Cute Cartoon Tattoos

Cartoon tattoo designs are often based on popular comic or cartoon characters. These characters are fairly common as tattoo designs, so for a more unique, personalized tattoo design, customers will sometimes ask the tattoo artist for an original cartoon tattoo.


Toon Tats
Most cartoon tattoos have clear outlines and solid areas of color. These kinds of designs are easier to ink into the skin than designs with intricate detail or shading. This means the resulting body art is often of a high quality. Most cartoon tattoo designs use one character, with little or nothing in the background. This gives the image a clearly defined silhouette.

Above: A cute baby bat cartoon tattoo, for a humorous gothic effect. The clear outlines and crisp edges makes the tattoo really stand out.

Above: A cartoon bird design with a graffiti tattoo influence. By using a few subtle highlights and shadows, the tattoo artist has given an otherwise flat tattoo depth and interest.

Above: A cute cartoon character with the typical cartoon design elements of big, shiny eyes and a cute little smile.

Above: A cartoon cat tattoo design. The tattoo artist has highlighted parts of the cartoon kitty to give this design more definition.

Cartoon Tattoo Designs

Cartoon tattoos are often colorful and interesting to look at. Unlike many tattoo designs, cartoon tats have no distinct meaning or symbolism, other than that the wearer of the tattoo liked the cartoon character.

Above: These cute characters have been influenced by cartoons, but the style is 3D, using careful shading to smooth out the characters. See Kelly Doty's best tattoo designs.

Above: This geeky gecko tattoo makes a humorous body art piece. The tattoo artist has added shadows to create the illusion that the gecko is perched on top of the skin.

Above: Big eyes and a large head are two popular character design techniques that cartoon artists use. The tattoo artist has uses soft shading in flesh tones to mimic human skin, a tricky effect to achieve on skin of a similar color.

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10 Internet Meme Tattoos

Internet memes are ideas, cultural items or social behaviors that are shared internationally through the internet. Memes are commonly videos or images that inspire others to create a spoof of the original media. 


Chuck Norris Meme Tattoo
Tough guy Chuck Norris has starred in many action films alongside notable martial arts actors such as Bruce Lee. Norris is best known for his role on the hit TV series Walker, Texas Ranger, a role that has inspired thousands of Chuck Norris jokes and comic illustrations.

Nyan Cat Youtube Meme Tattoo
The original Nyan Cat video was created by illustrator Chris Torres in mid-2011. It depicts a cat with a poptart body, flying through space trailing a rainbow. The simple, repetitive animation is accompanied by fast-paced music anime-styled music track.

Tattoo gets Rick Rolled
"Rick Rolling" is an online prank based on misleading an internet user before showing them a video of Rick Astley's 1987 hit song Never Gonna Give You Up. 

Youtube's Keyboard Cat Tattoo
Keyboard Cat is a video of a tabby cat that was filmed by his owner in the 1980s, being manipulated like a puppet to play an electronic keyboard. The video is posted on forums and included in mashup FAIL videos as a symbol of failure.

All your Base are Belong to Us Tattoo
The phrase, "All your base are belong to us" is a translation of one of the opening phrases from a popular 1980s shoot 'em up game, Zero Wing. This is one of the oldest internet memes, which has evolved alongside technology and media improvements.

Forever Alone Online Meme Tattoo
The Forever Alone meme features a rage comic cartoon character that is used to express anger, disappointment or disallusionment. The character inspired an involuntary flash mob in 2011, in fake profiles on an internet dating website, OKCupid, were used to invite dozens of lonely single men to meet them at a certain time in Time Square, New York. The men arrived, milling around in an involuntary flash mob, presented with posters of the Forever Alone character.

Amazing Horse Viral Youtube Video Tattoo
The viral youtube video Amazing Horse (aka Get on my Horse) is an animation that depicts the lyrics of a humorous, catchy song, in which it is insinuated that the amazing horse can fly and it's urine, lebelled horse pop, tastes like lemonade.

Icanhascheezburger Fridge Cat Tattoo
LOLcats and Icanhascheezburger are sites famed for their pictures of cats and other pets accompanied by funny captions. The captions are often miss-spelled, intentionally giving the animals a "cute" persona. Fridge cat is among the oldest LOLcats images, in which a cat peeks out of a fridge with the caption, "Im in ur fridge, eatin ur foodz."

