Grime Art is a digital art style that emerged in the mid-2010s, defined by the surreal and grotesque transformation of portrait photographs through cartoonish, dripping doodles. The aesthetic involves digitally painting over images to create the appearance of melting, slimy flesh, exaggerated features, and vibrant, often sickly, color palettes. The style is a direct rejection of idealized and curated online imagery, celebrating the grotesque through a playful, psychedelic lens.

The Grime Art style was originated in 2015 by artist Richie Velasquez, known online as deladeso. The aesthetic gained significant viral exposure through its use in the music video for the song " Head Splitter " by dubstep artist Getter. The video featured faces and objects distorted with the signature cartoonish, melting effect, which captivated online audiences.

Following the video's popularity, the style proliferated across social media platforms like Instagram and Tumblr, where a community of "grime artists" began to form. The accessibility of the style, which could be replicated using mobile editing apps, contributed to its rapid spread. In 2018, the editing app PicsArt hosted a Grime Art challenge, further cementing its status as a recognizable internet-based art movement. While initially associated with the dubstep and hip-hop scenes, Grime Art evolved into a broader digital art form focused on transforming celebrity portraits, memes, and selfies into surreal, zombie-like caricatures.

he core of Grime Art is the digital modification of a pre-existing photograph, most often a portrait. Artists use digital drawing tools to paint over the subject, creating a "zombified" version that appears to be dripping or melting.

Key visual motifs include drooping, slimy drips of flesh that obscure parts of the face, often in vibrant and unnatural colors like pastel pink, acid green, or bright purple. Facial features are exaggerated in a cartoonish manner, with common additions including large, droopy eyebags, multiple sets of eyes, and wide, unsettling grins. The skin is often given textures resembling pizza, vomit, or other "gross" substances, and the eyes of the subject are frequently edited to be a solid, glowing white. The result is a grotesque but strangely compelling image that balances horror with a playful, almost psychedelic quality.