Dotwork is that unique case where a dot does not mean stop. On the contrary, it all starts with her! The most fantastic projects grow from a point and are embodied in something incredible. Lines and even completely filled areas help to enhance the effect and create a "frame" of the composition, and blotches of contrasting colors help to add depth. Black is always taken as the basis, and red and blue contrast with it, and in exceptional cases - purple, turquoise, yellow and other colors. The most popular forms for dotwork are a circle, a rhombus, a triangle and all kinds of abstractions consisting of these shapes. Although the geometry does not limit the range of style possibilities. It is closely associated with engraving and graphics, ornamentation, new school and blackwork. No other way allows you to designate shades and midtones so beautifully, which is why “dot work” is always unique! Despite the fact that the process is laborious, the technique is ideal for volumetric drawings. Sometimes the patterns are folded into sleeves, sometimes they fill the shoulder or the entire back at once. The spectacle is unique and incredible! Finding a worthy example in modern tattoo catalogs is not difficult.

Dotwork tattoos for men

The point style is subject to strict logic, and does not accept randomness. That is why it is good for voluminous projects: sleeves, tattoos on the calf, shoulder, back. The dots create a shape, allowing you to make perfect transitions from dark to light without rough and sharp borders. Almost everything can be depicted in this technique: from a pattern in great detail to a portrait. In men's dotwork sketches, there are images of animals, marine life. Wolves, owls, foxes and lions are embodied in luxurious drawings and adorn their owners. Check it out by visiting the Tattoo Academy gallery.

Dotwork tattoo for girls

A work consisting of dots can be either very rich or light, translucent. And this is a huge advantage for girls. For them, we are ready to create a lacy, weightless sketch for the most beautiful tattoo. Butterfly, dragonfly, exotic flower or mandala - whatever you want. Also, if desired, the project can be black and white, color, consist of two or more contrasting shades. The work doesn't have to be big or small. The dots can add up to a perfect object that suits you 100%.

Dotwork tattoo (English dotwork - “dot work”) is a style of tattoo in which the drawing is performed using a special technique and consists of dots. Due to the different density of points, a gradient is created and the transmission of light and shadow. Tattoos can be completely dotwork, or they can be integrated with other styles. For example, in combination with blackwork (large areas of black dense color).

Blackwork technology is considered complex. Only with great experience and a high level of professionalism can create high-quality dotwork tattoos.

Distinctive features of Dotwork Tattoo:

• predominantly black color
• symmetry
• geometricity
• large size

At the same time, it should be noted that the style and technique of the master can be used as an expressive means, going beyond the usual signs of style.

Popular Plots Tattoo Dotwork

Tattoo Dotwork Ornaments

The ornament requires high skill and a good sense of symmetry. The master needs to create a harmonious sketch, and then transfer it to the skin, taking into account the anatomy and features of the skin. Dotwork ornaments can be located on almost any part of the body and are universal for both men and women.

Animal Dotwork Tattoo

If you combine a favorite plot for a tattoo and a progressive tattoo style, we get bright contrast tattoos in the dotwork style. The drawing should be large so that all the details and nuances are clearly read on it.

Tattoo Dotwork Abstraction

Dotwork style fits very organically into abstract tattoos. If the ornaments are a structure with a symmetrical composition, then they can be chaotic, asymmetrical, but at the same time look stylish and non-standard.

Men's Tattoo Dotwork

Men most often choose. It can be a sleeve that combines other styles, or it can be a mandala on the back or. With the help of the dotwork technique, the depth and volume of the picture is very well conveyed.

Women's Tattoo Dotwork

Girls prefer ornaments and mandalas on the shoulder and. Dotwork looks very unusual in a tattoo with natural motifs, for example, in a tattoo with animals or nature. Even in a small sketch, using dots, you can create beautiful transitions and an airy effect.

In modern society, a tattoo is not considered an attribute of people who have been or are in prison. Today, people get tattoos to stand out from the crowd, to show their individuality, and not belonging to any criminal caste. There are many types of tattoos, as well as their variants. One of the unique types of implementation is a dotwork tattoo. This is a dot tattoo that forms a certain pattern.

Dotwork tattoo style: origin story

This style appeared in the 6th century BC. Even then, various tribes left dotted patterns on the human body. This became known thanks to the rock paintings made by the ancestors from Africa. They depicted people whose bodies were covered with an ornament in the form of dots.

Such drawings applied with henna also existed in ancient Egypt. There, people decorated their bodies with various ornaments. There is an opinion that a similar type of painting appeared in India. But this judgment is erroneous, since this type of body art appeared much earlier. In Asia, it began to be used only in the 12th century.

Divisionism and pointillism are considered to be the closest parent of dotwork today. These directions appeared in the 19th century. Craftsmen made round drawings from rectangular dots. Today, this style has not lost its relevance, but has reached a new level of popularity.

