Iconic Indie Rock Tattoos – Tattoo Ideas, Artists and Models +2023

What is indie rock? It started out referring to music released by independent labels, free from the rule of corporate titans like Capitol, Columbia and Atlantic. Refusing to let low budgets stop them from recording their sound and distributing it to the masses (either entirely homemade or with the help of a smaller, independent label), the genre’s earliest champions refused to eventually gain widespread appeal themselves and to prove the commercial feasibility of self-produced music.

While it’s hard to pin down the sound of indie music, it can be characterized by a DIY lo-fi aesthetic that embraces more creative experimentation outside of cookie-cutter mold, coupled with an ethos of authentic, off-the-beaten-track depictions of life everyone’s perspective and lyrical content that may not appeal to a wide audience. Inevitably, over time, many indie bands have released music under major labels—think Sonic Youth, REM, and Modest Mouse—but are still classified as indie because they retained their early sound and independent stance.