Everyone Walks In Asking For Something Different
Most people walk into a tattoo shop wanting something personal, ideally a design nobody else has. But when everyone looks at the same reference photos online, certain ideas keep coming up. A tattoo that feels completely original to one person might already be on thousands of others. That doesn't make it any less meaningful, but it does mean some supposedly unique designs are surprisingly common. Here are 20 tattoos people chose to stand out, only to find plenty of others had the same idea.
1. The Lion Head
A survey of five hundred British artists found lion sketches were the single most requested design. They made up around a quarter of everything coming through the door. Nothing else came close. Roses took second at fifteen percent. The lion also sits near the bottom of what artists themselves enjoy doing.
2. A Date In Roman Numerals
Converting a date into Roman numerals makes it private, and privacy is the whole appeal. It also makes it a long black bar on your forearm that any stranger can decode on sight. It's common because the logic behind it is common. Everybody has a date worth marking. The code is not really much of a code.
3. The Mountain Range
A simple mountain outline on the inside of the forearm says something about where you would rather be, and it suits the shape of the arm perfectly. That second part explains the volume. Designs that fit a forearm get requested far more often than designs that don't, whatever they happen to mean.
4. The Butterfly
Butterflies consistently rank among the most searched tattoo designs in America, and tattoo artists report getting requests for them all the time. They also symbolize change and personal growth, making them an easy choice for anyone marking a new chapter in life. Almost anyone can find a personal meaning in a butterfly, which helps explain why so many people end up choosing one.
5. The Infinity Symbol
The infinity symbol has been a fixture of the popular lists for well over a decade, because it's two loops that work tiny and never need explaining to anybody. Those are the same two qualities that guarantee the person standing next to you in the queue has one as well. Simplicity is what wins here.
6. Fine-Line Florals
One survey had minimalist work as the most popular style by a wide margin, with florals right behind it. Put those together and you get the single-needle botanical that has been on every shop's feed for years. The style is lovely. It's also the default, and the default is the opposite of what most people were after.
7. Coordinates
Latitude and longitude for a place that matters to you is a clever idea, and clever ideas spread. The numbers look cryptic on purpose. They are also trivially searchable, which rather undercuts it. Artists see plenty of them. Most are for a hometown, or else a wedding venue. Very few are anywhere surprising.
8. The Mandala
Mandalas came third in that artist survey at around seven percent of requests, behind the lions and the roses. They fit a shoulder or a thigh and they scale to whatever space you have. The geometry also hides a shaky line better than most designs, which artists appreciate more than clients realize.
9. The Wander Line
Tolkien wrote that not all those who wander are lost. The line has sat on forearms and ribcages for most of two decades since. Inspirational quotes rank high on every list of regretted designs. The sentiment is a good one. The trouble is that everybody who finds it moving finds it moving.
10. The Snake
The snake running down a forearm pulls around ninety thousand searches a month in the United States, second only to the butterfly. Artists have been reporting a surge in them for years. It's a shape that wraps a limb beautifully, which is most of the explanation. Meaning came second with this one.
11. Moon Phases
Moons in a row across a collarbone have been standard for a while. Artists have noted a broader rise in moon and tarot and crystal imagery alongside it. The thing is a straight line of circles. It fills an awkward space neatly. Practical virtue, in this case, gets dressed up as a mystical one.
12. The Arrow
Arrows arrived with the minimalist wave and never really left. The usual explanation involves being pulled back before you go forward, which is the kind of meaning that gets attached afterwards rather than chosen first. A single line with a point on the end is also about the cheapest tattoo money can buy.
13. The Pocket Watch
Pocket watches sit in the top five of what people ask for, and they also show up among the designs artists least enjoy doing. Both of those have the same cause. A detailed watch takes hours of shading and looks impressive in a portfolio, which is what keeps it circulating. Clients ask for what they see.
14. The Dandelion Becoming Birds
Seeds blowing off a dandelion and turning into birds is a nice visual idea that somebody had once. It is now on a great many shoulders. The design survives because it reads instantly. It also photographs well. Every shop has a version of it sitting in the book already, turning a one-off idea into furniture.
15. The Lotus
The lotus arrives with a ready-made story about rising out of difficulty, a story almost anybody can apply to something. Symmetrical flowers also sit well in the middle of a back or a sternum. Easy symbolism plus easy placement is the recipe for a design turning up everywhere at once. Both halves matter equally.
16. The Geometric Animal
Rendering a wolf or a stag as flat geometric planes was a real design idea around the early 2010s and it spread quickly. The style dates itself now the way tribal does, because it belongs to one specific moment in graphic design. Plenty of people still like theirs, which is reason enough.
17. One Word On The Inner Wrist
Artists say faith, believe, and always are among the most requested words they ink. A single word in script is quick and easy to hide under a watch. It also means the thing you decided to carry around is a word thousands of other people picked for identical reasons. The watch does not help much.
18. The Elephant
Elephants turn up constantly, usually with some reference to memory or to family strength. The ears and trunk give an artist plenty of texture to work with in a small space, which is why they end up in so many portfolios and therefore in so many consultations. The loop feeds itself from both ends.
19. The Compass
Compasses can mean direction or travel or finding your way home, often all at once, so it's nearly impossible to get wrong. The same flexibility explains the sheer number of them on forearms. A rose shape also fills a circle, and circles are the easiest thing of all to place on a body.
20. Matching Tiny Tattoos
Getting something small and identical with a friend or a sibling feels like the least generic thing possible. The meaning lives entirely in the pair of you. The designs converge anyway. Shops report doing these constantly. The shortlist of options is short, because the design has to survive being very small and still read as something.
