American Traditional Tattoos vs Neo Traditional Tattoos vs New School Tattoos

Neo Traditional tattoos are a style that has evolved from the American Traditional tattoo style. It combines elements of modern art, retaining the classic characteristics of traditional American tattoos while incorporating more detailed designs, rich colors, and complex patterns. New School tattoos, on the other hand, push the imaginative limits even further than Neo Traditional tattoos.


If American Traditional tattoos are likened to folk music, then Neo Traditional tattoos are like an art school version of folk music, and New School tattoos are like an art school version of rock folk music.As a tattoo artist, it is essential to have a thorough understanding of these three tattoo styles to better understand the needs of clients and provide better service.

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How to Define the American Traditional Tattoo Style

American Traditional Tattoo, also known as "Old School Tattoo," is a tattoo style that originated in the early 20th century. This style was primarily popularized and spread by early sailors, military personnel, and other adventurers. Some of the most common characteristics of American Traditional tattoos include saturated designs (suitable for all skin tones), clear black outlines, heavy shading, bold lines, and vibrant colors.

How to Define the Neo Traditional Tattoo Style

Neo Traditional tattoos, also known as Neo trad tattoos, originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. This style is a modern interpretation of traditional American designs. Neo Traditional tattoos incorporate the design elements of traditional tattoos, adding modern color usage, finer line thickness, more details, varying line sizes, and dramatic highlights, resulting in more complex and rich details and designs. The themes of Neo Traditional tattoos are also more diverse, including pop culture, fantasy elements, and personalized designs.

How to Define the New School Tattoo Style

The New School tattoo style originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s and is a modern and vibrant tattoo style. This style is known for its bright, vivid colors, exaggerated and often cartoon-like designs, and bold outlines. Designs often incorporate elements of graffiti art, pop culture, and surrealism, making them visually interesting and dynamic. New School tattoos draw inspiration from American Traditional and Neo Traditional tattoo styles, using thick black outlines but creating their own style with extreme colors and exaggerated perspectives. The bold, lively imagery is reminiscent of video games, anime, comic books, and cartoons.

How to Distinguish Between American Traditional, Neo Traditional, and New School Tattoos

Traditional style features bold lines, heavy use of black, and uniform line thickness. The color palette is limited, with no more than 5 colors, and the simpler, the better. For example, a five-petaled rose with three leaves and a simple center.

Neo Traditional style is more illustrative, with varying line thicknesses, stronger stylization, and rich, blended colors. This style is more popular for its complexity and detailed designs.

New School style almost always features cartoon-like designs and colors, with surreal patterns.

The commonality among all three styles is the use of bold lines and vibrant colors.

American Traditional Tattoos vs. Neo Traditional Tattoos vs. New School Tattoos: Common Design Comparisons

We can easily distinguish these three tattoo styles by some common designs.American Traditional Tattoos:

 New Traditional tattoos are built upon the foundation of American Traditional tattoo designs but incorporate additional elements:

New School tattoos commonly feature the following design elements:

Comparison of Common Color Tones in American Traditional, Neo Traditional, and New School Tattoos

American Traditional Tattoos Color Palette: American Traditional tattoos are distinctive in their color spectrum, typically using only four colors:

• Yellow 
• Red 
• Green 
• Black 

Neo Traditional Tattoos Color Palette: Neo Traditional tattoos extend the color palette of American Traditional tattoos by adding additional colors and gradients, creating a softer, more dimensional effect, similar to a 3D image or watercolor painting. For example: Gradient green leaves, gradient yellow fruit surfaces, gradient black shadows, etc. Additional colors such as blue and purple, as well as some mixed hues, are introduced.

New School Tattoos Color Palette: New School tattoos are not restricted by the color tones of either American Traditional or Neo Traditional tattoos. All vibrant colors can appear in the design. Extreme colors and exaggerated designs are characteristic of this style.

Comparison of Line Thickness in American Traditional, Neo Traditional, and New School Tattoos

American Traditional Tattoos: American Traditional tattoos use a single line thickness for all line work. This style exclusively employs bold lines, and for this reason, we recommend using EZ Revolution cartridges (1209RL, 1211RL, 1214RL). The elasticity of the Revolution cartridges' safety membranes makes them ideal for the bold line work typical of this traditional style.

Neo Traditional Tattoos: Neo Traditional tattoos continue the characteristic thick lines of American Traditional tattoos but also incorporate finer lines for detailing. In addition to using 1209RL, 1211RL, and 1214RL cartridges, you might also use 1203RL, 1005RL, and 1003RL for finer line work.

New School Tattoos: New School tattoos typically use thick black lines for outlines. Most tattoo artists use cartridges like 1211RL and 1209RL for this purpose.