Trash polka heart. Tattoos in the style of realism trash polka

Many people want clean, pleasant tattoos, and this desire is quite natural - they want to decorate their body with a tattoo, but, at the same time, maintain a civilized image. But sometimes the goal is completely different, the goal is to shock, to impress, to attract attention. And here the style called trash polka copes with this seemingly difficult task perfectly. Some people adore him, while others are completely disgusted by him - but there are definitely no people indifferent to him. So you can perfectly decorate your body with a catchy design if you look at the designs that are presented in the gallery and choose the sketches that you like.

The general essence of the style

Even the name of the trash polka style seems to hint that you shouldn’t expect anything serious from such a tattoo. Of course, it can be very realistic in its style, in its technique, but as you can personally see by looking at the drawings and sketches, the plots of this direction simply take ordinary plots that have tattoos of a different type, and turn them inside out, distort them , kill the last remnants of chic and glamor in them, giving them a deliberate secondary look. As a result, you can safely be sure that the eyes of surprised people on the street will be turned exactly in your direction - such images are able to surprise with great skill. A sort of informal postmodern - fashionable, but not mass-produced.

Visual description of the style

It’s easier to see sketches of trash polka style than to try to describe what these tattoos represent. These are red and black colors, sharp contrasts, no restrictions in the plot, no norms, no limits. Realistic tattoos with distorted, alternative plots look impressive. This realism is accompanied by brushstrokes, blots, letters and other visual elements that allow you to bring even more informality to this style - although, it would seem, where is there more? But does this direction look cheap? Not at all. It just stands out sharply against the background of everything else. It’s bright, catchy, it’s expensive, but expensive in a “trash” style, and it’s definitely not the least bit pretentious. The more informal the style, the more difficult it is sometimes to apply it to the body. So you need to turn to the best masters who will make your fantasies come true, giving your body inimitable recognition and catchiness. Our craftsmen will help you achieve a similar effect without any problems, carrying out the work at the highest professional level - and without losing the enthusiasm that is characteristic of this direction. Just study the examples provided - or order the development of a new one.

Trash polka is a trend in tattoo art that is better to see once than to hear about it a hundred times. Tattoos made in the trash polka style are true works of postmodernism. Despite the fact that the style arose more than forty years ago, trash tattoos have become popular only in recent years. Experts admit: this is a separate direction in tattoo art, which has absorbed features of different styles.

Several arguments support the fact that trash tattoos are modern art. Firstly, it is incredibly difficult to find two identical tattoos, each is unique. Even if the incredible happens and two owners of identical tattoos meet, the issue can be resolved by contacting a tattoo artist. Trash polka tattoos can be complemented with current and fresh images.

Secondly, the conceptuality of the images. Sketches of tattoos in this style in the portfolios of famous artists are a guide to the world of modern pop culture: the grinning skull of Mickey Mouse, Madonna with cannabis, a pop idol with sunken eye sockets, etc. A series of recognizable images taken to the point of absurdity. Trash polka tattoos are glamor on the contrary, a challenge to modern consumer society.

Trash is translated from English as “garbage”, polka is a cheerful dance. The merging of two different concepts gives a conceptual style. The drawings are layered one on top of the other, which gives a multifaceted effect. Anyone who takes the trouble to consider and explain the meaning of such a tattoo will see its meaning in it and give their own interpretation. The incompatible is combined (and here it is appropriate to recall a literary device called an oxymoron).

Thirdly, clear canons of this trend in tattooing have been formed. Tattooing is primarily a graphic art; trash polka style uses two primary colors – flashy red and bright black. Black predominates in the tattoo canvas, and red is an accent, a way to attract attention and emphasize details. The trash polka style is evolving, so combinations of black and rich blue have appeared.

The founders of this art movement were a couple of German artists who were inspired by the tattoos of NATO soldiers in 1973. They created collages from newspaper and magazine clippings and old photos, complementing them with graphic ink drawings. This technique has evolved and is now used by artists and tattoo artists all over the world to create original collages.

Trash polka tattoos are a creation of European culture, very exotic for representatives of other societies. A tattoo in this style looks unusual, colorful, and provocative. She can't help but attract attention. There are no clear canons on which part of the body to apply a trash tattoo to; it all depends on the imagination of the customer and the skill of the tattoo artist. As a rule, such tattoos are made large-scale, occupying most of the person’s area. Tattoos in the trash polka style are the choice of rebels, informal leaders and bright individualists who are not afraid to challenge society.

