Themes

Horror

Subject-matter domain covering material intended to frighten. A fetched trade source groups it as "all those subjects that have their origin in the visual imagery related to devilish creatures", naming demons, zombies, half-animal and half-human beings and skulls as the recurring western horror subjects, and notes an Asian interpretation expressed through ghosts, demonic spirits and masks. Horror is a THEME and not a style: it is carried by whatever style renders it, which is why T11.6 split the repo's fused 'horror-realism' label into a style, a theme and a mood.

Death and Mortality

Subject-matter domain in which the work's point is the fact of death rather than the fright of it - the distinction from theme_horror. Tate defines the memento mori tradition as artwork "designed to remind the viewer of their mortality and of the shortness and fragility of human life"; a fetched tattoo source tabulates the western reading of a skull tattoo as Memento Mori, with the meaning "Remember mortality, live deliberately".

Mythology and Folklore

Subject-matter domain of inherited story cycles. A fetched artist interview establishes it as working tattoo vocabulary: the artist's "inspiration comes from classical sculpture, mythology, sacred iconography, and architecture", executed in Black and Grey Realism - one theme carried by one style. FLAGGED because several of the entries Stage A doc 03 lists under Mythology name LIVING religious traditions rather than dead mythologies; see the response for which were refused and why.

Nature

Subject-matter domain drawn from the living and physical world. A professional tattoo-education source states that "Florals and nature tattoos have always been a popular subject" and that the sciences are "extremely rich with amazing imagery from things like chemistry, astronomy, biology". A broad parent, registered so its better-evidenced children have somewhere to hang.

Spiritual and Symbolic

Subject-matter domain of the sacred and the symbolically charged. A fetched trade source states that "mystical tattoos represent deities, icons and sacred images from different cultures and places" and that wearing such a symbol "means devoting yourself to a sense of protection or paying homage to such an image". FLAGGED: the same source's examples are Buddha, Kali, Ganesha, Vishnu, Indian mudras, the Fatima hand and mandalas - living religious material, not aesthetic vocabulary.

Dreams

Dream content as subject matter. Tate on Surrealism: it "balances a rational vision of life with one that asserts the power of the unconscious and dreams". This label arrives as a dangling soft reference from style_surrealist and now resolves. REGISTERED WITHOUT A PARENT ON PURPOSE - see cultural/structural note.

Altered Consciousness

Altered perceptual states as subject matter. Tate on Psychedelic art: it is "generally associated with the 1960s and work made by artists under the influence of the mind-expanding drug LSD", and "it was the hallucinatory effects of LSD" that had the decisive influence. This label arrives as a dangling soft reference from style_psychedelic and now resolves. Registered without a parent for the same structural reason as theme_dreams.

Human Experience

Subject-matter domain in which the tattoo's content is the wearer's own life. A tattoo-education source states clients get tattoos "from self-expression to keeping a loved one's memory with them forever". A maritime museum's reading of historical records: some designs are "marks of love, loss and life events", while others demonstrate "national identities, religious faith, and patriotic pride". The best-evidenced family in this batch from tattoo-domain sources.

Fictional Worlds

Subject-matter domain drawn from invented settings rather than from the world, a myth cycle or the wearer's life. Registered as the parent Stage B Phase 5 implies and doc 03 names; its evidence is indirect, resting on fetched trade sources that describe fantasy and cyberpunk tattoo work rather than on any source that names the family itself. Recorded as a structural node, weaker than its children.

Maritime

Sea and seafaring subject matter, and the oldest continuously documented theme in western tattooing. Royal Museums Greenwich: "Tattoos have adorned the highest born royals and the lowliest sailor in Europe for at least 5,000 years", and the word 'tattoo' is "derived from the Tahitian word 'tatau', meaning to mark". Specific designs record specific facts: "A full-rigged ship shows the seaman has sailed round Cape Horn", "An anchor indicates he has sailed the Atlantic Ocean", "A shellback turtle shows the sailor has crossed the Equator", and "Each swallow represents 5,000 nautical miles in a sailor's career".