Pietro Romano is an Italian tattoo artist who has taken to creating Avant-garde, abstract and graphics tattoos. Born in Torino, Italy in 1978, Romano followed his passion for all things artistic by studying fine arts before settling on tattoo art as his favorite medium. His bold, unusual designs bring fine art into the world of body art and tattoos.
Pietro Romano combines a human skull and mathematical formula in this tattoo design; combining realism and abstract art in one tattoo. [source]
Abstract Tattoos? Avant-garde Tattoos? Graphics Tattoos?
There were several art movements of the 20th century that fell into the category of abstract art. Abstract art is essentially art that represents the world instead of recreating it on canvas. Essentially, an oil painting of a mountain that looks like the mountain would fall into the realm of realism while a drawing in which the mountain is simply represented by a line would be called an abstract art work. The line represents the mountain but doesn’t have the same amount of detail, perspective or realism as the mountain itself. Many tattoo designs are therefore abstract but we’ve become so accustomed to both tattoo art and abstract art that the connection between the two often isn’t noticed.
An abstract graphic tattoo design by Italian artist Pietro Romano. This particular tattoo design focuses on the visual effect of the art instead of what the design represents – one of the elements of abstract art that has confused art viewers for nearly a century. [source]
An illustration of a camera melts in this tattoo design by Pietro Romano. This is an abstract tattoo because the design is a representation of an object; a camera, instead of being a realistic reproduction of an object. [source]
One form of abstract art that appeared in the early 20th century was Avant-garde art. The word is a bit obscure, because it translates directly from French into English as “advance guard”, but there is little information about how or why the phrase became the name of this art movement. When Avant-garde first began appearing, the art was as mysterious as its creators. The entire realm of Avant-garde seemed cloaked in mystery as its inexplicable films and unusual art left viewers with more questions than answers. Despite the obscurity of the Avant-garde movement, this art genre was incredibly popular. To this day, the bold, simplistic designs of the Avant-garde artists remain popular and are a fantastic source of inspiration for tattoo artists who want to create eye-popping designs with clear lines that hide obscure meanings.
Pietro Romano shows his grasp of both graphic design and Avant-garde ideals in this abstract tattoo design, using contrasting elements to create balance in the tattoo. Matching tattoos like this one are becoming more and more popular with friends or relationship partners as a way to show their love for each other. [source]
Many modern graphics are based on the simplistic designs created during the abstract art movement. The image of splattered paint that features heavily in modern graphic design was first introduced to the art world through the famous abstract artist Jackson Pollock. The main difference between the abstract artists of the early 20th century and the artists and designers of today is the way that modern designers often combine realistic and abstract elements in an art work, creating a juxtaposition between reality and the imagined world. In contrast, the original abstract artists worked mainly from a world of thought and fantasy, creating art works that resembled the real world as little as possible.
A human eye is combined with graphic elements in this abstract tattoo by Pietro Romano. This is a current art creation method that allows artists to combine mismatching elements to create a complete art design. This method is becoming more popular with artists from all art movements, including tattoo art. [source]
Modern artists and graphic designers are swinging back to abstract art by creating collages and mixed media art works that combine elements from abstract art and reality. These art works will often include text in the form of quotes, photographs of popular celebrities or the logos of large corporations. Instead of expressing an idea through art, the way that the original abstract artists did, many modern artists (including Pietro Romano) are creating art that expresses their own personal opinion of the world.
Freddie Mercury and the Apple logo both appear in this modern abstract tattoo by Pietro Romano. Popular media is finding its way into many art works like this one; giving the tattoo design a current, modern effect. [source]
Abstract Art as Tattoo Designs
Pietro Romano’s designs are intriguing because although many look so dissimilar, each carries an element of the artist in the design. Romano’s personality can be found in each piece through the use of balance and what seems to be a carefully considered and planned randomness. Some of Romano’s designs look as though they have been slapped together from mismatching elements, but on closer inspection the tattoo art work comes together as a whole, unified design.
Various design elements seem randomly placed in this Pietro Romano tattoo design. Romano leads the viewer’s eye through the design with areas of solid color, bare skin and beautiful shading. The effect is a balanced tattoo that tells a story; but only if the viewer’s willing to look for it. [source]
Romano enjoys using red and black as the predominant colors in his tattoo designs. Red and black work well in graphic art because the two colors offset each other, creating vivid contrast that adds to the power of the design. Often, Romano will create most of the design in black, giving only the most important elements a red shade. The subject matter of his designs is often cheeky, rebellious or simply a new way of portraying classic symbolism. Visit Pietro Romano’s facebook page for more tattoo art and to contact the artist.
Pietro Romano’s signature style includes using only red and black ink in his designs. Combining black ink splatters with red swirls creates the impression that the tattoo is an abstract representation of a bunch of flowers. [source]