Dotwork Tattoo Ideas

Such tattoos, due to their peculiarity of application, require filling in vast spaces of the body, since small works are simply “lost”. Below we consider the most popular motifs that are used in do-it-yourself sketches.

Animals

Animals play an important role in this style. Basically, their image demonstrates similar features in the character of a person and the depicted beast.

A dotwork wolf tattoo means that a person has independence, and a she-wolf indicates a desire for freedom and inner strength.

Birds symbolize the desire for bright changes. Attraction to good luck and love for experiments are demonstrated by marine animals. A large predator, such as a bear or a lion, symbolizes the strong temper of the wearer.

The fox denotes the mind, cunning, as well as the cheerful disposition inherent in the wearer.

Flowers

In dotwork tattoos, the image of a lotus is often found. Basically, this flower is made in the style of geometry, realism or ornament. The main meaning of the lotus is power, divine conduct, impregnability and strength. Sakura symbolizes the transience and fragility of life.

Scull

The skull dotwork is the most popular motif among men. This element is especially popular with rock musicians, metalheads and bikers. Carriers often perceive this sketch as a talisman and protection from death. With his help, they are trying to show their courage and bravery before the upcoming trials. In youth, it means determination and the absence of fear.

patterns

Very often, dotwork tattoos are a decoration for the body and do not carry any meaning. However, in cases where the patterns are a mandala, a tattoo can tell certain information about the wearer about his character.

In the event that the lines do not have precise shapes, and the colors used are predominantly light in color, the tattoo symbolizes the gentle nature and romantic nature of the wearer. If the drawing is red, then most likely it speaks of a person's need for love and care, as well as an explosive character.

Geometry

Geometric shapes in dotwork tattoos are used mainly as the main part of the whole pattern. Moreover, each geometric figure has its own meaning and carries a separate meaning.

The downward pointing triangle symbolizes earth and water, while the upward pointing figure represents water and fire. A divided rhombus means the strength and power inherent in man. The love of travel and the stars is symbolized by a hexagonal star. It also means a connection with the other world.

The Best Places for Dotwork Tattoos

Dotwork tattoos are stuffed in almost all parts of the body. Sometimes, when drawing large sketches, they combine blackwork and dotwork. Blackwork is drawings made in solid black. Such combinations look great on the male body. The best places for such a combination are the area on the back or chest.

A tattoo on the forearm is a great option for girls. The shoulder is usually used as a place to continue the sleeve. A sleeve is a tattoo on the arm that is stuffed from the wrist to the shoulder. The least common tattoos are on the leg.

Dotwork tattoo sketches

Despite the fact that this style was originally created for men, modern girls often use dotwork tattoos to decorate their bodies. This is because some tribes in Africa consider women to be sacred givers of life.

Most often, drawings are selected for girls, which are applied with a minimum black space. Images of different color saturation symbolize the feminine and fertility.

Mostly women apply such tattoos on their forearms and hands. A similar tattoo on the back gives the female body an eroticism.

A detailed examination of tattoos made with dots is a large number of floristry and geometric shapes, as can be seen in the photo.

Photos of finished works

Abstraction-style ornaments, skulls, birds, labyrinths, animals, girls and clocks are considered popular dotwork tattoo plots. Below in the photo are the best works of masters from around the world.

Dotwork is a special style and technique of tattooing, which got its name from the English word dotwork, which literally means “dot work”. Thus, it is not difficult to guess that a do-it-yourself tattoo consists of many dots applied at a certain interval, from which an incredible and original underwear pattern is formed.

Dotwork has its roots in ancient times - African cave drawings dated 6-7 millennium BC are proof of this. They depict people whose skin is decorated with an ornament of dots. It is also believed that the dotwork style was inspired by the neo-impressionist direction of painting of the late 19th century - pointillism, based on drawing a picture on canvas with dotted strokes.

The popularization of dotwork in our time has contributed to the English tattoo master Xed le Head. In the 90s of the XX century, he was the first to start tattooing black and white dots in the form of geometric shapes, and soon his masterpieces gained worldwide fame. Looking at the photo of his works, one cannot but admire the amazing dance of dots, from which not just a drawing is formed, but the whole picture.

Dotwork is very different from other styles of tattoos and has certain identifying features, the main of which are the abstractness of the pattern and high contrast, which allows you to see the tattoo even from a long distance. Tattoos in this style can be performed in various colors, but the main ones are still considered to be red and black. Using only these two colors contrasting with each other, professional masters are able to achieve volume and saturation of the wearable pattern, resulting in a stunning result.

The dotwork style has no boundaries, with it you can even make such a large-scale tattoo as a portrait, which will look much more impressive than in any other style. The undoubted advantage of dotwork tattoos is their abstractness, thanks to which they have a more lively look and do not get bored over time.

