100+ Best Quotes For Tattoo Artists [2024]

Updated: November 1st, 2022

100+ Best Quotes For Tattoo Artists [2024]

Quotes can be a good source of inspiration for tattoo artists. When looking to set up a new piece or thinking about an old one, it is easy to get lost in the sea of ideas that can sometimes leave you drifting and lost. Like any other creative and demanding profession, Tattoo artists also need a little motivation to produce creativity.

Tattoo quotes can inspire the artists to create new & unique designs, give a purpose or a meaning to what they are doing, or make them fall in love with their profession all over again.

This article provides you with 100+ best quotes for tattoo artists for inspiration.

Best Tattoo Quotes That Will Leave Their Permanent Mark

Tattoos tell the world we’ve still got something to say.


Bound by Blood, Marked by the Dragonfly.


I want my tattoos to be a story of my life.


They keep track of time. Sometimes things happen and you feel that you need to mark them down.


I see you in every flower in the park, every color in a rainbow, and in every scent that reminds me of the things I love. Without knowing how, or even why it happened, I can’t imagine a world where you don’t exist.


Every tattoo radiates an overall energy frequency, and its individual elements such as color, size, shape, and symbology radiate their own energies as well.


If people are honest with themselves when they choose a tattoo, the art will represent them better than anything that will ever come out of their mouth.


For me, a tattoo is an art installation that I get to wear all the time. It’s all about self-expression. You get to wear your insides on your outsides.


She spoke with all the authority vested in her by her flea-market prayer beads and her lotus-flower tramp stamp.


Painting and tattooing the body is a return to animalism.


If I decide to get a tattoo, it'll be a map of where I live on my chest in case I ever get amnesia.


When Marion had been a teenager, she wanted a tattoo. As the oldest child who did mostly what was expected of her, she had been fascinated by the abandon tattoos implied, the willing, blind leap into commitment.


Good tattoos aren’t cheap and cheap tattoos aren’t good.


I’m sorry that I don’t like your tattoos. I walked away. I walked back to him. I mean that I don’t like tattoos, not just your tattoos. I like your skin, though. I walked away.


Grandmother used to take my mother to the circus to see the fat lady and the tattooed man -- now they're everywhere.


In tattooing, the linework is arguably the most important element. Lines form the basis of our sketches and the stencils used to apply the artwork to the skin.


Tattooing is about personalizing the body, making it a true home and fit temple for the spirit that dwells inside it.


He had seen her painted sign by the road: Skin Illustration! Illustration instead of tattoo! Artistic.


A tattoo does that, it makes you think about your body like it's this special suit that you can put on or take off whenever you want and a new name if it's cool enough does the same thing.


So good it'll make your ink.


For future reference, ink discussions involve showing. Mine are in spots that require a lack of clothes.


Tattoos exude pain and pleasure all at the same time.


My tattoos have become a part of me. When I look in the mirror, I just see my face.


Tattoos are a permanent commitment of passion.


Tall enough. Toned arms with just the right amount of ink. Blond wavy hair. Oh, hell no.


A tattoo is permanent; with a marriage, you can more easily change your mind.


You could hear the voices murmuring small and muted from the crowds that inhabited his body.


Tattoos give us the inspiration to be ourselves.


My tattoos are a source of strength — they crystalize what’s important to me in life. I’m a big believer in the power of symbols and how they can hold meaning and memories.


She kissed him softly, her eyes closed as her body finally relaxed. I love you, she whispered. I'm an idiot.


I love you. I trust you and... I want to be your human canvas!


Technically, all tattoos are temporary, even permanent ones.


The tattoo attracts and also repels precisely because it is different.


Tattoos … are the stories in your heart, written on your skin.


He's lost everything once, and now, he wasn't sure if he had anything left to lose.


It’s more common for people to get fire tattoos. Symbols of passion, transformation, change. But I wanted to smoke because it’s what remains. After the fire, after everything is destroyed, you’re left with smoke and ash. You’ve gotta make something out of it.


Emojin stopped, turned, and nailed him with her glare. Because she’s making this one piece all she’ll ever need to show the world who she is instead of coloring her body with random images and needing thirty expressions to show her soul.

Tattoo Artist Quotes And Sayings

Tattoos, for me, are like a timeline of my life. I could look at a certain tattoo, and it reminds me of a certain time in my life and why I got that tattoo.


Tattoos are permanent and a lifelong commitment, the same as marriage.


The simple fact that tattoos are always obtained from heathen worldly sources proves that they are of the Devil.


Being with a tattooed girl is always like being on an adventure. Men appreciate girls who can make their lives interesting.


Any tattoo that has more than one line is too long.


