Tattoos in Comic Books...?

[BoredGuy]

Comic Books are a medium that are obviously heavily known for and built on the strength of their artwork. So that got me to thinking, why is the level of art involved in tattoos never adequately conveyed in comics? Whenever you see a tattoo in comics, it's always the cheesiest piece ever.
Started thinkin about this after reading Uncanny X-men 507, where Pete finally gets his tattoo for kitty. The tat you see on his chest is this crappy clip art little pink heart with cheesy writing.
Even looking at Daken who's supposed to be this cool "punkrock" wolverine with a poofy mohawk, His large tattoo down his arm is this big lame tribal thing. It just seems like comic artists don't fully appreciate the art involved in tattooing.

If anybody can think of any cool tattoos that have ever appeared in Marvel Comics, post 'em here!! I would love to be proven wrong on this one...!

 

[random_havoc]

I like the tribal art look, so I think Daken's is pretty good personally.

My general thoughts on tatts in comics is that there's a surprisingly small amount of them considering what a high percentage of the populace in North America has at least one these days.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

I hate Colossus' new tat :

 

[El Bastardo]

Tribal rocks. The main character from Iron and the Maiden has a rad tribal design going on.

 

[Abstract]

I hadn't seen Colossus' tat. That just sounds cheesy.

 

[Spider-Jay420]

From an artists' standpoint, it's probably just a pain in the ass to draw good tattoos on characters.

Daken's tribal sleave is cool looking, even if tribal tats are played out.

Who was the tatted up dude in Final Crisis? Tattoo Man? His tats were cool lookin'

 

[bryanss3]

plus tattoos on characters is such a minuscule thing IMO and unless the character has a good reason for it(like Colossus) or was created with it they're kind of useless. plus if you're going to talk about the few characters in the Marvel U having lame tattoos go to a mall or any public place and general and people watch. you'll see every "lame" known to man. if anything their "lame" tattoos make them more relatable to common man.

and Spider-Jay you do have some good poses. especially your Avengers and Reed Richards' pose.

 

[Manic]

I hate Colossus' new tat :

Betcha by golly wow, the next artist is going to forget all about it. And that next artist is Greg Land, so prepare for Pete to look like John Cena for a couple of panels.

 

[sdc10]

my opinion on tattoos in comics is the same opinion i have for them in real life, getting a tattoo for the sake of having one is dumb, if they have one it better mean/represent something very important to them

 

[Manic]

Well, Nezhno from the teenage X-Men has tattoos that stop him from exploding like that dude in Big Trouble In Little China. They're very important.

 

[Spider-Jay420]

plus tattoos on characters is such a minuscule thing IMO and unless the character has a good reason for it(like Colossus) or was created with it they're kind of useless. plus if you're going to talk about the few characters in the Marvel U having lame tattoos go to a mall or any public place and general and people watch. you'll see every "lame" known to man. if anything their "lame" tattoos make them more relatable to common man.

and Spider-Jay you do have some good poses. especially your Avengers and Reed Richards' pose.

Tattoos are a funny thing. It seems out of 100 tats you see on people, 94 of them are stupid.

I would hope people have a special meaning with their individual tattoos. Like someone else said, Tats for the sake of tats is dumb. Have a meaning behind it. Or at the very least a cool story.

And I don't read X-Men, but I would love to see this chesty tatoo. Somebody has a scan, right?

And thanks for the kind words, Bryanss3.

 

[Abstract]

I always thought Danny Rand's tattoo was cool. Important character thing too.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

I hate tribal tattoos, and if I were a professional comic artist, I'd hate any tattoos that I had to draw. There's enough s*** to draw on any given comic page without throwing tattoos onto characters that you'll then have to draw every single time you draw that character. And if drawing any tattoos is that much of a burden, I'm sure you can imagine why no comic artist would shoot himself in the foot by making a tattoo super-detailed.

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

Man-Thing's gal pal Jennifer kale sports some ink;

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Yeah, in that one comic. Has it appeared with her anywhere else?

Although, granted, that's the colorist's doing there. I imagine it'd be easier for a colorist to add a tattoo with Photoshop than it would be for a penciler to add one by hand.

 

[Kirk Langstrom]

Yeah, in that one comic. Has it appeared with her anywhere else?

that's a good question....

She was in the last Marvel Zombies,wasnt she? i dont remember seeing any tats.

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Maybe the artist and the editor never read Witches. Witches as a whole should just be swept under the rug. Pretty terrible comic.

 

[Johnny Drama]

Maybe the artist and the editor never read Witches. Witches as a whole should just be swept under the rug. Pretty terrible comic.

Never read it. Now I know not to.

 

[Colossal Spoons]

Betcha by golly wow, the next artist is going to forget all about it. And that next artist is Greg Land, so prepare for Pete to look like John Cena for a couple of panels.

I'm cool with all of that haha

 

[BoredGuy]

I don't even think level of detail is all that important on the tattoos, do a nice cover shot, then in the comic you pull it back a bit, or you keep it covered.

Daken's sleeve, lame tribal notwithstanding, still looks crappy because it's like the artists just tell the colorists to slap on some clipart in the ole MS paint.

Just some consideration for positioning and composition, and some of the history of tattooing, s'all im askin for!!

 

[TheCorpulent1]

In their defense, there are an awful lot of s***ty tattoos out there in real life. After all, the tattoo artist can be a master but what gets tattooed and where is still up to the person who owns the skin.

 

[BoredGuy]

^^^ Very true, lotta silly people with a lotta s***** tattoos...

I guess my point is less about the tattoo itself and more about making the tattoos look like tattoos... Instead it always looks like someone got their arm painted at a carnival, or like Dazzler's ultimate punk tattoos, it looks like they bought them out of a vending machine

 

[TheCorpulent1]

Don't focus on the negatives. Look at it this way: at least we're spared the endless parade of tramp stamps in comics.

 

[BoredGuy]

^^^^ LOL good call... only a matter of time tho im sure

 

[Midnyte_Sun]

Deacon has a crap load of tattoos.