DeckchairAdvertisers cash in on Tattoo trend
Tattooing has been used throughout history for many different purposes and has strong roots in many cultures. Recently there has been a surge in the popularity of tattooing in Europe and the USA, mainly as a form of self expression. These modern tattoos take their artistic influences from many places. I find the Japanese style of tattooing to be particularly beautiful. We are talking serious art here folks, fantastic isn’t it?
Please excuse my heavy use of pictures in this blog but I know you are finding it just as fascinating as I am! 
A big Thank you to James who works for Total Tattoo magazine for allowing me to use his pictures of the London Tattoo convention 2007.
The recent growth in tattoo culture has inevitably led to advertisers jumping on the band wagon, particularly where the brand is designed to appeal to a young audience. Levis are always on the ball:
Converse use a similar style of advertising, but here you can see that the model has actually been ‘branded’ with the Converse logo. The advertisement suggests the consumer’s loyalty to the Converse brand by him ‘wearing’ it permanantly.
It is not just the ’street wear’ brands that are doing this either, have a look at the Chanel eyewear advert below:
However, talking of brand loyalty I thought I would include this picture that I find absolutely hilarious, especially in the light of Google’s recent behaviour with the Blogger platform. See Randa’s blog: Google is getting to big for it’s britches. I suppose if you are going to tattoo your favourite brand on to your body you had better hope that you are always going to like it!!! 
(I think the font is a bit wrong too?)
I absolutely love this advert for Fransesco Biasia purses and handbags. Obviously it is not a real tattoo but they are still cashing in on the idea.
These Brazilian adverts for sandals are certainly eye catching:
Gisele, the model, is not really a heavily tattooed girl but they have certainly made it look very realistic.
I would just like to include one more advertising picture for Playstation that is great fun although a little dark. Even though it isn’t really about the tattoo; the image still emulates the sub culture:
Thanks to Ads of the world for providing all the advertising pictures.
Can you think of any other examples of advertisers cashing in on trends? How do you feel about the increased popularity of tattooing? Are you a heavily tattooed person who is annoyed by the trend ruining your individuality?
Toni
Thanks for these photos, they are great and the advertising is brilliant.
My favourite is the second Converse advert, very daring.
That last image is gross!
….. have you seen Hellraiser?
Hi Amanda
I agree it is gross! There is something very disturbing about it..but I think PS do that a lot and their target market cries out for it. i think that is probably how your head feels after a particularly long session. I haven’t seen Hellraiser, I am not too good at horror films, I end up having to sleep with the light on for days after
Glad you enjoyed the pics
Toni
Hi, the pics look great, I am going to ask Total Tattoo if he can let us have some for our site as well. So do you think the advertisers jumping on the trend will increase the number of people getting more tats? If so then there’s gonna be a lot more ‘cowboys’ entering the market to serve the demand. The Giselle ad is fantastic.
Hi FT
I think that the fact that a lot of A list celebrities are now getting tattoos (some of them big tats too) is fuelling the trend and therefore the advertisers are picking up on it. This in turn I suppose will increase the number of people getting tattooed. Also it is so much more main stream in the media in general with TV programs like ‘Miami Ink’ and ‘London Ink’.
There is also something to be said for the quality of the work that you can get now which makes it more appealing maybe? Although as you rightly point out if there is more demand for something you will get more ‘cowboys’ jumping on the band waggon too.
Thanks for your comment and I’m glad you liked the pics.
Toni
Toni, I think you’re observations are on the money. I also think it will fuel younger people to want to get tattoos as their the ones who targeted and most influenced by advertising.
If most people who comment against tattooing are right then these people will ‘regret’ their decision later on in life, as they don’t consider that a tattoo is a permanent expression of something in your life.
So they go get something similar to what someone else has just because it’s seen as trendy or cool. Lots of people go looking for [put celebrity name here] tattoo on the net so they can take a picture of it to their local tattoo artist and say copy it on me please.
The last picture is a little disturbing, the possibility that it “emulates a subculture” or targets an audience is more disturbing! The carved star on the forearm of the Converse guy is also really gross, too. In Japan, the large tattoo on the back is associated with Yakuza. Certain public Japanese bathhouses (sent?) and gymnasiums often openly ban those bearing large or graphic tattoos in an attempt to prevent Yakuza from entering.