Introducing The Dark Sea Punk Aesthetic

The subculture I subscribe to and am seeking to promote and be an advocate of through my artwork and style is the Dark Seapunk Aesthetic.

This subculture is a backlash and a sharp contrast to the Seapunk subculture that was popularized on Tumblr in 2011. Many things mark Dark Seapunk as different. "Dark" refers to not only the different more muted color scheme of darker blues, emerald and teal, as opposed to the flamboyant colorful and 19990s inspired aquatic style of Seapunk, but also the accompanying sinister, somber exotic, alien mysterious tone, embracing this other side of the ocean.

In addition to the different color scheme and tone, Dark Seapunk draws inspiration from different historical eras.

The first is a subsect of Surf and Tiki culture that emerged in the 1960s with a unique style of art and decor within known moodexotica Moodexotica features the azure Dark Seapunk palette with a tiki-infused space and atomic Mid-Century modern twist. The result is hauntingly beautiful way that is both eerie yet tranquil and pleasing to look at it. The best way to describe Moodexotica is voodoo themed Jetsons.

The other historical time Dark Seapunk finds inspiration from is even futher back, to the days of sailings ships, whaling and pirates. This can be seen largely in its trademark dapper vintage historical maritime style. Fashion staples of this subculture, aside from moodexotica colored tiki clothing also include traditional and historic sea-faring staples from Breton stripes to cable knit sweaters, smoking pipes and tattoos.

With its darker tones, fascination with creatures of the ocean's deep and anachronistic inspiration, it is no wonder that the Dark Seapunk aesthetic is intertwined with many famous Steampunk works, the most famous being Jules Verne's 2000 Leagues under the Sea. More modern works include video game Bioshock (2007) or Disney's 2001 movie Atlantis: the Lost Empire.

The musical style and ideals of Dark Seapunk can best be categorized with synthwave, vaporwave and Out Run genres. These genres best capture the anachronistic subculture, almost retrofuturistic in nature, with its blend of mystery, exotica and danger but that also is simultaneously alluring, pleasing and nostalgic.