Tattoo Taxonomy

Every photo on TatSeek is described from this fixed vocabulary. The words don’t change and you can’t invent one — that is what makes a search for one thing return work that genuinely matches.

Style ≠ technique ≠ subject

A tattoo has a style (e.g. Realism), may use a technique (e.g. Dotwork), and depicts a subject (e.g. a fox). A piece can carry more than one style. When a classification is unclear, TatSeek leaves it off rather than guess.

Styles

Techniques

Placement on the body

Colour

Subjects

Grouped by category. A subject is what the tattoo depicts.

Animals

Nature & Plants

Celestial

People

Mythology & Folklore

Symbols & Objects

Text & Script

Pattern & Ornament

Pop Culture

Also recorded

Size (small → sleeve), complexity, orientation, whether a photo is fresh or healed, and whether a piece is a cover-up. Numbers — like exact size in centimetres — are numbers, not tags.


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