The tattooed man has solidified his own skin and become that solid object; that permanent identity that all men in fear of the amorphous become.


Your body is a temple, but how long can you live in the same house before you redecorate.


Putting art on the walls of your home or body is a very important decision to make, and one not to be taken lightly. Whenever you are in the presence of a single piece of art, you are absorbing the various energies that it radiates.


To me, tattoos are a way of people being able to express themselves and have other people look at them and get a little insight into who they are, without ever even saying a word to them.


He grinned at her intently before leaning over the counter and running his thumb along her jaw. It took everything inside of her not to lean into that touch. When he lowered his head and brushed his lips over hers, she made a little sound that caused Graham to growl.


Tattoos set you apart. Besides being a colorful accessory to any ensemble, they convince your parents once and for all that you are a lost cause.


Getting a tattoo is a nice way of reclaiming your own body, to help tell yourself that you’re in charge.


We can look at our tattoos from cancer treatment as awful reminders of a ghastly time in our lives, or we can use them as reminders of what God brought us through.


My body is marked with you. My arms. My chest. My eyes. My head. My heart. Tears rolled down her cheeks. I can’t erase you. I’d have to die to be free of you. D-don’t you see that, Gris? C-can’t you see? There is only you for me.


One of the first pieces of advice I was ever given, on my first job was, you should always buy something to treat yourself to say well done for getting the job! However I’ve not followed through on that yet… I’ve always wanted a tattoo, something to mark my experience.


The man angered her, made her feel like she wasn't wanted, and yet her damned libido still wanted him.


Tattoos have power and magic all their own. They decorate the body but they also enhance the soul.


He sat her on the edge of the bed and then stood in front of her. When he stripped off his shirt, her jaw dropped.


We are all tattooed in our cradles with the beliefs of our tribe; the record may seem superficial, but it is indelible.


Some of my tattoos are a bit silly, but I know where and what time I got them.


I look at my body as an extension of the music. My body is a canvas, and with my tattoos, I want to be a direct reflection of my thoughts.


With my tattoos, I’ve got my war side on my left side, being left-handed, and a faith side on my right side, right with God.


I’m addicted to tattoos. I can’t stop; I love them.


I love you, Kell, but I had no interest in matching tattoos.


Anyone who’s had a tattoo knows once you get your first one, as you’re walking out the door, you’re planning the next.


A tattoo is an affirmation: that this body is yours to have and to enjoy while you’re here. Nobody else can control what you do with it.


Tattoos ... are the stories in your heart, written on your skin.


So many people always fear tattoos because they don’t want to limit themselves from certain jobs. I clearly never let that stop me and just got covered head to toe.


You can't be a rebel without the scars that come with it. Truth is, some days scars are just as ugly as they are beautiful.


Tattoos, after all, are a passionate, usually doomed assertion of mastery of your own destiny, or at least a defiant embrace of one that you cannot control.


I can’t make a song for a particular person or demographic. If I love it, I’m gonna do it. I have to perform it for the rest of my life. A song is like a tattoo – you can never get away from it.


I have a tattoo that I got in Memphis, and another I got in Dayton.


Tattoos are for life, not just for a season, so if you're planning on getting inked you might want to be wary of jumping on any trend bandwagons you may live to regret.


This woman could make a saint sin.


My tattoos are reminders to hang in there when things get tough.


And young Saoirse didn’t tattoo her face just for the aesthetics. There’s power in ink, cold blood. And not just the silvered kind.


A quote is just a tattoo on the tongue.


Something deep inside of me speaks with the voice of the psycho: For who could ever love a beast?


Seriously, what is it about men in jeans and bare feet which is so totally hot?


Wear your heart on your skin in this life.


I read somewhere that getting a tattoo, “is a journey, not a destination.” Maybe as we travel life’s roads, we just need to trust the journey a little bit more, even when we aren’t quite sure as to how all the pieces of the puzzle will come together.

Short Quotes About Tattoos

Tattoos are like stories – they’re symbolic of the important moments in your life. Sitting down, talking about where you got each tattoo and what it symbolizes, is really beautiful.


Tattoos are a right of passage. They're a marker of bravery, maturity, of cultural acceptance. The tattoo represents not only a willingness to accept pain - to endure it - but a need to actively embrace it. Because life is painful - beautiful but painful.


I think tattoos are a way to express yourself without words. Without having to explain yourself, people can look at your tattoos and see who you are.


If you like how people look when they’re all covered in tattoos, then you should be covered in tattoos.


Usually all my tattoos came at good times. A tattoo is something permanent when you’ve made a self-discovery or something you’ve come to a conclusion about.


