25 inspiring tattoo art designs

Inspired by posts such as our tattoo fonts piece? Thinking of getting ink? It can be a tough decision on what to get tattooed on your body parts. Especially as a creative – you want something cool that reflects your personality and (perhaps) taste in digital design and artwork.

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So, whether you're after a tattoo design in the style of your favourite artist, or want to peruse the latest styles and trends, check out these 25 examples of fantastic tattoo art design – and discover the creatives who are pushing the artform ever further…

• Check out all our tattoo articles here

01. Amanda Wachob

Originally a painter, Amanda Wachob has developed a beautifully unique style of tattoo art. Influenced by the work of Hans Hofmann, she allows the organic forms of the body to influence these abstract shapes. Today Wachob works at one of New York’s leading parlors Daredevil Tattoo in Manhattan's Lower East Side.

02. Grime

One of the greats in the tattoo industry, Grime has been around for more than 20 years. Having started out by painting skateboards, he's very opinionated on the subject of tattoo art, and his masterpieces of body art have set new standards in colour and perception. Here’s a great documentary about Grime’s life and work.

03. Bill Baker

Bill Baker has been tattooing for over 30 years and is the co-owner of Pearl Harbor Gift Shop in Toronto. Over his career Baker has produced beautiful large-scale tattoos, making them work in his own innovative manner. Above is a truly stunning piece, influenced by Japanese tattoo art, of a koi surrounded by waves and flowers. For Baker, tattooing is a craft rooted in tradition.

04. Matt Houston

Matt Houston is a tattoo artist originating from London currently working at Gastown Tattoo Parlor in Vancouver, Canada. His work reflects the traditional style whilst integrating his own influences. One of our favourite pieces is shown above - a wolf wearing a feathered headdress whilst spitting blood. Matt Houston is constantly pumping out decent work, so don’t be shy to check out his blog.

05. Jean Le Roux

Jean Le Roux has an original illustration style that's generally focussed on animals and portraits, exaggerating the expressions of his subjects in a captivating manner. Jean Le Roux graduated as a graphic designer and followed his passion into illustration, which led to an apprenticeship at Black Garden Tattoo. Jean is constantly posting illustrations on his blog so give it a gander.

06. Ollie Munden

Ollie Munden, or MEGAMUNDEN as he's known to many, is a prolific illustrator and artist and his tattoo art designs have graced the body parts of such designers as Aardman's (and CreativeBloq regular) Gavin Strange. Check out this cool skull design, entitled Sugar Skull, commissioned by Luke Olney and inked by Into You Tattoo.

07. David Hale

David Hale is an artist living in Athens, Georgia, where he runs LoveHawk Studios. This is just one of his incredible tattoo art designs and its symmetry and almost geometric feel makes it classy for such a large piece. This particular piece is also slightly reminiscent of the work of the brilliant Aske of Sicksystems but in all, Hale is a remarkably original artist.

Watch this!

08. Jason Donahue

Artist Jason Donahue works at the Idle Hand tattoo studio in the Lower Haight district of San Francisco. His work has shades of Tamara de Lempicka, often with Native American themes. His minimal use of colour is both subtle and striking, and his style looks great on both smaller hand pieces and larger coverings.

09. Fat Punk Studio

Fat Punk Studio is a Somerset-based design studio specialising in T-shirts, prints, giant wall murals and, of course, killer tattoo art designs. The finished design will run down the client's right arm and, according to the studio, contains loads of personal elements such as roses with Marshall Speaker cones at their centres. "Get ya tattoo guns out people and stay tuned for more updates as the inking gets underway," it says on the studio blog. We can't wait.

10. Jon Burgerman

How ace is this tattoo art design from everyone's favourite doodler Jon Burgerman? It goes to show that tattoos don't have to be dark in their themes to look stylish. Burgerman has designed many more pieces of cool body art, all in his unique character art style. To see more of his work check out these Jon Burgerman tattoo art designs.

11. Loic Zimmermann

When fantasy and concept artist Loic Zimmermann wanted to see how one of his tattoo art designs would look on his body, he recreated himself as a digital double using Maya, ZBrush, Photoshop CS6 and Mental Ray to design and pre-vis a tattoo that was then unwrapped, printed on a carbon paper, and then applied to his real skin with accuracy before the inking could start. And here's the final design: it's bloody brilliant.