Tattoo on chest

Trash polka. You entered a tattoo parlor with the intention of getting something on your sleeve that will impress everyone passing by and will please your eyes for many years.

But your mood is decadent and you want to be closer to Western European culture. Simple cats and dragonflies will not work today, and the masters of ink and needle suggest choosing one of the currently trending styles - realistic trash polka.

Once you have decided on the direction, you can start drawing a sketch of the tattoo.

A little history of the thrash polka style

In the distant 2000s, a new style in tattoo art took shape into a single concept. Two artists, photographers, musicians and designers - Simone Plaf and Volko Mershek - having collected all their experiments into one, created a new direction and called it pathetically and non-conformist - trash polka.

Trash - “garbage”, “something terrible”, “disgusting”, something that does not fit into the framework. Polka is a popular folk dance in Eastern Europe, originating from Poland, fast, active, but endangered as a species.

Polka tattoo is about:

realism
beauty
combination of naive and protest
about withering and death
about the eternal, ..about love.

As the creators themselves say, this is a dance for two, this is what happens between art and body.

Features of the trash polka style

Trash polka, like a collage, combines realism, hackwork, typographic fonts, photographs, blots, paint drips, and pop culture symbols. But everything should have the effect of oppression, decay, with a flair of withering and death. The drawing combines the past, present and future; fictional and existing; important and meaningless.

The tattoos look monochrome. Gradients from light gray to black anthracite add dimension to the images. Black is the main color for this style.

Also typical is the use of:

black and red;
black and blue;
black and yellow;
black and red and yellow.

Red, blue, yellow - they shade some elements, they paint over certain places, like in a child’s “coloring book”, or they flow from the tattoo design like excess, something that did not fall into the frame.

The original combination of the main color and one or two additional ones is the hallmark of trash polka. Here you will not find polychrome, typical of pop art, or just black, as in ordinary contour tattoos. The completeness of the image is given by the volume and creative rethinking of everyday images, the philosophy of death and partly punk culture.

Subjects for tattoos

Polka trash style uses different images:

Surreal flowing clocks, or broken mechanical ones;
female, male, cartoon characters;
People (soldiers, babies, beautiful girls);
Animals (roaring lion, whining wolf, elephants or rhinoceroses);
Birds, flowers, objects, symbols;
, or even whole sentences.

You can even play up a cute panda by giving it a little fatalism and red color on its paws. For a panda tattoo, it’s not a problem to replay and make mortal aesthetics and philosophy.

A sketch for a polka trash tattoo usually takes hours to draw and look at. Each such image carries a huge semantic content.

Trash polka tattoo for men

Trash polka tattoo designs for the arm are carefully selected by the artist in the salon. The meaning of the tattoo, the meaning of drawings in the trash polka style, what they mean, the tattoo artist will tell you or put it in yourself.

Tattoos for girls

Tattoos are usually softer and more delicate, but not for the realistic trash polka style. There are no differences between women and men, there is only a difference between the thoughts and intelligence of the person who came to the salon to get a tattoo.

Girls and women stuff the same as men - crude, intricate skulls and technology, poignant social expressions and texts, photos of historical battles and heartbreaking images of disasters.

Trash polka is creativity in its purest form, where there is no place for platitudes. If these are delicate flowers, then they will still be crossed out with lines and blots.

Combination with realism

Polka trash is based on realism. Polka tattoos are drawn in compliance with the rules for creating volume, perspective and correct proportions (except if the drawing itself requires otherwise).

If a raven is depicted, then it will be a canonical bird with all its limbs and feathers.

If there are flowers, then in proportions and shape they can be compared with the same species from the herbarium. If there is a compass, then it is in the right direction.

Popular places for tattoos

Trash polka tattoos appear wherever your heart desires. Most often, tattoos are made on the arm - sleeve, wrist, on the forearm to the elbow in the décolleté area, on the back, stomach, and legs.

It happens that the place where the tattoo is applied is the thigh, or face, tailbone.

