Lettering tattoo ideas

3,720 photos and flash · 59% Lettering, 22% Traditional · Forearm most common

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Hand-drawn tattoo design of a compass with pink flowers, leaves and a scroll banner reading Take Me Home, shaded in grey with coloured pencil accents.
Compass and flowers with Take Me Home banner
Traditional style tattoo on an upper arm showing a dark-haired woman in a blue headscarf wearing red boxing gloves, with the words PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE TO THE STRUGGLE in black lettering.
Boxer pin-up with slogan on upper arm
Black fine line tattoo of a cross, a heartbeat line ending in a heart and the words Faith, Hope, Love across the upper back.
Cross, heartbeat and heart on upper back
Pink Mew Pokémon tattoo with blue eyes and black outline on the ribs, beside a black and grey block letter.
Mew tattoo on the ribs
Black and grey lettering design of a globe wrapped in botanical sprigs, with the words Be the change you wish to see in the world.
Globe with lettering and botanical sprigs
Traditional-style flash design of red and yellow roses and rope framing a lettered sign on a aged yellow background, with no body part shown.
Roses and rope sign flash design
Two matching pink flamingo tattoos on the tops of bare feet, each with a grey banner, reading CREATE on the left foot and OR DIE on the right, in a bold neo-trad style.
Matching flamingo tattoos on both feet
Black line tattoo of a hanging sign reading Gone to Market on the top of a foot, near the toes, in fine line style.
Hanging sign reading Gone to Market on a foot
Fingers on a hand with black lettering reading 'me about my tattoo' in script, plus a small teal diamond tattoo, with white and glitter nail polish.
Finger script phrase and diamond on hand
Black and white line drawing of a botanical design with a dahlia-like flower and a fern stem, labelled Leo with a short line of text beneath, shown as a flash design with no body placement.
Leo botanical flash with dahlia and fern
Black ink tattoo of the word Ohana in script with a hibiscus flower and swirling linework on a forearm, set against a mandala patterned background.
Ohana script and hibiscus on a forearm
Pencil drawing of an ornate compass rose with a lace-edged border and mandala-style petals, shown as a tattoo design with no body placement visible.
Ornate compass rose design
Black ink compass rose with N, E, S and W points above the words Explore, Dream and Discover in script on a forearm.
Compass rose and lettering on a forearm
Black and grey botanical tattoos with an arrow and script lettering on a woman's upper arm and forearm, in a photo where she wears a white dreamcatcher-print t-shirt.
Floral and leaf tattoos on upper arm and forearm
Black and grey realism tattoo of praying hands wrapped in a rosary in front of a cross, with banners reading Only God Can Judge Me, on the back.
Praying hands, rosary and banner tattoo
Collage of four fine line infinity symbol tattoos with script wording, shown on a wrist, a finger and the upper back.
Infinity symbol tattoos in a four-photo collage
Black ink line drawing of a circular floral wreath with mandala-style patterns and the words BE FREE in the centre, shown on white paper with no body placement.
Be free floral wreath design
Traditional style flash design of an hourglass with an eye at its centre, two red and orange roses, and banners reading Time is Slipping.
Hourglass, eye and roses flash design
Two tattooed hands crossed over a denim jacket, one showing a black and grey wolf head and the other a colour tiger head, both in traditional style on the backs of the hands.
Wolf and tiger hand tattoos
Colour tattoo of a sailing ship on rough blue waves beneath a full moon and purple clouds, with script lettering above, on the outer thigh.
Sailing ship and full moon on a thigh
Black traditional-style swallow flying on a plain light background, with the words NOT ONE WILL FALL in capitals beneath it.
Swallow in flight with lettering
Fine line black tattoo of a heart with the word WILD inside it, placed on the upper chest near the shoulder.
Small wild heart tattoo near the collarbone
Black and grey dotwork portrait of a man in a collared shirt, with the word SOMETIMES above, on the thigh.
Black and grey portrait of a man on a thigh
Traditional colour tattoo of a purple yarn ball with a knitting needle, green leaves and a red and white banner reading KNIT UNTIL DEATH, on a limb.
