it may hold up for a longer period of time. Also the artists who used to tattoo were not real professionals. These days we bring in professionals from the art schools and the school of graphics. Back in those days there was no such thing so that is why the design was kept simple so that the artist can easily tattoo it. Another major drawback was that there were no stencils at that time so acetate and charcoal were used. In the present times, there is a modified version of old school tattoos that people can choose from.

Collector: Christina Chontos-Fisher
Artist: Jay Kelly – Greenman Tattoo
West Hartford, Connecticut

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