Also characteristic of trash polka is the application of an image to one part of the body with flow or drips to another.

In fact, localization does not matter as much as for classic tattoos.

Video on the topic

(from the English “trash” - garbage) is a style that can reflect the attractiveness of the most terrible things. It’s not for nothing that trash is literally translated as “garbage,” that is, something base, repulsive, something that people consider not worth attention, but not even worth being around.

But, like any art direction, tattoos have many styles, and like others, trash polka tattoos have a large number of followers. As a rule, these are those people who deny the banality, who are sickened by the rules imposed by society. And the desire to get a tattoo in the trash style is not just a desire to tattoo an unusual picture, it is another way to challenge society, to show that you're not like everyone else. Monotony away! Away with templates! Only drive, only trash!

“Trash” tattoos to the masses!

Yes, such styles of art rarely find public recognition, but often it helps “lost” people understand their essence and discover themselves. And when they ask to get a tattoo in the trash polka style, they seem to want to say: “I’m one of you! I understand what you are trying to convey!”

Trash polka symbols in tattoo

For many, the trash polka style is repulsive, but somehow has an internal attractive force. Despite the fact that it is usually expressed by impaling images that are quite unpleasant for the perception of an ordinary person, it has undoubted power over the mind. And people looking at a trash tattoo usually cannot understand their own feelings, assessing whether they want to utter a cry of admiration or rip it off the owner’s skin once and for all. It’s not for nothing that the images are made in red and black tones, which greatly enhance the perception.

As a rule, such tattoos symbolize terrifying images: death, decay, vulgarity, fear. That's why Only strong personalities can decide on such a tattoo, accustomed to standing out from the crowd. After all, they are carriers of the strongest images, possessing colossal power, capable of “opening eyes” to false values and empty formalities devoid of any meaning.

Trash Polka tattoos are tattoos with their own special and unique explosive style. Trash Polka is considered a style of rebels, creative, thinking people who protest the system. Trash Polka tattoos are like collages that combine realism, text, poster illustrations, and abstraction with ink smudges. Often tattoos are imbued with a dark aesthetic with a predominant black color.

Such original execution, bright dynamic plots and a unique philosophy made the Trash Polka tattoo style popular first in Europe, and later on other continents.

Characteristic Features of Trash Polka Tattoo

First, let's look at the message that contains the name of the style.

Trash (from English Trash) - trash, something unpleasant, dirty. Thus, the authors of the style turned to reality, the perception of the world, without embellishment and illusions. At first, looking at a tattoo, you may feel uncomfortable due to the compositional workload. But the plots of the sketches make you look closely, think and unravel.

The characteristic features of Trash Polka include:

Collage drawing style.
The advantage of black as the main color.
Red, as an additional color, symbolizes blood.
Availability of fonts and slogans.
Blots, smudges, stains.
Poster stories.

Modern masters make some changes to the stylistic features, making them softer. For example, you can often notice that in addition to the contrasting colors of black and red, other colors are also added to the design.

Popular Places for Trash Polka Tattoo

Trash Polka sleeve
Trash Polka on the leg
Trash Polka

Tattoo Trash Polka Font

Basically, the font becomes an additional plot in Trash Polka style tattoos. But in some cases, it is the font that becomes the main dominant part of the composition. The font most often used is not calligraphic, as in many tattoos, but printed, poster. The style is also characterized by a combination of different, incompatible fonts, for example, printed and handwritten.

Combination of Trash Polka and Realism

It is not uncommon to see both of these styles in one tattoo. The Tattoo and Trash Polka styles complement each other. Realistic images help to further reveal the meaning of abstractions. And a bright collage plot becomes a good background for realism. This creates a memorable, original tandem of styles.

Men's Trash Polka Tattoos - Trash Polka Tattoos for Men

Trash Polka tattoos for men most often represent large, voluminous sketches that combine the main features of the style that we discussed above. The tattoo can be placed on the arm, back or chest. Typically, those elements that are made in the style of realism contain the main message of the tattoo.

Women's Trash Polka Tattoos - Trash Polka Tattoos for Girls

Girls who have chosen the Trash Polka style are unlikely to opt for a small sketch. The style implies a poster scale, immersion, and special emotionality. Therefore, in Tresh Polka, women's tattoos are not much different from men's.