Flash (tattoo)

[1]: 111  Pieces of flash are traditionally drawn or printed on paper, and displayed for walk-in customers in binders or on the walls of tattoo shops.

[2] Tattoo artists working at those carnivals would hang up their designs in front of their booths to catch people's attention, so they adopted "flash" as a term for this artwork.

[3] Traveling tattoo artists developed sketchbooks of designs that were easy to transport and show to potential customers.

[6] These "flash" designs were on larger sheets of paper than sketchbook pages, intended to be framed and hung on walls.

[4] This process of selling and buying attractive sets of designs helped shape American traditional tattooing into a more consistent genre.