In: Trees, mountains, infinity knots, birds

Out: Mom hearts, eagles, tribal tattoos

“I would say for every pine tree that there is on the Mesa there is an equal number of pine tree tattoos out there at the moment,” Raw Canvas tattoo artist, Jenny James, said.

Colorado Mesa University (CMU) students are gravitating more towards smaller, more minimalistic tattoos at the moment, following the larger trend of tattoos for 2020.

“We get a lot of really small tattoos. Which is cool. That’s what [CMU students] ask for almost every time. Little bouquets of flowers. Silhouettes of trees. Mountainscapes. Geometric is starting to make a comeback as well. It’s all really, really simple,” Calamity James tattoo artist Luke Martinez said.

More traditional and often larger tattoos are in a state of twilight.

“You don’t see a lot of armbands anymore or just pieces that wrap all the way around. Lower back pieces aren’t as popular. Chinese symbols aren’t as popular,” James said.

“American traditional,” Martinez said in response to dying tattoos. “Bold, old school looking tattoos. Like mom hearts, eagles – stuff like that has been kind of dying out over the last couple of years, but especially lately. When I first started tattooing that’s what we did. We did bold traditional colorful tattoos and now we don’t see much of that anymore at all,” Martinez said.

James believes these trend changes have come due to the growth of tattooing as art.

P“A lot of people that aren’t that creative kind of just gravitate towards things like tribal because it’s big and it will cover a lot of space. So I think people are just more thinking about having a little more meaning towards their tattoos and a lot of artists are stepping outside the box when it comes to techniques and different styles,” James said.

Martinez believes the current tattoo trends have to do with a culture of instant gratification.

“People like instant gratification. People don’t want to do multiple session tattoos anymore because they want it today. They want it finished and done right now. And I think that’s honestly one of the big reasons why people aren’t getting as much work,” Martinez said.