Old school (tattoo)

Old School Ink: New Haven's Tattoo Legacy | Take Magazine

src: thetakemagazine.com

Old school (tattoo) refers to a Western or traditional American tattoo style featuring bold black outlines and a limited color palette. This limited color palette typically included yellow, red, green and black. Purple was eventually added to it as well.

Video Old school (tattoo)

Artists

Famous artists are:

Norman Keith Collins, also known as Sailor Jerry, (1911-1973) is one of the most well known traditional tattoo artists.
Herbert Hoffmann (1919-2010), began tattooing in Germany during the 1930s. Together with fellow artists Karlmann Richter and Albert Cornelissen he was featured in the 2004 film Blue Skin (German: Flammend' Herz).
Amund Dietzel (1890-1974), Norwegian-born artist who began his career as a sailor, before settling in the United States. Known as the "Master in Milwaukee".
Bert Grimm (1900-1985), a Chicago-born tattoo artist. Began his career in the city of St. Louis and then moved to Long Beach, California, to set up a shop at the Nu-Pike. His parlour was said to be the oldest continually running in the continental US and the place for sailors to get inked. Grimm sold the shop to Bob Shaw in 1970.
Bob Shaw (1926-1993), American artist who learned tattooing from Bert Grimm in St Louis. Later worked with Grimm and became the president of the National Tattoo Association from 1983-1988.

Maps Old school (tattoo)

Common old school tattoo motifs

Examples of popular old school tattoo designs include:

Native American tattoos
Pin-up tattoos
Mermaid tattoos
Swallow and sparrow tattoos
Heart tattoos
Anchor tattoos
Eagle tattoos
Navy and other armed forces symbols
Dagger tattoos
Rose tattoos
Gypsys

Often times, these tattoos had significance behind them for those in the Armed Forces. For instance, getting a tattoo of an anchor represented "stability."