If you have tattoos, think they’re cool or ever simply uttered out loud that you admire them in front of “grown-ups” (parents, aunts, uncles, teachers, grandparents, your dentist etc.) then you’re all too familiar with the famous line, “You’ll regret them when you’re older.” What used to be common branding of soldiers, sailors and criminals is now artwork of individual and widespread expression. Thanks to fashion’s love of aesthetics, tattoos have slowly infiltrated both the fashion and beauty industries. The oldest form of expressing your true self creates a livelihood for each outfit of the day, if you allow them to. It may just the rebel in me or my childhood obsession with Miami Ink is finally coming to life, but nonetheless tattoos just add something to an outfit that accessories cannot. Whether you choose to keep your tattoo placement in available hidden places or not, remember there’s a sweet freedom in showing them to the world every now and then—and of course there’s no better time than the summertime (inserts smiling-blush emoji). A perfect example of dressing up your tattoos is seen by my latest Fashionisto above.
I especially love that he chose to wear complementary colors with his tattoos, wearing a calm teal-gray T-shirt, he makes the red roses on his right forearm pop right out. To his left, the sea turtles appear to be inching from the sands back to sea as you look from his capris back up to his T-shirt. His outfit is literally a beach standing in the middle of Herald Square; you’ve got to love it. He gives his look more of an edge with a dark duffel bag instead of the classic book bag. To finish this look he walks away with a pair of simple black shoes.
What’s on THE BEAUTY BAR? To achieve this look, all you need is your imagination; if you want to involve real needles and ink is absolutely up to you. The main idea is to display your form of body artwork through hennas, temporaries or the real deal holy fields. The next trick is to dress around your tattoos, not over them; this can be accomplished in many forms of clothing as long as you opt towards complementary colors of your artwork and skin tones—thus bringing character to the masterpiece duo you create between your outfit and ink.
