Tattoos for Men: +85 Designs You'll Want to Get

In recent posts, we’ve talked about tattoo ideas for women. Today, it’s the men’s turn.

When looking for cool or meaningful tattoos for men, the options are almost endless; it can be a bit overwhelming if you have no idea where to start.

Although most men often have an idea about the design, it’s very common to find customers that get confused when it comes to placement or tattoo styles, for example.

To help those of you that want to get a tattoo but struggle coming up with the perfect one, we’ll make a list with the most popular tattoos for men. Then, we’ll show how you can use social media to get inspiration and hopefully make the decision-making process of getting a tattoo easier for you.

We hope this collection of tattoos for men will help you find inspiration for your next project!

What is the Best Tattoo for a Man?

 

As we’ve mentioned in other posts, defining what makes a good tattoo for a man -or a girl- is almost impossible.

Getting a tattoo is a very personal choice, therefore it’s basically pointless to attempt to determine attributes that make a tattoo perfect depending on gender.

However, we get that question from time to time, so we’ll mention a few traits that -in our experience- men generally tend to prefer when it comes to tattoos:

– Size

Generally speaking, men tend to go for larger tattoos than women. Of course, this doesn’t mean that men don’t like small tattoos, but in general they tend to get designs that are bigger in size, like full back pieces or full tattoo sleeves.

– Tattoo style

As we’ve mentioned already, certain styles are more or less popular among women and men -fine line for girls, for example-. 
Among men, some of the most popular tattoo styles are traditional/old school, black and grey, blackwork & Japanese.

Should we assume that a fine line tattoo is a woman’s tattoo? Not at all. As said at the beginning of the post, a tattoo is something unique to you. Therefore, you should decide how you want it to be.

– Placement

Traditionally – or at least in our experience- men have a tendency to get tattoos on the upper body, especially on the arms. Again, there are plenty of men that get their legs tattooed, which is in fact increasing in popularity the last years. 

The main point here is to remember that of course it’s a good idea to check out other people’s tattoos to get inspired, but ultimately, it’s your body and you decide what type of tattoo you get, regardless of gender connotations.

How Do I Come Up with Tattoo Ideas?

 

As we know, there are many popular tattoos for men to choose from. Although it’s good to have many options, it can make things complicated, too. To make it easier for you, we’ve made a list with steps to follow that we hope can help you in the process of getting a tattoo:

1. Find inspiration in social media.

This one might sound obvious, but it really helps if you visualize different designs and styles to get an overview of the options there are – especially if you don’t have much experience. The best platforms to find tattoo ideas for men are probably Pinterest and Instagram, as they are based on pictures exclusively.

 

2. Pick a style.

Let’s say that you end up liking 10 different tattoos, and 8 of them are old school tattoos. If that’s the case, we’d recommend you stick to old school tattoos, as it seems that it’s what you are attracted to.

 

3. Motif and placement.

Once you have the style decided – old school in this case-, go back to step 1, and focus now on the specific design and the placement.

Read also: Where Does It Hurt Most to Get a Tattoo?

 

4. Talk to the tattoo artist / studio

Ideally, at this stage you have 1-3 designs you like. Now, we’d recommend you contact the tattoo artist or the studio, and they can help you making the final decision so you can have that unique piece of art in your skin.

Do you need help with your next tattoo? Feel free to contact us, and we’ll get back to you shortly 🙂

Tattoos for Men: +85 Ideas for Your Next Tattoo

Now that we’ve talked about ways of finding inspiration when looking for tattoo designs for men, we’ll show you a collection of the most popular tattoos for men in our shops.

We hope this list can help you get the inspiration for your next tattoo 🙂

Old school hand fingers tattoo

 

Freddy krueger tattoo

 

Lettering tattoo men

 

Black and grey native american tattoo sleeve

 

Black and grey death tattoo leg

 

Black and grey tattoo leg 2

 

Black and grey mandala woman leg tattoo

 

Old school boxer black and grey tattoo

 

Black and grey realism atlas tattoo arm

 

Black and grey realism back piece tattoo for men

 

Black and grey realism angel tattoo sleeve for men

 

Black and grey realism tattoo sleeve gladiator

 

Black and grey realism tattoo sleeve lion

 

Black and grey realism tattoo sleeve medusa

Inspired? Visit us and get your next tattoo here: 
Iron & Ink Los Angeles Tattoo

 

Black and grey realism tupac portrait tattoo leg

 

Black and grey realism tattoo demon forearm

 

