Miracle Center - Women's Portal

Miracle Center - Women's Portal

» Sketches realism trash polka. Tattoo Trash Polka - The Style of Rebels and Innovators in the Tattoo World

Sketches realism trash polka. Tattoo Trash Polka - The Style of Rebels and Innovators in the Tattoo World

Many people want clean, pleasant tattoos for themselves, and this desire is quite natural - they want to decorate their body with a tattoo, but at the same time maintain a civilized image. But sometimes the goal is completely different, it is the goal to shock, to impress, to attract attention. And here the style, which is called trash polka, already perfectly copes with this seemingly difficult task. Someone adores him, and for someone he is completely disgusted - but there are definitely no indifferent to him. So you can perfectly decorate your body with a catchy pattern if you look at the pictures that are presented in the gallery and choose the sketches that you like.

General essence of style

Even the name of the trash polka style, as it were, hints that nothing serious should be expected from such a tattoo. Of course, it can be very realistic in its style, in its technique, but only now, as you can see for yourself by looking at the drawings and sketches, the plots of this direction simply take ordinary plots that have tattoos of a different type, and turn them inside out, distort , kill the last remnants of chic and glamor in them, giving a deliberate secondary character. As a result, you can safely be sure that the eyes of surprised people on the street will be turned exactly in your direction - they know how to surprise such images with great skill. A sort of informal postmodern - fashionable, but not massively.

Visual style description

It's easier to see sketches of the trash polka style than to try to describe what these tattoos represent. These are red and black colors, sharp contrasts, no restrictions in the plot, no norms, no limits. Realistic tattoos with distorted, alternative plots look impressive. This realism is accompanied by strokes, blots, letters and other pictorial elements that allow you to bring even more informality to this style - although, it would seem, much more? But does this direction look cheap? Not at all. It just really stands out from the rest. It's bright, catchy, it's expensive, but it's expensive in a "trash" style, and it's definitely not pretentious in the slightest. The more informal the style, the more difficult it is sometimes to apply to the body. So you need to contact the best masters, which will allow you to realize your fantasies, giving your body an inimitable recognition, catchiness. Our craftsmen will help you achieve this effect without any problems, having carried out the work at the highest professional level - and without losing the enthusiasm that is characteristic of this area. Just study the presented examples - or order the development of a new one.

Trash polka tattoo remains one of the most popular trends in recent years. The success of this direction is such that people choose it, regardless of gender, age, wealth and social status. In fact, any person who is allowed to wear tattoos due to work, religion and traditions can become the owner of such an image on the skin.

The original name of this trend is Realistic Trash Polka Tattoos. The Germans from the small town of Würzburg came up with this original direction. It is difficult to say what exactly prompted the two Bavarian designers to create a new style, but they managed to create a successful project that has existed since the 90s of the 20th century.

The creators founded a tattoo club called "Buena Vista", which was exclusively engaged in making pictures and inscriptions in the trash polka style. It happened in 1998.


Trash polka lettering

If you put the name on the shelves, then a rather strange combination comes out. If it's still clear with "realistic" - realism, then that's why trash polka remains a question.

Trash is rubbish, rubbish, something brutal and dirty. That is, in simple terms - not embellished harsh everyday life of our lives. You will not have cute teddy bears and butterflies in your stomach. Because the reality is murders, drug dealers on the streets, slums and other problems that humanity has been unsuccessfully trying to fight for hundreds of years.


Polka is a fast dance, characteristic of Europe, in which a new style was born. It is this simplicity, lightness and speed that characterize trash polka sketches.

The style began with newspaper and magazine clippings. This principle has been preserved in our time. Many pictures look like illustrations or photo collages. Therefore, inscriptions in the format of headings and slogans are often used. Many people think that trash polka tattoos are a challenge to the established tattoo culture, and perhaps to society as a whole.


Illustrations and collages of photographs with captions in the format of headlines and slogans

In many, you can order beautiful and original sketches. If you did not find a suitable option in the catalog, look at the photo on the Internet. There are many interesting examples. No, we do not advise you to copy existing works. They just help you come up with something original.

