Blog | Tattoo Gdańsk
Tattoo design and artificial intelligence
Can AI design a tattoo?
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I increasingly receive designs from clients created with the help of artificial intelligence. Sometimes it is a specific motif someone wants to have tattooed, and sometimes it is a collection of images showing the direction they would like to take. I mainly treat them as a form of inspiration, a point of reference. I watch with curiosity as AI's capabilities in image generation continue to develop. On the one hand, it can genuinely surprise me. On the other, the development of these tools makes me somewhat uneasy, especially when we start asking what creativity actually is and who the author of a resulting form really is.
Where does the idea end and the tool begin?
When designing geometric and abstract tattoos, I have relied for years primarily on my own creativity, observation and experimentation. But there is a certain paradox here. Even when I design a pattern myself, I use computer software. I come up with the rules, relationships, arrangement of elements and the way I want the form to develop, but ultimately the software performs the calculations and „spits out” a specific image. Does that mean the computer created the design?
Why am I increasingly drawing directly on the skin?
Perhaps that is precisely why I increasingly enjoy putting the computer aside. When designing on a screen, I have an enormous amount of control. I can move elements, copy them, change their scale, rotate them, undo every decision and keep refining the design almost indefinitely. With freehand work, some of that control disappears. I draw directly on the skin and have to respond to the body, its shape and what is happening in that particular moment.
AI as a tool, not a ready-made answer
I have no problem with someone bringing an AI-generated design. It can be a good starting point for a conversation and a way of showing what someone likes. I rarely treat such an image as a finished design ready to be tattooed, though. A tattoo has to work on a specific body. It needs to take into account anatomy, proportions, movement, the size of the design and, importantly, the details. Can the design actually be tattooed? Skin is living tissue and has its limitations. How will the tattoo look after several years? Dots can merge into a single area, while outlines can become less defined. We cannot really predict this with certainty, because many factors influence how a tattoo will age.
What happens next?
I don't know. Maybe one day we won't need skin or even bodies at all. And therefore, tattoos either. We'll become pure consciousness in the cloud ;) Or perhaps we should slow down and return to black soot, turkey-bone needles and sitting around a fire ;) and, somewhat beside the point, to building real communities and human relationships. As Byung-Chul Han, the Korean-German philosopher, writes, we live in digital swarms. A swarm does not create a community, it dismantles it. Social media creates something resembling a constant noise of communication. Everyone can speak, but that doesn't necessarily mean we are actually talking to one another. If you are interested in the subject of the condition of contemporary society, I recommend his essays collected in The Burnout Society, The Crisis of Narration, Non-things, The Spirit of Hope and In the Swarm: Digital Prospects.
If You Want to Explore the Subject Further (AI)
Andrzej Dragan — Quo vAIdis
If you are interested not only in using artificial intelligence but also in questions about what intelligence, creativity and artistic creation actually are, Andrzej Dragan's Quo vAIdis is worth exploring. It offers an interesting perspective on the development of AI, including questions about what remains the domain of human creativity.
Yuval Noah Harari — Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
A broader look at the development of information, technology and artificial intelligence and their influence on the way contemporary societies function.
Tattoo. History, facts and myths
Geometry is the language of the universe
Blackwork/blackout tattoo — calmness
Tattoo sleeve. The journey is the goal
Geometric tattoo vs organic blackwork
Dotwork — rhythm written in dots
Tattoo design and artificial intelligence
Symmetry and asymmetry in tattooing
What to avoid before and after a tattoo session
Tattoo and pain that passes
Medical aspects of tattooing
Blog | About | Contact
Where does the idea end and the tool begin?
When designing geometric and abstract tattoos, I have relied for years primarily on my own creativity, observation and experimentation. But there is a certain paradox here. Even when I design a pattern myself, I use computer software. I come up with the rules, relationships, arrangement of elements and the way I want the form to develop, but ultimately the software performs the calculations and „spits out” a specific image. Does that mean the computer created the design?
Why am I increasingly drawing directly on the skin?
Perhaps that is precisely why I increasingly enjoy putting the computer aside. When designing on a screen, I have an enormous amount of control. I can move elements, copy them, change their scale, rotate them, undo every decision and keep refining the design almost indefinitely. With freehand work, some of that control disappears. I draw directly on the skin and have to respond to the body, its shape and what is happening in that particular moment.
AI as a tool, not a ready-made answer
I have no problem with someone bringing an AI-generated design. It can be a good starting point for a conversation and a way of showing what someone likes. I rarely treat such an image as a finished design ready to be tattooed, though. A tattoo has to work on a specific body. It needs to take into account anatomy, proportions, movement, the size of the design and, importantly, the details. Can the design actually be tattooed? Skin is living tissue and has its limitations. How will the tattoo look after several years? Dots can merge into a single area, while outlines can become less defined. We cannot really predict this with certainty, because many factors influence how a tattoo will age.
What happens next?
I don't know. Maybe one day we won't need skin or even bodies at all. And therefore, tattoos either. We'll become pure consciousness in the cloud ;) Or perhaps we should slow down and return to black soot, turkey-bone needles and sitting around a fire ;) and, somewhat beside the point, to building real communities and human relationships. As Byung-Chul Han, the Korean-German philosopher, writes, we live in digital swarms. A swarm does not create a community, it dismantles it. Social media creates something resembling a constant noise of communication. Everyone can speak, but that doesn't necessarily mean we are actually talking to one another. If you are interested in the subject of the condition of contemporary society, I recommend his essays collected in The Burnout Society, The Crisis of Narration, Non-things, The Spirit of Hope and In the Swarm: Digital Prospects.
If You Want to Explore the Subject Further (AI)
Andrzej Dragan — Quo vAIdis
If you are interested not only in using artificial intelligence but also in questions about what intelligence, creativity and artistic creation actually are, Andrzej Dragan's Quo vAIdis is worth exploring. It offers an interesting perspective on the development of AI, including questions about what remains the domain of human creativity.
Yuval Noah Harari — Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI
A broader look at the development of information, technology and artificial intelligence and their influence on the way contemporary societies function.
Tattoo. History, facts and myths
Geometry is the language of the universe
Blackwork/blackout tattoo — calmness
Tattoo sleeve. The journey is the goal
Geometric tattoo vs organic blackwork
Dotwork — rhythm written in dots
Tattoo design and artificial intelligence
Symmetry and asymmetry in tattooing
What to avoid before and after a tattoo session
Tattoo and pain that passes
Medical aspects of tattooing
Blog | About | Contact
