About

Art Boy sometimes referred to as a Soft Boy is a type of person who identifies as male and exhibits a certain aesthetic typical of a young artist. The character type is associated with being emotional, quiet, attractive and wears alternative clothing. Although the term was recorded in 2017, TikTok videos popularized the term in 2019.

Origin

On April 12th, 2017 Urban Dictionary^[1] user ArtB@be defined Art Boy as " A male that's into aesthetics and art. Often an Art Boy is hot." The definition gained 8 upvotes in two years.

Spread

In 2019, TikTok users began creating videos using the hashtag #srtboy to exhibit a certain aesthetic or their own artwork. On April 25th, Vanity Fair^[2] published an article about how celebrities are "embracing the art boy" or beginning to date more artistically inclined people. On May 15th, The Art Gorgeous^[3] published an article titled, "5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Dating an Art Boy." On June 15th, Instagram user purborn^[4] uploaded an "artsy boy" starter pack complete with vans sneakers, paint brushes and a Green Day album (shown below). The image gained over 12,000 likes in three months.

On September 16th, Twitter user @bornstrangee posted a video of someone spray painting a jacket referring to them as their Art Boy (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References