The combination of white, black and red colors has become a tradition. In fact, this is still the same "newspaper" format, excluding the use of full color. Almost always, the drawings are quite realistic, but the detail can be anything. In one part of the sketch there is a volume, in the other there is only a contour. And from art to art, these parameters can also change.


Black and red trash polka tattoo

What do trash polka tattoos mean?

Understanding the exact meaning of a trash polka tattoo can be difficult. Some drawings can carry a metaphorical meaning, others should be taken literally. Among the owners of such tattoos there are very different people.


What does the triangle with the eye mean? For many people, this symbol is closely associated with secret societies, such as the Freemasons. But he has much more ancient roots than freemasons. In particular, it can be seen in Christian temples, as well as in older images of Judaism. For believers, this is a symbolic image of the eye of God, which always sees everything. There is nothing that would pass unnoticed by him. After all, he is everything and is constantly in every point of the universe, every moment of reality, watching what is happening.


For some representatives of modern society, this is a symbol of the "Big Brother", who watches over every person, excluding any manifestation of freedom.

The next item often found in the plots is a trash polka watch. They can be mechanical switches, sand and even solar. If a skull is shown next to it, then it is something like "". That is, a reminder that we are all, unfortunately, or fortunately, mortal. Therefore, it is worth living for today, and planning often breaks down on the pitfalls of circumstances, incl. tragic. Time is the only real resource that exists in the world. Because these are the moments of our lives. They cannot be bought or sold, and the phrase "time is money" is the biggest lie ever created by humans.



Tattoo trash polka s hourglass and swallows
Trash polka tattoo with mechanical clock, skull and city with lanterns

Easiest to interpret:

  • Popular biker tattoos - wolf, bull, eagle,;
  • Marine - anchor, ship with a sail, shark;
  • Musical - treble clef, sheet music, microphone, or guitar;
  • Feather, spider on the web or;

For such images, the meaning of a trash polka tattoo is easily determined. People try to show their adherence to traditional views for their profession, or subculture of views, or to show how they stand out from the background of society.

There are also specifically male and. Given the nuances of style, it can be very difficult to distinguish between them, given that there is no glamor. Before you get a tattoo, you should find out its exact meaning.



Each trash polka tattoo can have a unique meaning, understandable only to the owner. If this is an individual task for the artist, simply describe the general meaning, message, and he interprets the information within the framework of the style and his own performance technique.


Drawing areas

Where is the best place to look like this tattoo? Traditionally, most of it is done by hand. The specific area depends on the size and shape of the sketch. Something looks better on the forearm, something on the wrist (bracelet). Separately, it is worth mentioning the trash polka sleeve.


This term refers to large tattoos, covering either the entire arm from the shoulder to the wrist, or to the forearm, elbow, etc. At the same time, the image is applied in such a way that its details are located not only on the outer, but also on the inner surface.

Large drawings look interesting, applied exclusively on the shoulder, or starting in this area, and ending depending on the features of the sketch.


If the pattern is large enough, you can make it on the side, or on the back. There are sketches that take up the entire upper body, or the chest / back and arms. Parts are used to move from the chest to the shoulder, or from the forearm over the shoulder to the collarbone area. Similar transitions are possible from the side, back, or abdomen to the leg.

Modern technologies, such as Photoshop and 3D programs, have long made it possible to try on any tattoo in advance. If you don't have the right skills, ask a professional to do it for you. And don't say it's expensive. After all, interrupting a large-scale drawing is much more expensive.

A photo

Trash polka tattoo photo, this style has been around for over 30 years, it has everything!

chest tattoo

Trash polka. You entered the tattoo parlor with the intention of stuffing something on your sleeve that will impress everyone passing by and will delight your eyes for more than one year.

But your mood is decadent and you want to be closer to Western European culture. Simple cats and dragonflies will not work today, and the masters of ink and needles offer to choose one of the currently trending styles - realistic trash polka.

Decided on the direction and you can start drawing a sketch of the tattoo.

