Tattoo Styles in Vancouver
Naughty Comrade is a fully custom tattoo studio on Commercial Drive, home to thirteen resident artists working across the styles Vancouver actually books. Blackwork, fine line, anime, irezumi, ornamental, realism, neo-traditional, illustrative. Every piece starts from your reference, your body and your idea, then gets routed to the artist whose hand fits it best. Browse the styles below to find your match.
Submit a Project RequestBlackwork Tattoos in Vancouver
Bold, high-contrast work in straight black ink. Blackwork carries weight on every skin tone, ages cleaner than most colour, and gives you serious presence whether you go small or full sleeve. Each of our blackwork residents pushes the style somewhere different. Stacy keeps things graphic and illustrative with clean linework. MacKenzie pulls from gothic folk art and dark fantasy. Tatum leans whimsical, drawing on folklore and medieval imagery. Matthew mixes dark ornamental with grunge. Bring a reference, a mood board or a single sentence describing what you want, and we will route the project to the resident with the right hand for it.
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Ornamental Tattoos in Vancouver
Ornamental tattoos are decorative architecture for the body. Mandala-influenced compositions, jewellery-style framing, art nouveau panels, symmetrical line work that wraps the contour rather than fighting it. They live well on collarbones, sternums, sleeves and backs where the design has room to flow. Matthew specializes in dark ornamental work with grunge blackwork shading. Hannah weaves ornamental motifs into intricate botanical black and grey. Placement and proportion matter as much as the motifs themselves, so we plan the piece around your body before any needle hits skin.
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Japanese & Irezumi-Inspired Tattoos
Centuries of imagery distilled into ink. Koi, dragons, hannya, peonies, waves and wind clouds. Strong outlines, deep colour flow. Japanese tattooing is built to scale, and our residents tattoo it across single sessions and full body work. Asher fuses classic irezumi with modern illustration and is known for large-scale custom pieces and Pokemon-inspired sleeves. Kaiden brings Japanese-influenced flow into his anime, realism and neo-traditional pieces. Sleeves, back panels and chest plates are where this style shines, but we will happily plan a smaller piece in the same visual language.
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Anime & Pop Culture Tattoos
Some of our most-requested work. Character portraits, scene panels, Pokemon, video game references and cartoon iconography, all rendered in everything from clean black and grey through saturated colour. Angel does bold, colourful anime and pop culture character pieces. Ni specializes in Pokemon, anime and cartoon work with manga-influenced black and grey. Asher is our go-to for large-scale Pokemon and creature designs. Kaiden hybridizes anime with realism and neo-traditional for high-impact character tattoos. Bring screenshots, official art or your own concept and we will work with you on composition, sizing and how the piece will read at tattoo scale.
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Fine-Line & Botanical Tattoos
Delicate line work, natural motifs, intimate scale. Florals, foliage, plants, insects, small symbolic detail, all rendered with a light touch that sits close to the eye. Ribs, collarbones, forearms and ankles are classic placements, but it works almost anywhere. Ari creates whimsical fine-line floral compositions with playful characters and soft colour accents. Hannah works in intricate botanical black and grey with ornamental patterning woven through. Fine line rewards careful planning around skin type and placement so the piece ages clean, and your artist will tell you honestly what will hold and what will not.
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Realism & Black-and-Grey Tattoos
Photographic detail rendered in skin. Portraits, wildlife, everyday objects, symbolic imagery, all built on precise linework and layered shading that creates real depth. Realism is unforgiving and our residents earn the work. Kobe specializes in detailed realistic tattoos across wildlife, pop culture and everyday objects with rich shading. Meals brings soft, emotive realism rooted in symbolism, with natural elements and meaningful icons in fine detail. Kaiden blends realism with neo-traditional and anime for hybrid character pieces. Realism rewards size, so your artist will quote scale honestly. Small portraits hold less detail than people expect, and we would rather build something that still reads clean in ten years.
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Neo-Traditional Tattoos
Built on the bones of classic American traditional, then opened up. Wider palette, more dimensional shading, motifs that range from florals and animals through pop iconography. Bold lines, saturated colour, designs that hold up beautifully across decades. Sam works in neo-traditional with stylized nature, graphic line work, Indigenous and pop culture influences. Kaiden draws on neo-traditional foundations in his anime and realism hybrid work. The bold construction is part of what makes these tattoos stand the test of time.
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Illustrative & Folklore Tattoos
Storybook art rendered on skin. Surreal characters, mythic creatures, folklore figures, medieval imagery, whimsical scenes built on strong drawing fundamentals. If you have a concept that is hard to capture in a single reference photo, illustrative is usually where it lives. Tatum specializes in bold illustrative blackwork drawn from folklore, surreal characters and medieval imagery. MacKenzie creates nature-forward gothic folk-art with otherworldly creatures and intricate line work. Meals brings an illustrative black and grey approach rooted in symbolism. Bring us a story, a feeling or a half-formed image, and your artist will help you build it from scratch.
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Don't See Your Style?
We tattoo more than this page covers. Script, lettering, fine-line abstract, cover-ups, freehand, micro-realism, watercolour, traditional flash. Send us your reference or describe what you are thinking, and we will match you with the resident whose work fits your vision. For longer projects, browse all our residents; for same-day work, our walk-in guide covers everything you need to know.
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