I’ve been hearing a lot of blowback lately about fineline tattoos and the fineline style. My family’s shop, Fineline Tattoo in NYC has a deeper history that goes beyond the current trend for delicate, thin line tattoo work. The style of fineline tattooing has its roots in the late 1960s/70s black-and-grey Chicano/West Coast style of tattoing. This was a shift beyond the emblematic, Americana style of tattoos from artists like Sailor Jerry, Brooklyn Joe Lieber and pretty much everyone else at the time towards a more illustrated approach to design practiced by Freddy Negrete, Jack Rudy, Ed Hardy, Greg Irons, and others. The thinner lines allowed for more detailed, illustrative styles of tattoos. In the late 70s, my father Mike Bakaty came up with the idea of calling his shop Fineline Tattoo, where he could explore traditional tattoo iconography using a more illustrative approach. — Mehai Bakaty #tattoohistory #finelinetattoo #finelinetattoonyc