Generally speaking, the color black is an energetic black hole, pulling things toward it and transforming them in adverse ways with its absorbing and deadening power.


I love math. I have little secret number tattoos everywhere. I design them.


You know you're in trouble when you shake hands and your tattoo also shakes.


Tattoos transform us from raw animals into cooked cultural beings.


Even that store with a counter-productive name that must have been created by a linguist, called Tattalso parlor in lieu of the much more conventional Tattoo.


Your art is creating your future.


If I die, that's what they'll find in me. This face is inked on the surface of every cell.


How convenient if you could see what was wrong with people right away if they wore their sicknesses and crimes on their skin like tattoos.


Maybe that's what I needed. Another tattoo. Some pain on the outside to ease the pain on the inside.


I have a tattoo on my foot that says ‘it’s a whale’ in Japanese because Japanese people kill whales. My stuffed whale was like most children’s teddy bears. I took it with me everywhere. I slept with it. I couldn’t live without my whale.


Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.


My tattoos, like most people's, were reminders, badges of personal experiences. Yes, I might wear them on my skin for the world to see, but their meaning was a little too personal.


He might kiss like a damn sex god and rev her engine like no other, but he clearly wasn't for her.


My tattoo is that I don't have a tattoo.


No matter what scars you have, Sierra, you'll always be beautiful. No amount of ink or scars will make your skin anything but perfect to me.


It's how we work," his brother said simply. I plan. Jake refines. Owen organizes. And you growl and grunt.


Maybe. Although I doubt most Shadowhunters get a tattoo of Donatello from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on their left shoulder.


It seems that many people feel that their tattoos are not merely incidental attachments to themselves unlike, for example, the way we feel about clothing or makeup but are instead a literal part of their personal selves.


If we look at our art more closely, it can be a wonderful self-actualizing tool that informs us about who we really are and where we need to grow. But when the story of our past becomes more important than creating our future, we can become lost in the art form.


The ink of a pen is simply the blood of a heart.


Tattoos fulfill a need to inscribe the self as an individual.


Great God! hast Thou hast gave men Thine own image that it should be thus cruelly defaced by the hands of their brethren!


I do have a few little tattoos, but they were mostly done to cover scars because I’m so fair.


Seeing those scars, those marks that he most definitely had never asked for, I had to wonder how he felt about being permanently marked up against his will.


Our bodies were printed as blank pages to be filled with the ink of our hearts.


Being open-minded dramatically reduces one’s chances of getting a permanent tattoo.


I often think we should have tattooed on the back of whatever hand we use to shoot or write, I might be wrong.


You don’t choose your tattoo design, your tattoo chooses you!


He whirled in the water and grinned at me. Damn, he was a handsome bastard. I realized he was half-naked. Blue swirls of tattoos painted his chest. When God made that chest, he did tempt women.


She wouldn’t want to be caught on his bad side assuming he had a good side yet the naughty bad boy vibes were like an undercurrent pulling her in.


She had a flower tattoo on her wrist; What does that mean? he asked her. Absolutely nothing, she said, it's just a flower.


I wouldn’t want a tattoo at all. They’re difficult to cover up.


I am a canvas of my experiences, my story is etched in lines and shading, and you can read it on my arms, my legs, my shoulders, and my stomach.


I like my feet. I have a tattoo on my foot with my last name.

Tattoo Quotes About Life

Claudette turned her arms upward to show us her tattooed wrists. One held the skull and crossbones of the Wilted Rose. The other resembled the flag which adorned the mast above us. A ship's wheel with two swords crossed through it.


Good tattoos aren't cheap and cheap tattoos aren't good.


Scars are the tattoos your despondence carved once.


I always look for a woman who has a tattoo. I see a woman with a tattoo, and I'm thinking, okay, here's a gal who's capable of making a decision she'll regret in the future.


Comparatively, tattooing is not the hideous custom which it is called. It is not barbarous merely because the printing is skin-deep and unalterable.


The tattoos are about my grandmother dying, and they tell the story about my mother and father, my brothers and my sister, and my kids. It’s pretty much a family tree on my arm with my life in football, too.


Austin cupped her face then sighed. I'm so glad you came into the shop that morning.


With deeper awareness, our art reveals what energies we are bringing into our lives, as well as what we need to heal.


I’ve got tattoos, I’m a subculture. Some kind of post-teen bag lady, that’s me.


We are all a little damaged, Bee. Some of us more than others.


As our body journeys through life, and life journeys on our body….life will leave marks on us too. From the creases of our wrinkles to the birthmarks on our bodies to the tattoos we decide to place.


People are proud of their tattoos. It’s like a modern coat of arms.