However, only talented professionals can do a do-it-yourself drawing. Work in this technique is complex and requires certain skills and abilities. In Russia, it is just beginning to be mastered, although there are several masters who are improving in this direction. In order to fill such tattoos, it is not enough just to have a typewriter, either a mathematical mindset or design inclinations will be required.

Tattoo artists working in the dotwork style have to build elements in vector graphics, calculating the perfect symmetry and carefully considering the composition. The result of their painstaking work are large-scale tattoos. Pictures of small size are almost never created from dots, since this does not make sense: dots look ideal only when there is enough space for them, because when drawing a picture, the distance between the dots is taken into account, which, depending on the details of the picture, increases either decreases.

To perform a dotwork tattoo, any sketches are used, but the main motifs of such tattoos are ornaments based on geometric shapes, patterns and colors, as well as religious symbols. Dotwork goes well with many styles, acting as a great backdrop for old school or trash polka.

The dotwork style is the best fit for those who want to stand out with a truly original body painting. With such a tattoo, the attention of others will be ensured, because each drawing, in fact, is a unique masterpiece.

Dotwork tattoos are considered the most difficult and painstaking to perform. There are very few masters able to fill a tattoo in this style, and only a few professionals. But high-quality dotwork tattoos are real masterpieces of wearable art, radically different from the usual tattoos. They have their own characteristics and rules for applying pigment under the skin. We will introduce you to the style of dotwork tattoos, tell you about their subtleties and advantages, and show you the most beautiful dotwork tattoos.

Features of dotwork tattoos

Dotwork literally translates as “dot work”. This is the whole point of such tattoos: they are filled with dots, each dot is placed at a certain interval, and as a result, voluminous, rich and truly bewitching drawings are obtained.

Dotwork style tattoos have their own characteristics:

• As a rule, black paint is used for such dot tattoos, but in principle there are no color restrictions as such.
• Small tattoos are not performed in this style, as they will simply look ugly, and the drawing will not be “read”. Dotwork tattoo loves space.
• Such a dot tattoo can be stuffed both with a conventional induction machine and manually.
• Dot style tattoos are well readable from a distance. They do not have clear lines, and the volume is created due to the gaps in the skin between the points and the depth of pigment injection.
• Dotwork tattoos are painful. Experienced people say that the pain during dotwork is much stronger than with a traditional tattoo. This is also explained by the fact that the work takes much longer, and as you know, the longer, the more painful.
• Such tattoos with dots look clear for a long time, since the dot technique allows you to inject the pigment deeper under the skin.

Dotwork tattoos are a very difficult job. It's not even about the time that the master spends when creating a drawing. To get a high-quality dot tattoo, the master must have a mathematical mindset and be able to calculate symmetry perfectly. In the course of work, the points should not intersect, the rows should line up naturally. Some masters, creating sketches of tattoos in the dotwork style, draw drawings for hours with the help of a compass and rulers.

Plots dotwork tattoo

As a rule, sketches of tattoos in the dotwork style are all kinds of ornaments, geometric patterns, contour drawings, abstractions. Thanks to the storyline, dotwork tattoos do not bother their owner for a long time.

In this style, a variety of drawings up to portraits can be performed and they look amazing. However, the professionalism of the master is very important here. Girls often choose floral motifs, ethnic ornaments and religious symbols. The meaning of dotwork tattoos directly depends on the chosen sketch. The dot tattoo style is often combined with other techniques, acting as an excellent backdrop for or.

To whom do we owe the appearance of the dotwork tattoo?

Just as high heels are associated with Christian Louboutin, dotwork tattoos are associated with Xed Le Head. It is impossible to say with certainty that it was in his head that the idea of ​​dotwork tattoo was born, because this direction has been known since ancient times, when representatives of African tribes adorned their bodies with bitmaps. But Xed Le Head definitely popularized the genre.

In the 90s, he began to fill his own body with tattoos consisting of dots. As the pioneer of the genre himself says, before his first tattoo, he did not know how to draw at all, but simply wanted to “do something” and he liked it. In Russia, dotwork masters can be counted on the fingers, but in Europe this style is more popular.

The process of creating a dotwork tattoo

A dotwork-style tattoo is created according to the following step-by-step instructions:

1. Having found an experienced master who has experience in creating tattoos in this genre, first of all you will have to discuss with him which image and on which part of the body you will appear.
2. Then the master will transfer the sketch to the skin according to the principle of transfers, having previously cleaned it and disinfected it. Some masters draw the contours of the future tattoo immediately on the skin.
3. When creating a traditional tattoo, work begins with padding the outline. In a dotwork tattoo, sections of the image are immediately filled with dots.
4. When the work is completed, the skin will be treated with an antiseptic, and a bandage will be applied on top.

Periods are not only used as a punctuation mark to mark the end of a sentence. As you can see, with their help you can create masterpieces. How do you like this dot tattoo technique? If you have tattoos made in this style on your body, share your impressions in the comments below.

Video: How dotwork tattoos are stuffed