Tattoos come in different shapes and sizes. All over the world, tattoos have become very popular for both men and women as a part of a permanent accessory to their bodies.

A specific design that you put in your body should have its own special meaning to you.

To generalize, there are five basic categories for tattoo design: abstractions, naturalistic, pledge or dedication, simplification or stylized, and complex structures or combinations.

Abstraction tattoos are the simplest form since they do not require much artwork. They usually come in black and gray colors. Tribal tattoos fall under this category since most use black and gray color tones and their design are mostly abstract in nature.

Naturalistic tattoos have more detail and the designs are more intricate to make them look more realistic. These types of tattoos involve more detailing and shadowing to make it look very real. Examples are these types of tattoos are portrait types (tattoos with pictures of people or places that look very much like the real thing). The colors that they use are very vivid; sometimes they look so real, you would think that it would jump out of the skin.

Pledge or dedication tattoos are very popular in the western society. They are mostly associated with tattoos that are designed by sailors as a remembrance of the people close to their hearts that they would leave when they go out to sea. Most of the time, the design for these types of tattoos would usually involve the name of the person with a small dedication included with the name and the image that would include in the dedication would mostly be hearts, flowers and anchors.

Simplification or stylized tattoos are mostly of different images that are less intricate than that of the naturalistic tattoos. Most of the designs for simplification or stylized tattoos vary from different cartoon characters to different images of animals, plants and symbols. They are said to be the cheapest since they are just copies of original artwork from another artist.

Complex structures or combination tattoos are a combination of the different categories. They are a combination of different styles and design that is very similar to the Japanese body suits. Though usually the combination of the different designs for combination tattoos do not link with each other, the combination of the design as a finished product are very good to look at. Most combination tattoos cover almost the whole body which is why they are being compared to the Japanese body suits.

Choosing the right kind of tattoo design would depend on the type of general design that you wanted. So, choose wisely before you finally decide on the kind that would best fit you.