My body is my journal, and my tattoos are my story.


A word to the wise, a tattoo is obviously for life, so make sure you’ve triple-checked for typos and spelling errors.


Show me a man with a tattoo and I'll show you a man with an interesting past.


Do you want to stick needles in the living or scalpels in the dead?


This would go a lot easier if you'd stop screaming in pain, Zoe told the muscular man lying beneath her.


As if our lives weren't tattoos.


Getting a tattoo should hurt. It’s a rite of passage.


I want a tattoo over my heart that reads TRY HARDER YOU LAZY PARAMEDIC SHITBAG OR I WILL HAUNT YOUR BEDROOM FOREVER.


If you’re over 22, getting a tattoo and you don’t do work that involves tools you should be ashamed of yourself!


It’s okay if college isn’t your thing. I’m sure there’s a pole somewhere with your name on it, but next time you might not want to buy your tits off Craig’s List.


I'll become someone new. Through blood and pain and ink, I can be remade.


When the pieces fell around him, he'd pick them up. It was what he was good at, after all. Restoring what was once lost, what could never be perfectly whole again.


I'm never getting a tattoo. My secrets are etched safely on the inside and I intend to keep them there.


A mind wanders, thoughts flee and memories fade. But tattoos, tattoos are forever. And if it is true to say that we carry ourselves when we travel - then the body may very well be a beautiful canvas for the timeless lessons we learn and will learn when we travel.


A stained and wrinkled lab coat, no doubt, hid an even worse choice of clothing. Rolled-up sleeves displayed beefy forearms covered in tattoos. Frank grimaced at Mario’s shameless immaturity. Cartoon tats?


Just ink, he says. Just ink. Probably the most dangerous substance on this here earth. There’ve been wars started by just ink.


All the time he had been talking his hands had wandered over the Illustrations, as if to adjust their frames, to brush away dust- the motions of a connoisseur, an art patron.


Yes, I say. Three of these flying birds. I touch my collarbone, marking the path of their flight toward my heart. One for each member of the family I left behind.


I think tattoos are horrible. It's like living in a Pucci dress full-time.


Affiliating tattoos with hipsters would be giving hipsters too much credit.


I like tattoos. I’m gonna be covered. I’m not going to touch my face or under the chin on the neck: it’s my least favorite place.


I look at tattoos as a commitment to life.


If the body is a temple, then tattoos are its stained glass windows.


I don’t have any myself, Mia said, her voice slow and deliberate. But I’ve always found tattoos sexy.


The world is divided into two kinds of people: those who have tattoos, and those who are afraid of people with tattoos.


I was just a big fan of tattoos always growing up, and I wanted something cool that symbolizes what I’ve been through in my life, and everything on my chest and my back are like a collage.


My tattoo is of a cannon in Vancouver that I got in a fleeting moment of stupidity maybe 14 years ago.


My tattoo is a phoenix. I got the first when I was 16. I hid it for years.


The cafe was called Tattoos. The fella who owned it didn't have any tattoos... but we never saw his wife.


Two teenage boys have tattoos on their necks, instantly halving the alienation they’d hoped to achieve.

Funny Quotes About Tattoos

My ex-girlfriend has a tattoo of a seashell on her inner thigh. and if you hold your ear against it, you can smell the sea.


My friend decided to get a tattoo of Pi on his face. It was an irrational decision.


My son just got a tattoo of a heart, a spade, a club, and a diamond, all without my permission. I guess I'll deal with him later.


Yesterday I went to a temporary tattoo parlor to get a tattoo. After it wouldn't wash off this morning I went back to complain, but the tattoo parlor wasn't there.


What do you call a beautiful woman on the arm of a banjo player? A tattoo.


I got a prison tattoo of mitochondria Now I truly am the powerhouse of the cell


If you get a tattoo of a thermos, Is it now a thermostat?


Did you hear the one about the girl with a seashell tattoo on her inner thigh? If you put your ear up next to it, you can smell the ocean.


My girlfriend got a tattoo of a shell on her thigh Every time I lay my ear on it I can smell the sea.


I always look for a woman who has a tattoo. Because then I would know she is capable of making decisions she will regret in the future.


I got a tattoo of a gong Because I heard it's cool to get a tattoo of a Chinese cymbal


Wit is the unexpected copulation of ideas.


Silence is golden, but duct tape is silver.


I can resist everything except temptation.


I say no to alcohol, it just doesn't listen.


I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

meet the author
Pat Walls

I'm Pat Walls and I created Starter Story - a website dedicated to helping people start businesses. We interview entrepreneurs from around the world about how they started and grew their businesses.