Black and grey tattoo realism tupac forearm

 

Black and grey realism tattoo mamba mentality forearm

 

Black and grey tattoo realism tiger forearm

 

Black and grey tattoo realism viking leg

 

Black and grey tattoo sleeve egypt anubis

 

Black and grey chicano tattoo girl sleeve

 

Black and grey realism tattoo lion arm

 

Black and grey tattoo sleeve realism lion with rose

 

Black and grey realism angel tattoo chest piece men

 

Black and grey tattoo realism lion watch sleeve men

 

Black and grey tattoo realism native american leg

 

Black and grey tattoo realism peaky blinders forearm

 

Black and grey tattoo realism swallow chest piece men

 

Black and grey tattoo sleeve realism tiger men

 

Black and grey tattoo realism bear

 

Black and grey tattoo realism tiger forearm

 

Black and grey realism wolf tattoo forearm

 

Black and grey woman warrior tattoo forearm

 

Blackwork tattoo skull

 

Blackwork tattoo snake cobra leg

 

Blackwork tattoo cobra snake leg

 

Blackwork tattoo hand

 

Chicano black and grey tattoo leg

 

Chicano clown lady tattoo forearm

 

Color japanese tiger tattoo sleeve

 

Realism Ironman tattoo leg

 

Color realism parrot tattoo forearm

 

Color realism anubis tattoo forearm

 

Color neo traditional tattoo tiger arm

 

Lettering tattoo backpiece

 

Full sleeve tattoo angel black and grey

 

Black and grey realism doom tattoo leg

 

Family tattoo black and grey realism lion

 

Feather realism tattoo forearm

 

Japanese full back piece tattoo men

 

Full back piece tattoo black and grey men

 

Ganesha black and grey tattoo realism leg

 

Geometric tattoo stag

 

Black and grey tattoo realism horror

 

Black and grey tattoo hamsa eye mandala knee

 

lettering finger tattoo hope

 

Japanese hannya mask tattoo color leg

 

Black and grey realism japanese tattoo sleeve

 

Blackwork tattoo joker the heist

 

Black and grey realism gladiator tattoo sleeve

 

Fine line map tattoo ethiopia

 

Mac Miller Blackwork tattoo

 

Mandala knee tattoo eye

 

Michael Jordan tattoo black and grey realism portrait

 

Black and grey native american tattoo with lion

 

Neo traditional eagle color tattoo

 

Neotraditional tattoo stag chest piece

 

Neo traditional skull tattoo

 

Neo traditional tattoo arm

 

Black and grey tattoo viking thor arm

 

Black and grey tattoo sleeve viking nordic sleeve

 

Old school dagger and rose tattoo

 

Old school traditional black and grey tattoo ship

 

Old school traditional tattoo snake with dagger arm

 

Old school traditional tattoo snake and dagger

 

Old school traditional tattoo banger

 

Japanese oriental tattoo snake arm

 

Phoenix neo traditional tattoo sleeve

 

Old school traditional tattoo scorpion

 

Geometric nordic wolf tattoo forearm

 

Snoop dogg tattoo portrait realism

 

Black and grey tattoo realism portrait tommy shelby peaky blinders

 

Traditional old school back piece skull and roses tattoo

 

Blackwork travis scott tattoo

 

Blackwork venom tattoo

 

Lettering tattoo work hard fingers

Tattoos for Men: Women Perceive Tattooed Men as Healthier, More Masculine, and More Dominant

 

According to a study by the Jagiellonian University Medical College in 2017, women perceive tattooed men as healthier and more masculine, and men perceive other men with tattoos as more attractive.

These are some of the conclusions of the results of a large population-based study in Poland, where photos of real, non-tattooed men were digitally modified to add a tattoo and presented to 2584 men and women. Pictures with and without tattoo were rated in several categories.

One of the main conclusions that can be taken from the study is not only that tattoos are well accepted in society -finally-, but also that tattoos for men have positive connotations.

Summary

We hope this guide made the process of getting a tattoo a bit easier for you. If you need more inspiration, you can also follow our Pinterest account, where you can find more than 300 designs and it’s being updated weekly.

Whether if you are a man or a woman, getting a tattoo is a unique and rewarding experience. For that reason, we’d encourage you to look for the design of your next tattoo without thinking much about if it’s a men’s tattoo or a woman’s tattoo, and just focusing on what feels right for you.

Good luck!

* Get a commitment-free estimate of your new tattoo from one of our talented artists. Click the contact us button, send us your idea and we will get back to you shortly.