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Illustration

Tattoo flash

American traditional: bold black outline, red, yellow and green.

Sent with your prompt

American traditional tattoo flash: heavy, even black outlines around simple, bold shapes, filled with flat red, yellow, green and black, with occasional teal or tan. Solid black areas and stippled shading that fades color into the paper. Each design sits isolated with open space around it, sometimes with a lettered banner and small stars, on aged cream or kraft paper.

Nearby styles

Images

What is an AI tattoo generator?

It draws tattoo designs from a description: a fine-line sprig, a blackwork moth, a flash sheet of traditional pieces. You name the style, the line weight and the shading, and get the design on paper to take to an artist. On Nano Banana 2.1 a design costs 10 credits. You can start for free.

What makes the look

Line weight, shading, color and paper

Ink spreads and skin moves, so a design that works has clear lines, few shading methods and room to breathe.

  1. Line weight

    Fine-line work uses one thin needle. Traditional uses a bold, even outline. Neo-traditional mixes thick and thin lines.

  2. Shading

    Stippling and dotwork, whip shading in black and grey, or solid black fills. Name one or two so the design stays readable.

  1. Color

    Black only for fine-line and blackwork. Red, yellow, green and black for traditional flash. Deep jewel tones for neo-traditional.

  2. Paper

    Ask for the design on paper with empty space around it. A stencil version beside it shows the outline the artist will transfer.

Category
Illustration and ink
Best subjects
Flowers, animals, insects, small symbols, flash sheets
Credits
10 per image on Nano Banana 2.1
Resolution
1K, 2K or 4K
References
Up to 14 images

Your photo, in tattoo flash

Attach a photo of yourself and ask for tattoo flash.

A phone selfie of a grinning older man with short grey hair and a grey beard in a navy t-shirt, against a white wall
A grinning older man with a grey beard as a fine-line tattoo flash drawing in black ink with stippled shading, small stars and a leaf sprig, on cream paper

How to design a tattoo

  1. Pick the style and the subject

    Say fine-line, blackwork, botanical, traditional or neo-traditional, then the subject. A single flower or animal reads better than a crowded scene.

  2. Set the lines and the shading

    Give the line weight, one or two shading methods and the colors. Ask for no lettering, since the model can misspell words.

  3. Take it to your artist

    Ask for the design on plain paper, or a full flash sheet of small pieces. Your artist redraws it as a stencil sized to your body.

Questions about tattoo designs

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