Knit until death banner over yarn ball
Traditional style tattoo design of an anatomical heart pierced by a blue and gold arrow, with a red and yellow rose and a banner reading El Corazon, shown as a cross-stitch style drawing.
Anatomical heart with arrow and banner
Black fine line lettering spelling LOVE on a forearm, with the O replaced by a smiley face with X eyes and a small star cluster beside it.
LOVE lettering with a smiley face as the O
Fine line flash design of the words Do small things with great love, with a stylised flower and leaves at each side.
Quote with flowers and leaves design
Fine line black tattoo on a person's upper back reading PURSUIT OF, followed by a chemical structure drawing of a molecule.
Pursuit of text with molecule on upper back
Two side-by-side photos of small black lettering tattoos on the wrist: a flower wreath reading Be Kind to yourself, and a plaster design reading I will feel better.
Wrist tattoos reading Be Kind and I will feel better
Black line tattoo of a hanging sign reading Gone to Market, sitting on the top of a foot in a hand-drawn lettering style.
Gone to Market sign on top of foot
Two forearms with white and metallic temporary tattoos reading Bride and Team Bride, with dotted outlines and hearts.
Bride and Team Bride temporary wrist designs
Black ink drawing of the words Let me be brave in script lettering, with a bird in flight dissolving into stippled dots at the end of the phrase.
Let me be brave lettering with a bird
Black flowing script lettering reading 'to live to learn to love' in calligraphic style on a plain white background, shown as a tattoo design.
Script quote reading to live to learn to love
Close photograph of a black Hebrew lettering tattoo on the inner wrist, in a blocky lettering style.
Hebrew lettering on the inner wrist
Black and grey tattoo of a raised finger in front of lips beside ornate blackletter lettering with flourishes, on a limb.
Lips and raised finger with blackletter lettering
Black and grey traditional owl tattoo on a forearm, with talons gripping a scroll banner that reads Proverbs 3v.
Owl with Proverbs banner on a forearm
Black ink lettering design reading Not all who wander are lost in flourished script, beside a black and grey compass rose, drawn on pale paper.
Not all who wander are lost with compass rose
Green line drawing on black of a Cthulhu octopus head with tentacles wrapped in chains, under blackletter lettering reading Cthulhu, shown as a tattoo design with no body placement.
Cthulhu octopus with chains design
Colour tattoo of a grey and teal ribbon forming a heart, with a small red heart and script initials, on the upper chest.
Ribbon heart with script initials on chest
Flash sheet of hand-lettered phrases in black ink on white paper, with two pale blue panels patterned with small stars, shown as lettering designs rather than on skin.
Hand-lettered phrase sheet with star panels
Two bare feet showing black script lettering reading Heels on the left heel and Down on the right heel, in a Lettering style.
Heels and Down script tattoos on the heels
Black and white photo of a fish skeleton tattoo on one calf and a stippled trout with lettering above it on the other, both worn with black leather shoes.
Fish skeleton and trout on calves
Flash sheet of six black lettering designs reading the rest is still unwritten, each in a different script or ornamental lettering style, intended as tattoo lettering.
The rest is still unwritten lettering options
Black ink script lettering spelling the word Fearless with looping flourishes, drawn as a tattoo design on a plain grey background.
Fearless script lettering design
Black lettering tattoos, including KEEP GRL PWR, on a forearm beside a red floral tattoo on an upper arm, with a mandala owl printed on a white T-shirt.
Lettering tattoos with an owl print tee
Black script lettering on a white background reading I'm not making any resolutions this year, nobody likes a sober skinny bitch anyway, shown as a design with no body placement.
Script quote about New Year resolutions
Fine line script tattoo reading "Let it Be" in black ink on the inner forearm near the wrist, with stacked beaded bracelets below it.
"Let it Be" script on a wrist
Black and grey lettering reading DON'T LAUGH with a small downward arrow, tattooed on the lower abdomen above a black waistband, with larger black and grey tattoos higher up the torso.
Small Don't Laugh lettering on the lower belly