12. David Corden

When it comes to detail (and to be honest, creepiness) there's no one better than UK artist David Corden. His gothic pinups are inspired designs that are visual masterpieces in their own right: this amount of detail has to be applauded.

13. 3KTA

The work of Swedish graphic designer and illustrator 3KTA (a.k.a. EKTA) is simple, stylish and sometimes fun, and clients include The New York Times, Ogilvy & Mather and Mattel. EKTA has also put on many solo and group exhibitions. This single colour tattoo is an interesting piece of isometric design from the artist.

14. Anthony Romero

This style of tattoo is bang on trend at the moment. And although we're not sure the subject will appeal to everyone, US hipsters are embracing this bold, kitsch (and traditional American) style in their thousands. Whom do you ask for a 'cat in a hat, with pearls arounds its neck, inside an ornate frame'? You ask Anthony Romero of course.

15. Ondřej Konupčík

Who says ink has to be well-defined and crisp? Well not Czech tattoo artist Ondřej Konupčík, that's for sure. This artist's style is unlike anything we've seen, feeling like subtle watercolour pieces. This hummingbird tattoo is particularly beautiful, being defined near the wrist, bleeding up to subtle pastels near the bicep.

16. Myke Chambers

If you'll excuse the pants, check out this intricate (and suitably large) traditional American tattoo design by Myke Chambers. Coverage is very high but the colour work is stunning – as is the detail in the various animal and human portraits that run through the design.

17. Emily Rose Murray

Australian tattoo artist Emily Rose Murray blends a strong comic art-influenced style with some amazing colour and shading work. We particularly love this design, which is just at the sketch stage  – but you can get a full flavour of the Melbourne-based artist's work at her Instagram and Facebook pages.

18. Adriaan Machete

Not only is this artist a sublime master of his craft, he also has a very cool name. Adriaan Machete is the kind of name you expect from a tattoo artist. Check out this awesome, if gruesome, leg design: vibrant turquoise against pink with clever line work make the characters pop.

19. Peter Aurisch

This design from Peter Aurisch is a great example of the artist's almost sketched, geometric style. We particularly love his approach to shading. He works out of Signs and Wonders studio in Berlin where he designs other amazing ink.

20. Seth Wood

Seth Wood is just one of the nine incredible artists working out of Brooklyn's renowned Saved Tattoo. This design is one of Wood's most recent pieces, garnering comments on Instagram such as 'Insane! Nice colors!!!' and '#radass'.

21. Peter Lagergren

We love this design purely because it's so freakin' bizarre. Brilliantly executed, but bizarre. We can only imagine it's from the mind of Swedish tattoo artist Peter Lagergren or one of his clients. Our Google search for 'Monkey and walrus in hot air balloon' didn't shed any further light on the subject. Still, some amazing line-work and subtle shading.

22. Alejandro Paul

Renowned type designer Alejandro Paul of Sudtipos designed this typeface, called Piel Script, especially for tattoo artists and those wanting a cool script font emblazoned on their body parts. Simply buy the font from Veer or the studio's own site: type your letters and take to your tattoo artist of choice.

You can see more of Alejandro's tattoo art designs on the MyFonts website.

23. Ed Perdomo

Ed Perdomo is a tattoo artist from Columbia who now resides in Goteborg, Sweden. This Victorian jackalope design (have you seen Pixar's Boundin'?) is a great example of his unique style: "I only do custom, love colours and big spaces… my work is optimistic and a bit crazy," he says.

24. Tim Senecal

An unusual, yet stunning design from Tim Senecal. What we love about this is it screams tradition (and has a very Asian feel to it) whilst at the same time having a very distinct and unusual colour palette. Senecal works out of Off the Map Tattoo in Easthampton, MA.

25. Jessica Hische

We're cheating a bit, as this isn't a permanent tattoo. But it's a superb flourishing geeky illustrated design, and by wearing it you can tell everyone you are into typography. It's designed by Jessica Hische, and is quite similar to the letterer's own tattoo that adorns her left bicep. Tattly has a load of designer-themed temporary tattoos: you can even wear a fake Pantone swatch called Tattone 5K1 N. If only they did a Pantone 285 for when you're feeling blue.

• Written by Rob Carney and Aaron Kitney

Aaron Kitney is a freelance graphic designer and art director based in London and Vancouver.  He specialises in branding, identity, web design, publication design, album covers, packaging and book design.

Have you seen any awesome tattoo designs? Let us know in the comments box below!