Geometric Tattoos in Buford, Georgia

Symmetry, repetition and lines that have to be right the first time.

Geometric work is unforgiving in a way freehand styles are not. The eye finds a broken symmetry or a line that drifts a degree off instantly, and there is nowhere to hide it — a mandala whose petals are not evenly spaced looks wrong even to someone who could not say why.

The complication is that bodies are not flat. A pattern that is perfectly regular on paper distorts the moment it is placed over a shoulder, a ribcage or a calf, so the stencil has to be mapped to the contour it will actually sit on and adjusted on the body rather than trusted from the drawing. That mapping is most of the work, and it is done with you standing rather than lying down where possible.

Dotwork shading is common in this style and is slower than it looks — stippled gradients are built one point at a time, which is why a modest dotwork piece can take a full session. The result holds up unusually well as it ages, since there are no fine gradients to blur.

The style covers mandalas, sacred geometry, ornamental patterning and linework compositions, and it combines readily with blackwork where a piece needs more weight.