In the 1990s, mostly thanks to the art of Aaron Cain, biomech became a very popular tattoo style: it’s not uncommon to see whole biomech sleeves, legs and backs. If you go for this style you go big! Biomechanical tattoos are great as cover-up tattoos because they have a lot of details and shading, which can help covering the old tattoos. If a biomech tattoo is dark, this only adds to the beauty of the tattoo so it’s perfect to camouflage the tattoos underneath.
If you think about biomechanical art, whether it’s tattoos, illustration or painting, the only name that comes into your mind is H.R. Giger. Giger was the person who popularized biomechanical art back in 1979 when he designed the creatures for the feature film Alien. This dark and morbid style with flesh and robotic details was his style of choice, so we can say that he gave birth to biomechanical as a style on its own: an art that combines organic and natural design with industrial design.
- Biomechanical art is a surrealistic style of art that combines elements of machines with organic elements.
