Tattoo Flash?

I’ve been a pretty terrible blogger, but one small silver lining of this whole Covid-19 craziness is that I’m staying home with my family, and suddenly have long, empty days to fill. I’m hunkering down at Mom and Dad’s, cooking food, playing with the dogs, and trying to be the productive bamf I know I can be. How about you? Feel free to leave a comment about how you’re using this weird time off (if that’s your situation), let’s set some goals and hold each other accountable, and we’ll all be bamfs by the time the coast is clear.

I’m pretty much always supremely lazy when I’m staying with my parents, so I feel like this whole quarantine situation will be spent fighting my lesser nature. There are two main things I want to invest time in though…drawing custom designs for upcoming appointments, and drawing flash. “Flash”…are you familiar with this term? As embedded in tattoo culture as I am, sometimes I forget that every field has esoteric language that the rest of the world isn’t familiar with. I’ve recently realized that when I talk about drawing flash, a lot of people don’t know what I mean.

Flash is just a word for tattoo designs. It comes from the early days of Westernized tattooing, when it was still illegal. Tattooers would set up shop near the docks, where the military and other seafaring folk would be coming to shore, looking for food, drink, entertainment, and perhaps a new bit of ink to adorn their well-traveled skin. Tattooing had to be on the sly back then. The artist would set up a simple space, like a booth or tent, and the only advertising was word-of-mouth. Their whole set-up, including the designs hanging on the walls for patrons to choose from, had to be able to be taken down “in a flash” in case Johnny Law came a-knockin.’

So, “flash” became known as drawings tattooers created for skin, characterized by bold lines, and usually a palette of three to five colors. You’ve probably seen tons of traditional-style tattoo flash…scantily clad ladies with vintage appeal, doves and swallows, lighthouses, anchors, mermaids, lettering, etc. This style of tattooing is still ultra-popular today, I have a few traditional pieces myself. Until very recently, you could walk into any shop and choose your tattoo right off the wall, or out of a flash book. Plenty of shops still stay true to that tradition, but many don’t (including mine). As technology and tastes developed over the years, more fine-line, custom pieces featuring vast color palettes have become the ideal for a lot of clients. With this shift away from traditional designs, flash has also changed a lot.

I recently had a client come in to get a piece of my flash. It was a small black and grey piece with some little details and a lot of texture. She kept saying, “it’s so delicate for flash,” “it has so much detail for a flash tattoo,” etc. This made me realize that some people, those who even know what flash is, must still see it as it used to be…simple, traditional designs that echo the industry’s past. It’s definitely NOT confined to that one old-school aesthetic though. Flash is just a tattoo artists’ original artwork, designed with the intention to be tattooed. I don’t tattoo in the American traditional style, so of course I don’t draw that way either.

So that’s it, that’s my dissertation on the word FLASH. If you didn’t know it before, I hope you feel comfortable throwing it around as part of your personal lexicon now! If you find a tattooer you love, a great way to support their art is to look through their available flash, and see if any of it speaks to you. There’s nothing more simultaneously humbling and flattering than having someone ask to get one of my original designs tattooed on them!

Thanks for reading, and please feel free to leave a comment (I love hearing from you guys)! At the moment, I’m not booking appointments until we figure out what’s up with this Corona situation, but if you’d like to get the ball rolling on a future appointment, please send me an email or dm me on Instagram, @sevtattoos. There are just a few of my many available flash designs below! Love you all, stay safe and healthy!