Biomechanical tattoos are one of the hottest contemporary tattoo art movements. As the name implies, the biomechanical tattoos incorporate organic and mechanical elements and blend them into a living being and a machine.

The way biomechanical tattoos change the musculature, the human form, is very intriguing. It’s almost like every tattoo design is creating another world. The science behind it is about being dark and creepy but warm and inviting at the same time.

The free-flowing forms of biomechanical tattoos either grow or come together in a mechanical, organic way. The long sweeping organic repeating patterns are appealing to many.

A biomechanical tattoo can look like it’s sitting on a person’s shoulder one minute, and the next minute it might just get up and come towards you or attack you.

What is Biomechanics?

The term Biomechanical came from Biomechanics. The science of the movement of the living body is called Biomechanics. If we break it down, Bio is the body, biology, life, and Mechanics is machine, movements, etc.

Biomechanical VS Mechanical Tattoos

When it comes to biomechanical tattoos, many often confuse them with mechanical tattoos. Biomechanical tattoo designs incorporate muscles and the skeleton of living organisms such as humans, animals, or aliens, while mechanical tattoos focus on material objects such as mechanical parts. Steampunk tattoos are very close to mechanical tattoos.

History

The biomechanical art form originated in the 1970s and has been closely associated with Ridley Scott’s 1979 film Alien.

The Swiss artist H.R. Giger is the originator of the biomechanical art movement. He is also a painter, dark surrealist, best know for his artwork and conceptual designs for the movie Alien.

Biomechanical art became popular due to the movie’s widespread success. The first biomechanical tattoos were inspired by Giger’s artworks published in his Necronomicon series of books. With the increasing popularity of biomechanical tattoos, tattoo artists began to create their own designs.

Boris Vallejo and Frank Frazetta are two other legends in this field of artwork.

Designing A Biomechanical Tattoo

You can create a Biomechanical tattoo using any object with a mechanical artificial industrial feel and marrying it to the organics. Each biomechanical tattoo may be different even it uses the same organic and mechanical elements. The aim is to make the tattoo look that it is revealing the mechanical parts beneath the skin.

Imagine a machine built and made out of muscle tissues, human ESC (Embryonic stem cell) in a way but not human ESC at all at the same time.

A biomechanical tattoo has to have some form of Sci-fi, a robotic element, and an alien creature. It has to be transformational with good rendering and creates the illusion of forms that are or are not there.

Coloring

Many biomechanical tattoos use a lot of greens. You can also use lots of reds, burgundy, muted grays, and purples.

You want the body to complement the design and your design to compliment the body.

If you want to make your biomechanical tattoo unique, use a less common pallet. You can use a lot of cool grays and muted colors in general with bright colors for accent.

Biomechanical Tattoo Ideas

It’s good to know a bit of anatomy to create forms that work well with the body. Most Biomechanical tattoos are large in size because you need a lot of flow for them to work.

Biomechanical Tattoos Arm

Biomechanical Tattoos Forearm

Black and Grey Biomechanical Tattoos

Biomechanical Sleeve Tattoos

Biomechanical Leg Tattoos

Colorful Biomechanical Tattoos

Biomechanical Tattoos Back

Biomechanical Neck Tattoos

Mechanical Tattoos

I have added some mechanical tattoos below to show you the difference. You can see that these mechanical tattoos incorporate industrial machinery such as pistons, cogs, hydraulics instead of muscles. These tattoos make you look more like a cyborg than an alien.

Conclusion

Biomechanical tattoos tend to be non-subjective. There is no real subject matter. In its way, it’s almost like a safe tattoo. You’re not making a statement of any kind. There are no political or religious statements. There’s nothing really that you’re saying other than check out my cool tattoo.

A biomechanical tattoo is not something that you can put on like a decal. It will need to fit the body. Building three-dimensional art on a three-dimensional surface (human body) has got to be the most difficult challenge for any artist. So choose your artist carefully.