Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty, Photos Courtesy of Noel Garcia
Tattoos mark the body with a unique pattern—but tattoos, just like anything else, are subject to trends. Currently, a design category defined by long, spearlike lines, symmetrical, tribal-like patterns and cyberpunk precision is flooding the social media feeds of permanent ink enthusiasts. Some of these tattoos look like armor, or veins, or a lattice of tributaries flowing into a river. The effect is simultaneously alien, natural and futuristic. It’s also undeniably hard to describe.
“Someone please name that popular style of tattooing that everyone does now which has all the ornate, medieval, spiky, fine-line detailing and unconnected lines,” Jackson Johnson tweeted last week.
Noel Garcia, a Brooklyn-based tattoo artist who goes by wr4th.co on Instagram, calls the style Cybersigilism; sigil, a word derived from Latin, refers to a sign or symbol thought to hold occult or magical power.