Description

Draw Tattoo Tribal - Right, lets get startedhere, I know many tribal tattoo's have specific meaning behindthem, but if you are looking for a complete one-off design, onethat cannot be accessed by the millions then designing your own orindeed getting an artist to design one is definitely the way to go.

Personally, as an avid drawer of many things, I have designedall of my own tattoo's and subsequently, I have never seen them onanyone else's body.

Body art and tattooing is an extension of a persons personality,so I personally believe that it should reflect that in the workthey have on their body. Obviously everybody has different reasonsand ideas for their own body art, so in my opinion the best way toget the most individual design, which reflects your own personalityis to do the designing yourself!

The sketch I have here on the right is showing the steps I wouldtake in order to come up with a simple yet very effective andprofessional looking tattoo.

First of all I have drawn two curved lines which I feel have anice flow to them, they cross over just above half way which givesme the 'heart' of the tattoo. If the design is going on a part ofthe body such as the lower leg or the upper arm, you can re-arrangethe heart of the tattoo to accentuate the curves and shape of thebody to get the most out of the desgn and this then would 'fit' thebody area needed.

The next step is to decide on the thickness of the tribaldesign. You do this by doubling up the lines as seen opposite,things to bear in mind are: If the tattoo is going to be solidblack, the area between the two lines will be the bit coloured in,so you have to be happy about the thickness of the lines, ofcourse, everyone has their own preferences and each to their own,but the overall look of the tattoo is ultimately your choice, asyou will be the one wearing it for many years.

Once the thickness of the lines has been decided, the next stageI have drawn is what I call 'spikes' attached to the curves of thetattoo. The one's I have put on this particular design have a more'masculine' look about them but there is obviously nothing stoppingyou making the 'spikes' maybe more feminine or to give the tattoo abetter flow, maybe along the lines of flowery if desired, there areso many options here and this is why I think its better to designyour own stuff because you, and only you know what the images inyour head look like, so there is no better person to transfer thoseimages onto paper than you.

Once you have the main structure of the design, there isn't muchleft to do as far as construction is concerned, all that is neededis that, as you can see here, where the lines overlap other lines,the sketched lines inside the main body of the design will need tobe erased, leaving a 'clean' tattoo design. It is very helpful tokeep a totally clean copy aside, this is to allow you to experimentwith the filling of the tattoo.

Most tribal tattoo's are solid black but that by no means pigeonhole's you into having your own design in black. You could leave itas a simple outline, or have the tips solid and gradually fadinginto the flesh of your body or into another colour, you can put aninner line of red inside the black outline giving it a shadoweffect, the choice and possibilities are endless and it is totallydown to your own ideas.

The main thing to remember is that you have to be happy with itas it will be you wearing the artwork so make sure it is 100% whatyou was looking for.