Haute Ink

In an industry that thrives on its temporality, the permanence of its latest trend seems, at least at first glance, unexpected.

It’s only in considering the semblance of the innovators that produce both art forms that the recent marriage between high fashion and tattooing is, if anything, an overdue collaboration between artistic forces.

At the peak of both technological innovation uncovered by tattoo artists and their capitalization of social media, the ink community has widened to anyone who can hit “follow” on a phone. And within the millions whose feeds are graced with work from the likes of Dr. Woo, Bang Bang, and JonBoy, many are members of the fashion community.

Scrolling through an artist’s page is the modern version of flipping through flash books in a studio— it’s art that has a way to inspire and to spark creativity. Although not everyone chooses to get tattooed, ink isn’t always the point for creatives– collaboration is. Designers are inviting artists to sit front row at their shows and to work behind the scenes, stylists are taking inspiration from tattoo designs for editorials, and models are taking advantage of the fine line technology with which artists can decorate their bodies without hurting their careers.

While fraternization between designers and tattoo artists may seem novel, it has been one in the making for years. In 1994, avant-garde designers like Jean-Paul Gaultier sent pieces down the runway accessorized with temporary tattoos around the models’ waists.

Reprised a few years later was the idea of decorating clothing and accessories with tattoo designs. In 2008, Gaultier did it with traditional Japanese designs. The next year, Chanel decorated models with temporary pearl garters (later made commercial and insanely successful). In 2011, Marc Jacobs collaborated with the man who inks him, Scott Campbell, for his Spring/Summer line.

With the success and widening of opportunities for tattoo artists in the past few years, it was just a matter of time before the two art communities merged again.

In January, V Magazine released an editorial featuring supermodels Lara Stone, Joan Smalls, and Kendall Jenner, clad in temporary tattoos designed by artist Jenai Chin. The goal was to play with the idea of the permanence of ink and the permanence of the newest line of supermodels.

Months earlier, Gucci’s creative director sent down one of his models in temporary face tattoos featuring prison-style ink and lines from William Blake’s My Pretty Rose Tree. Marrying fashion and high-brow literature with gang and criminal symbolism drew controversy, but also conversation. Did tattooing have its place on the runway of such august houses? Can something so permanent really be in fashion?

But to consider tattooing as permanence is not to say that it is stagnant by any means.

Before 1950, tattoos were symbol-heavy mementos almost exclusively reserved for sailors and criminals who collected simple icons to reference accomplishments and travels. Traditional American tattooing didn’t emphasize artistry, but through flash books of swallows, anchors, and pin-up girls, ignited one of the first modern trends of symbolically marking oneself.

In the decades that followed, old school flash grew to include the more ethereal peace and love symbols that came to characterize the 60s and 70s.

Post-80s, technology had evolved enough for tattoo artists to act as such, and use skin as a canvas for more than pre-designed, overdone flash. Although this did allow for more collaboration between the artist and the client to produce unique work, the 90s and early 2000s subjected thousands of people to the same popular pieces: Chinese symbols, tribal designs, and New School cartoonish pieces, to name only a few.

But, in more recent years, tattooing has become so customizable and less stigmatized (in the U.S. approximately 38% of people from ages 18 to 40 have at least one tattoo) that there’s a possibility for everyone who wants to get inked to find an artist who will be able to give them exactly what they want.

The current trend is minimalistic; fine line, simplistic work unique to the client. The appeal of fine line extends from the level of detail that can be allocated to designs the size of a nickel to the ability to collect dozens of small tattoos that are both delicate and easily concealable. Artists like Dr. Woo or JonBoy are both fine line pioneers whose work on models like Hailey Baldwin and Kendall Jenner has launched them into the fashion arena, and fine line art into the public eye.

With tattooing finally given its place in the artistic realm, and recognition from other prominent artists, marriage between fashion and ink can only flourish from here. Whether artists will begin to sketch designs for couture or produce capsule collections is yet to be determined. What is certain is that they will find a place— backstage or front row.

By Anna J. Stainsby | Photography by Zoe Zimmerman