You want to get a tattoo, but you’re not very creative and you want to get something unique. This isn’t the first occurrence of its kind, nor is it the latest. We polled one hundred professional tattoo artists for their top tips on how to come up with a tattoo concept you’ll love forever.
Discover the best tattoo ideas with this easy-to-follow tutorial. Transform the tattoo into something meaningful. And to help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of the seven most popular tattoo designs.
8 Steps to Coming Up with Original Tattoo Ideas
The process of coming up with your own tattoo ideas might be time-consuming, but the end result is a unique and expressive method to show the world your unique personality and passions. To help you decide what kind of tattoo best suits you and your personality, we’ve laid out a detailed tutorial.
Step 1: Determine Your Motivations for Getting Tattoos.
Nothing beats the feeling of accomplishing a goal you set for yourself. To that end, we think it’s important to first consider why you want a tattoo in the first place. All of these explanations hold water, and they might serve as springboards for your own creative processes. According to Emi, a well-known tattoo artist from Miami, “Don’t rush, tattoos are a personal thing, and if you’re not sure that you’re 100% happy with how the preliminary sketches look, think about your purpose again.”
Perhaps there is a time in your life that you would want to remember forever, like your child’s or a loved one’s engagement or birthday. You could wish to remember a particular individual or an emblem of some significance forever. Regardless of your motivation, a tattoo is a great way to show the world how you feel.
Step 2: Figure out where on your body you want the tattoo.
Charly Reynoso, a tattoo artist at Black Diamond Tattoo, says that deciding where you want the tattoo to go is the second stage in the design process. Charly advises, “If you’re having second thoughts about where to get a tattoo, consider the size and shape, both of which impact the tattoo’s long-term aesthetic appeal.”
The first steps of the procedure depend heavily on the placement of your ink. Other regions of the body hurt more, others absorb ink differently, and some are harder to hide at the office. The tummy, forearms, and outer thighs are the least painful places to get a tattoo, if you’re curious about that kind of thing. The back, the ribs, the fingers, and the legs hurt the most.
It’s possible that deciding where to have the tattoo may help you figure out what size it should be. Your tattoo artist should be included in this decision-making process, providing input on where to have the tattoo, how big it should be, and what the final result will look like.
Step 3: Compile a Favorites List
We all have that one remark, phrase, or song lyric that means something special to us personally. You should compile a collection of the pictures, mottos, sayings, and song lyrics that mean the most to you. Think hard about what you want your ideal tattoo to be as you go through this procedure
Step 4: Peruse Original Tattoo Sample Books
The next stage in finding ideas for a new tattoo is to peruse the tattooist’s previous works. A tattoo artist’s portfolio may reveal a lot about their skills and interests. For instance, if an artist often depicts geometric shapes or floral motifs, chances are they like making such kinds of works. You may see the works of all of the tattoo artists featured on our site. In this way, you’ll be able to discover a tattoo artist whose aesthetic aligns with your own and add acceptable elements to your design.
Step 5: Pick a Design Template
Tattoos are like paintings that stay on your skin forever. When you’re trying to think of a unique design for a tattoo, the tattoo style you choose is crucial. There’s a wide variety of looks available. Below are some of the more well-known examples. Explore several options to find the one that suits you best.
To paraphrase Fernando Gonzales: “Before you go to the tattoo artist, you need to settle on a style. If you’re having trouble settling on a single tattoo style, mixing and matching components is one option.
Step 6: Be patient and find inspiration

Good for you; however, your taste has not translated into a really original tattoo concept. Taking in a wide variety of visual media and beginning a collection of what strikes your fancy is a terrific place to start. You may pin your favorites to a special board!
You may also maintain a notepad where you record your own ideas, drawing inspiration from various images and incorporating whatever catches your eye into your tattoo design. Art, nature, patterns, tales, cartoons, or anything else that strikes your fancy may serve as a source of tattoo ideas.
Step 7: Give It Some Personality
Incorporating your emotions into the original tattoo concept is a great method to convey meaning without using words. Another Miami artist, Eigleer Nunes, thinks tattoos show the world that we still have something to say.
Having a tattoo that means something to you enhances the likelihood that you will love it forever. Your tattoos tell people who you are without you having to say a word. Including elements of who you are will make for a really one-of-a-kind tattoo.
It’s important to keep in mind that tattoos are permanent body modifications. However, you shouldn’t strive to please other people with your tattoo; it should be something you came up with on your own, and it should represent something to you in particular.
Step 8: Consolidate Your Work
Congratulations! This is the last step in the process of creating a unique design for a tattoo. Before settling on a piece of tattoo art, you should now review the preceding ones.