The professional world of tattooing is always trying to put each artist in a box. And of course, the video game world does that too.
For every traditional-style tattoo, there is a pixel-art video game.
As a tattoo artist, the closest box I can be put in is probably “ignorant style,” and so I think it’s only fitting that I’d call the style of the game ignorant as well.
What I like the most about art is the sense of style. I don’t really care about technique as much as I care about the recognizability of the artist.
I’ve always loved the moment when I can tell who the artist is through their work. I think that’s what impresses me the most in many different mediums.
Chrono Trigger’s character artist is obviously the same guy who does Dragon Ball - nobody needed to tell me that. Across different forms of media even - you just know it’s Akira Toriyama.
So instead of technique, what I strive for as an artist is that; recognizability.
It’s not really for acclaim or anything like that, but I think it’s just a fun goal.
So while “ignorant style” is kind of a jab by the old-school studio / trad-dad tattoo artists, I kind of like the ignorance of not caring about technique - because as they say, ignorance is bliss.
I used to strive for technique when growing up and drawing, but perfection is a stressful thing to reach for. And I don’t think art should be stressful.
When I really looked at whether I value technique like that as an adult - when it comes to the video game world, AAA hyper-realistic games don’t excite me anymore. It's that je ne sais quoi.
I’ve seen real life, show me something else now.