A bit of trash polka history

In the distant 2000s, a new style in tattoo art took shape in a single concept. Two artists, photographers, musicians and designers - Simone Plough and Volko Merszek - having gathered all their experiments into one, created a new direction and called it snobbishly and nonconformistly - trash polka.

Trash - "garbage", "something terrible", "nasty", something that does not fit into the framework. The Polka is a popular folk dance in Eastern Europe, originated in Poland, fast, active, but dying out as a species.

Polka tattoo is about:

  • realism
  • beauty
  • combination of naive and protest
  • about withering and death
  • about the eternal, .. about love.

As the creators themselves say, this is a dance for two, this is what happens between art and the body.

Features of the trash polka style

Trash polka is like a collage, combining realism, hack work, typographic fonts, photographs, blots, paint streaks, pop culture symbols. But everything should be with the effect of oppression, decay, with a veil of withering and death. Drawing combines the past, present and future; invented and existing; important and meaningless.

Tattoos look monochrome. Gradients from light gray to black anthracite add volume to the images. Black is the main color for this style.

Also typical is the use of:

  • black and red;
  • black and blue;
  • black and yellow;
  • black and red and yellow.

Red, blue, yellow - set off some elements, they paint over certain places as in a children's "coloring book" or they flow from the tattoo drawing like something that is not in the frame.

The original combination of the main color and one or two additional colors is hallmark trash polka. Here you will not find the polychrome characteristic of pop art, or just black, as in ordinary contour tattoos. The completeness of the image is given by the volume and creative rethinking of everyday images, the philosophy of death and partly punk culture.

Plots for a tattoo

The polka thrash style uses different images:

  • Surreal dripping clocks, or smashed mechanical ones;
  • female, male, cartoon characters;
  • People (soldiers, babies, beautiful girls);
  • Animals (roaring lion, whining wolf, elephants or rhinos);
  • Birds, flowers, objects, symbols;
  • , or even whole sentences.

You can even beat a cute panda by giving it a little fatalism and red color on its paws. For a panda tattoo, it’s not a problem to replay and make mortal aesthetics and philosophy.

A sketch for a tattoo in the direction of polka trash is usually drawn and examined for hours. Each such image carries a huge semantic content.

Trash polka tattoo for men

Tattoo trash polka sketches on hand are selected carefully with the master in the salon. The meaning of the tattoo, the meaning of the drawings in the trash polka style, what they mean, the tattoo artist will tell you or put it in yourself.

Tattoo for girls

Tattoos are usually softer and more delicate, but not for the realistic trash polka style. There are no differences between female and male, there is only a difference between the thoughts and intellect of a person who came to the salon to get a tattoo.

Girls and women get stuffed just like men do - crude intricate skulls and techniques, sharp social expressions and texts, photos of historical battles and heartbreaking images of disasters.

Trash polka is creativity in its purest form, where there is no place for platitudes. If these are delicate flowers, then they will still be crossed out with lines and blots.

Combination with realism

Polka trash is based on realism. Polka tattoos are drawn with the rules for creating volume, perspective and correct proportions (except if the drawing itself requires otherwise).

If a raven is depicted, then it will be a canonical bird with all the resulting limbs and feathers.

If flowers, then in proportions and shape they can be compared with the same species from the herbarium. If the compass - then with the right direction.

Popular places for tattoos

Trash polka tattoos hit wherever your heart desires. Most often, tattoos are made on the arm - sleeve, wrist, on the forearm to the elbow in the décolleté, on the back, stomach, on the legs.

It happens that the place of tattooing is the thigh, or the face, the coccyx.

Also characteristic of trash polka is the drawing of an image on one part of the body with overflow or streaks on another.

In fact, localization does not matter as much as for classic tattoos.

Related videos

Trash Polka tattoos are tattoos that have their own unique explosive style. Trash Polka is considered the style of rebels, creative, thinking people, protesting the system. Trash Polka tattoos are like collages that combine realism, text, poster illustrations, abstraction with ink smudges. Often tattoos are saturated with a dark aesthetic with a predominantly black color.

Such an original performance, vivid dynamic plots and a peculiar philosophy made the Tresh Polka tattoo style popular first in Europe, and later on other continents.

