So you've figured out what you want tattooed but you don't know which style? Take a look at this cohesive guide to the most popular tattoo styles.

1. American Traditional

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American art tattoos have a classic style and an old school feel. These tattoos are strongly influenced by tattoo artist Norman Collins aka Sailor Jerry. The style is filled with thick lines, black, red and yellow color schemes, and classic imagery (swallows, roses, pin-ups, etc.). Many continue to incorporate the Traditional American style with more modern imagery.

2. New School

New school tattoos are cartoonish, colorful and often have rounded shapes. They have definitely lessened in popularity since their start but you can still find artists who specialize in New School today.

3. Japanese Traditional (Irezumi)

The Japanese Traditional style has specific rules that need to be followed in order for it to qualify as Irezumi as well as respect the culture. Japanese Traditional tattoos, like American Traditional, have a focus on particular imagery such as koi fish, lotus flowers and ocean waves.

4. Blackwork

Appropriately named, these tattoos only use black and often utilize thick lines and geometric patterns. Some people go as far as to cover large portions of their bodies in black.

5. Dotwork

Dotwork tattoos also have a heavy emphasis in black. However, they are applied with a lighter hand, using tiny dots to create a shading effect.

6. Watercolor

Watercolor tattoos make use of splotches of color without outlines to imitate watercolor paint. This style has exploded in popularity in the past few years! While it is a really interesting and beautiful new style, it is difficult to tell how it will age without the use of strong black outlines.

7. Geometric

Geometric tattoos focus on fine straight lines and shapes.

8. Sketchwork

These tattoos imitate the sketching phase of physical art. Sketch tattoos are usually in one color, include extra lines and are intentionally imperfect.

9. Realism

While the other styles can be attempted by most tattoo artists, realism can be only be accomplished by extremely talented and well-trained ones.

10. No Outlines

This style allows the colors of a tattoo to pop and frees tattoo artists from their normal restrictions. However, tattoos without outlines are likely to have their colors bleed more easily and so they, like watercolor tattoos, likely won't age well.

What's your favorite tattoo style? What style do you think will catch on next?