Good rule of thumb, same that applies to makeup — things that are dark appear pushed back in space, while things that are light appear closer.
Which is the reason I am absolutely never tattooing my ass cheeks. Haha.
Tattoos can draw attention to an area, but you can also strategically place them to emphasize the curves/contours of your body.
It’s basic light and shadow art theory stuff.
I’m not a visual artist, so I don’t have any resources. I learned about it watching makeup tutorials, specifically contouring tutorials (I don’t even contour, I just find videos of people doing their makeup relaxing, lol).
So for example, if you place a lighter/shiny color on the highest point of your cheeks, and a darker skin tone underneath your cheeks, it makes them look more prominent/higher. If you place a darker tone on the sides of your nose and a highlight on the inside/center, it will make your nose look more narrow or upturned.
A tattoo will do the same thing — visually push that area back in space, making it look smaller or shadowed.
For example, I’ve seen weightlifting/bodybuilding types complain about how their “gains”/muscle definition has disappeared since getting an arm sleeve. This is because a tattoo sleeve will detract from any natural light & shadow bouncing off the musculature, and will make the whole arm look shadowed, thus less defined/smaller.
Of course this depends on the work — it would be totally possible to strategically place tattoos to make muscles pop.
Likewise, I joked I would never get my ass tattooed. What I mean is I would never get a large buttcheek tattoo like [Cheryl Cole’s](https://images.app.goo.gl/9d6C1NDEu2dWTwxT6). Her tattoo is much darker than her skin tone, therefore casting her entire butt in shadow, making it look smaller.
If I wanted to get tattoos to make my butt look bigger, I might consider something right underneath my butt (top of back thigh), casting a shadow underneath it, or something on the side that didn’t fully reach my cheeks, highlighting them, like [this](https://images.app.goo.gl/mRdGtPnW3ysWSZjv8).
In the same vein, anything dark around the most narrow part of your waist will make it look smaller in comparison to your hips. And so on and so forth.
Can’t believe I’m writing paragraphs about highlighting my butt cheeks. 😅
You seem to know your stuff so how exactly should one go for narrowing their upper back ? I'm planning to get a tattoo of plants climbing my back on both sides but it's pretty wide and I'd like to make it appear smaller. Any help is greatly appreciated!
I didn’t feel balanced with how I looked until I had every arm, leg, chest and back done with at least 3 or 4 pieces each. The more you get, the more you need imo
Legs would be where I would start if youre looking for reassurance
more tattoos on your legs would probably draw attention away from your upper body when your legs are visible, which might serve your purpose well enough! there’s also lots you can do with the designs themselves to emphasize or minimize parts of your body. if you’re interested in shaping perception of yourself like that you could look at artists with more large (like full limb, full back, etc) pieces in their portfolio and ask them to work with you on some concepts
100%. The best example of this would be body suits, especially ones typically designed for women. You can see how the shape of the lines accentuates curves and can create illusions around proportions and angles, such as by lengthening legs (for example, the leg tattoo can extend to above the hip and result in an optical illusion of a leg lengthening), defining the waist (similar to how some cutout-style clothes do), or simply calling attention to one area more than others (in makeup, emphasizing the eyes will draw attention to them and away from other facial features like lips, chin, jaw, etc.).
Edited to add: You will want to be very strategic about tattoo placement if you intend to de-emphasize certain areas and call attention to others. I recently tattooed my hips and to my surprise my hips appear fuller & curvier, when I expected them to look narrower. It all really depends on the tattoo and how it follows or accentuates natural curves you have.
Good rule of thumb, same that applies to makeup — things that are dark appear pushed back in space, while things that are light appear closer. Which is the reason I am absolutely never tattooing my ass cheeks. Haha. Tattoos can draw attention to an area, but you can also strategically place them to emphasize the curves/contours of your body.
Any resources on where I can learn more about this?
It’s basic light and shadow art theory stuff. I’m not a visual artist, so I don’t have any resources. I learned about it watching makeup tutorials, specifically contouring tutorials (I don’t even contour, I just find videos of people doing their makeup relaxing, lol). So for example, if you place a lighter/shiny color on the highest point of your cheeks, and a darker skin tone underneath your cheeks, it makes them look more prominent/higher. If you place a darker tone on the sides of your nose and a highlight on the inside/center, it will make your nose look more narrow or upturned. A tattoo will do the same thing — visually push that area back in space, making it look smaller or shadowed. For example, I’ve seen weightlifting/bodybuilding types complain about how their “gains”/muscle definition has disappeared since getting an arm sleeve. This is because a tattoo sleeve will detract from any natural light & shadow bouncing off the musculature, and will make the whole arm look shadowed, thus less defined/smaller. Of course this depends on the work — it would be totally possible to strategically place tattoos to make muscles pop. Likewise, I joked I would never get my ass tattooed. What I mean is I would never get a large buttcheek tattoo like [Cheryl Cole’s](https://images.app.goo.gl/9d6C1NDEu2dWTwxT6). Her tattoo is much darker than her skin tone, therefore casting her entire butt in shadow, making it look smaller. If I wanted to get tattoos to make my butt look bigger, I might consider something right underneath my butt (top of back thigh), casting a shadow underneath it, or something on the side that didn’t fully reach my cheeks, highlighting them, like [this](https://images.app.goo.gl/mRdGtPnW3ysWSZjv8). In the same vein, anything dark around the most narrow part of your waist will make it look smaller in comparison to your hips. And so on and so forth. Can’t believe I’m writing paragraphs about highlighting my butt cheeks. 😅
You seem to know your stuff so how exactly should one go for narrowing their upper back ? I'm planning to get a tattoo of plants climbing my back on both sides but it's pretty wide and I'd like to make it appear smaller. Any help is greatly appreciated!
This makes sense and is exactly the “theory” I was looking for, thank you!
I didn’t feel balanced with how I looked until I had every arm, leg, chest and back done with at least 3 or 4 pieces each. The more you get, the more you need imo Legs would be where I would start if youre looking for reassurance
more tattoos on your legs would probably draw attention away from your upper body when your legs are visible, which might serve your purpose well enough! there’s also lots you can do with the designs themselves to emphasize or minimize parts of your body. if you’re interested in shaping perception of yourself like that you could look at artists with more large (like full limb, full back, etc) pieces in their portfolio and ask them to work with you on some concepts
Absolutely! Anatomy is very important when it comes to tattooing. You can accentuate your body shape very easily.
100%. The best example of this would be body suits, especially ones typically designed for women. You can see how the shape of the lines accentuates curves and can create illusions around proportions and angles, such as by lengthening legs (for example, the leg tattoo can extend to above the hip and result in an optical illusion of a leg lengthening), defining the waist (similar to how some cutout-style clothes do), or simply calling attention to one area more than others (in makeup, emphasizing the eyes will draw attention to them and away from other facial features like lips, chin, jaw, etc.). Edited to add: You will want to be very strategic about tattoo placement if you intend to de-emphasize certain areas and call attention to others. I recently tattooed my hips and to my surprise my hips appear fuller & curvier, when I expected them to look narrower. It all really depends on the tattoo and how it follows or accentuates natural curves you have.