Characteristics of the Trash Polka Tattoo

First, let's look at the send, which contains the name of the style.

Trash (from English Trash) - garbage, something unpleasant, dirty. Thus, the authors of the style turned to reality, the perception of the world, without embellishment and illusions. At first, looking at a tattoo, it can be uncomfortable because of the compositional workload. But the plots of the sketches make you peer, think and solve.

The characteristic features of Trash Polka include:

  • Collage drawing style.
  • The advantage of black as the main color.
  • Red, as an additional color, symbolizes blood.
  • The presence of fonts and slogans.
  • Blots, smudges, stains.
  • Poster stories.

Modern masters make some changes to the stylistic features, making them softer. For example, you can often notice that in addition to the contrasting black and red colors, other colors are added to the pattern.


Popular Plots Tattoo Trash Polka

  • - A symbol of bravery and courage
  • Raven Tattoo - Symbol of wisdom and knowledge
  • Clock Tattoo - Symbol of the passage of time, history
  • - Sacred religious symbol
  • - A symbol of principles, loyalty and courage
  • - Symbol of life and death
  • Plague Doctor Tattoo - Symbol of healing the plague, deliverance
  • Tattoo Samurai - loyalty, honor



Popular Places for Tattoo Trash Polka

  • Trash Polka Sleeve
  • Trash Polka on leg
  • Trash Polka



Tattoo Trash Polka Font

Basically, the font becomes an additional plot in Trash Polka style tattoos. But in some cases, it is the font that becomes the main dominant part of the composition. The font most often used is not calligraphic, as in many tattoos, but printed, poster. The style is also characterized by a combination of different, incompatible fonts, such as printed and handwritten.




Combination of Trash Polka and Realism

It is not uncommon to see both of these styles in the same tattoo. The Tattoo and Trash Polka styles complement each other. Realistic images help to reveal the meaning of abstractions more deeply. A bright collage plot becomes a good background for realism. This creates a memorable original tandem of styles.




Men's Trash Polka Tattoos - Trash Polka Tattoos for Men

Trash Polka tattoos for men are most often large volumetric sketches that combine the main features of the style that we talked about above. The tattoo can be placed on the arm, back or chest. Usually those elements that are made in the style of realism contain the main message of the tattoo.







Women's Trash Polka Tattoos - Trash Polka Tattoos for Girls

Girls who have chosen the Trash Polka style are unlikely to opt for a small sketch. Style implies a poster scale, immersion, special emotionality. Therefore, in Trash Polka female tattoos little different from men.








In tattooing, like any other fine art, there are many stylistic trends. Some of them have an established character, while others are only a short-term reaction to fashion. The first, in particular, can rightly be attributed to the young direction - trash polka. Its pronounced character and justification of its origin allow us to speak of a strict author's concept. Next, consider the characteristic features and symbolism of this popular trend in the world of tattoos.

History of occurrence

Unlike most other genres, thrash polka boasts true story of its occurrence. Known not only the place of its origin (Germany), but also the names of the creators. One of the authors (Wolko Mershsky) conceived a new style back in the early 70s, when he visited an American military base. He was impressed by the brutal tanks and strong soldiers. However, he took the first step towards creating his own studio (“Buena Vista Tattoo Club”) only after meeting his life mate, Simon Pluff. All this time, Volko was waiting and probing the soil (read the skin of clients) in order to loudly declare a new trend.

It is important to note that both authors have an artistic education and experience as graphic designers. Their research in the world of tattoos began with the fact that they experimented with an unusual material. Namely - paper newspapers, colorful fonts. Also, the birth of a new style was influenced by their love for black and white photography. Creating collages from newspaper clippings of pulp fiction, various color inclusions and their own drawings, the artists gradually took the right path. Their conceptual style received a charismatic name. Despite the existing eloquent translation of the word trash from English, they themselves name as a source of inspiration - love for the gypsy culture. In addition, the couple is not limited to painting, but also tries itself in musical creativity. Their band Dobbs Dead is famous for its dark country-folk sound and unique designer guitars of their own making. That is, the origins of the young style should be sought precisely in folklore.

They found the most suitable association for their tattoos in a fast folk dance - the polka. They saw in it a number of fundamental principles applicable to their own creativity. First of all, this is a pair dance, symbolizing their tandem of authors. He is also temperamental and demonstrative enough to be recognizable all over the world. Therefore, the combination of the realism of incendiary dance with their abstract ideas in the field of graphics became a fairly good reason for such a perky name. An unusual combination of words capaciously characterizes the daring spirit of the now popular trend.

Characteristic features of the style

The couple's various experiments with graphics and type design of newspaper clippings led to an amazing result. their fruit creative work became rebellious in relation to public morality, and maybe even a flashy style of self-expression. His aggressive and vulgar notes invariably elicit a reaction from the audience. Often it can be negative, but never indifferent. And this is exactly what the young emerging direction needed.

Many point to a certain decadence inherent in thrash polka. Allegedly, skulls always carry heavy energy, and newspaper rubbish as a base is initially unattractive. However, this is only a superficial look at the outward expression of style. People forget that one of the main goals of the colorful movement was to challenge the glamorous society. Shake his moral foundations, make them doubt. If you like, this is a kind of authorial irony over the bourgeois world. The casual attitude to the theme of death, the combination of lapidary newspaper inscriptions with bloody roses and parts of the skeleton - all this is intended to protest against existing hypocritical standards. For example, when the government of some developed country declares concern for people, but continues to fight for resources in distant Africa. Therefore, the sardonic laughter and malicious mockery inherent in skulls in trash polka has a completely objective basis. In a sense, these are life-affirming drawings in reverse.

The authors painted each other's bodies for a long time to find a suitable contrast. And the combination of rich shades of red with black was the answer to their silent question. At the same time, the tattooists themselves are not limited to the bloody range. You can find carbonic orange, marsh green and many others in their works. It is already popular rumor that a hard black-and-red concept has been attributed to the style. Artists, on the other hand, needed a red tone to express maximum contrast. That is, the color in this case is only a tool for the realization of the idea, and not an end in itself.

Another element of the contrasting tattoo style can be called a bunch of realism and graphics. Together with the art of lettering, such images in the end can even border on fantasy. When beauty becomes a terrifying force that gives you goosebumps. This is easy to follow on the example of the same fallen angels. The use of light images is invariably combined with the aesthetics of the repulsive. These are crosses, pistols, unacceptable by Puritan society, barbed wire and other creepy stuff. That is, everything that actually exists, but to which it is customary to turn a blind eye. It can also be characteristic images of animals designed to cause fear in the beholder: black crows, grins of pit bull terriers and other synonyms for the terrible. Overly aggressive never stops thrash polka tattooists. Moreover, they are looking for this maximum expression of thanatos to obtain catharsis. And red and black tones only enhance visual perception. Shock, frighten, suppress the will - all this is inherent in a powerful direction. The depressive coloring of most of the images is only a deceptive impression of the observer. Because the undisguised expression of the artistic message is fraught with the potential of a big bang.

Characteristics of tattoo carriers in this style

We can safely say that there are no restrictions regarding gender here. Brutal tattoos look equally good on both men and women. Unless it will be difficult to imagine them on a child, since he has yet to learn the inside of this two-faced world. Often, provocative images are applied to the front of the body: chest, forearms, arms. However, due to the versatility of the colors and images used, any area of ​​the skin can serve as a place for a tattoo. As for the size of the picture, the same principle applies here: to cause cognitive dissonance in the viewer. That is, the more - the better. Already on the basis of this alone, one can judge the courage of the carriers of tattoos in the style of trash polka. Almost always, these are strong and extraordinary people who are ready to become a distorting mirror for a blinkered society. They deny generally accepted rules, insist on the falsity of existing values, and so on. Thus, they not only frighten the people around them, but also learn their own unique essence, declare it for themselves. Despite the repulsive nature of the images used, tattoos in this style have tremendous attractive power. Thanks to the combination of contrasting colors and stylishly drawn inscriptions, the drawings look quite expensive. Therefore, the word "garbage" in the name of the style should not mislead anyone. It's just a metaphor.