Troll Face Tattoo
The troll face cartoon is a linear sketch of the expression that a person likely wears while "trolling" the internet. The activity of trolling is when an online user actively seeks out or creates disputes on forums and discussion boards. The Troll face has become a symbol of trolling activity, and is often pasted, sticker-like, over the face of a person or character believed to be trolling.

Domo Monster Internet Meme Tattoo
Domo is a Japanese designed character of a little brown monster. Domo is often Photoshopped into pictures of disasters as the "cause" of the disaster.

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Einstein Fans Create Clever Art

Albert Einstein was a 20th century theoretical physicist who transformed the world with his theories. Einstein has become a symbol of intelligence,and often finds a place in geek fan art.


The Mad Scientist
With his bold features and wild hair, Einstein's physical appearance has become the model for character designs of mad scientists and geniuses. In the fan art work below, the artist has given Einstein an even wilder appearance by using unconstrained brushstrokes and bright colors.

Einstein challenges Science in Art
The collage shown below creates an image of Einstein pulling a tongue. The famous photograph of Einstein blowing a raspberry is a favorite among Einstein fans, because it shows a lighter, more humorous side of the scientist. For the first time in written history, Einstein challenged the precepts that scientists should be serious, stoic men.

Einstein in Pencil
Albert Einstein's recognizable facial features make him an excellent subject for art works. In the pencil drawing below, Ships and aeroplanes, skulls and birds spill out of Einstein's brain. Perhaps these are symbols of daily life that we know view differently because of Einstein's theories.

Mad Scientist = Crazy Hair
One of Einstein's most recognizable features is his crazy hair that stood out at all angles, as if trying to tear itself free of the head that held so many theories. In the caricature painting below, the artist has exaggerated Einstein's hair and moustache, to give the theoretical scientist a humorous appearance.

Einstein gets Inked in Tattoo Designs
Because Einstein has become a symbol of science and intelligence, the scientist's portrait has become a popular subject in geek tattoo designs. In the tattoo of Einstein shown below, he is shown with his famous formula, e=mc2.

Graffiti puts Einstein on the Streets
Einstein has become a household name, and his face is known to millions around the world. The scientist has found his way into many graffiti art designs, and is often used by graffiti artists to send a powerful message. In the street art below, Einstein holds a sign that reads, "Love is the answer."

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Tattoos that are Invisible in Daylight

UV tattoos are invisible in daylight, only appearing when exposed to UV light, also known as black light. They are also called invisible tattoos, black light tattoos and glow tattoos.

How Invisible Tattoos are Made
UV tattoos are made using inks that are sensitive to ultraviolet light (black light). For a few days after the tattoo is made a small amount of scarring from the tattoo machine that shows where the tattoo is. Over time, the scars heal and the tattoo becomes invisible in daylight, glowing only under a UV or black light.

Above: This picture shows a recently finished UV tattoo. The ink is invisible, but the scarring from the tattoo machine has not yet healed.

UV tattoos are inked into the skin in exactly the same way that regular tattoos are. The only difference between a black light tattoo and a normal tattoo is the ink used. 

Above: UV tattoos are invisible in daylight, appearing only under UV light. Once the scarring from the tattoo machine has healed, the tattoo can’t be seen during the day.

Some color UV inks can be faintly visible in daylight, so white UV ink is the most reliable for use in invisible tattoos. In general, color UV tattoo ink is reserved for use with normal tattoo ink to highlight parts of the tattoo design. When used on its own, color UV ink can age to look like a skin problem or stain on the skin.

Above: A clever UV tattoo of the bone structure beneath the skin of the hand and arm. Biological tattoos such as this one, where the bone is "exposed", are an excellent use of white UV ink.

Above: An invisible tattoo of a jellyfish. In the wild, some jellyfish pulsate with a soft, glowing light, a natural phenomenon that is symbolized in this tattoo design.

Above: A tribal UV tattoo design on the hand. Because the skin becomes even darker under a black light, UV tattoos seem to be glowing even more than they actually are.

Above: This black light tattoo design shows a collage of glowing skulls. The artist has created depth in the design by shading with the UV ink. The darkest areas are simply places where the tattoo artist didn't apply ink.

Above: A koi fish tattoo design, in UV ink. The koi fish is a popular tattoo design that symbolizes beauty, wealth, elegance and freedom. The artist has outlined the tattoo with thick bands of UV ink to create contrast along the edges - defining the silhouette.

UV Tattoo Inks

There are a number of different colors of UV tattoo inks which can be used to highlight a regular tattoo, or, in the case of white UV tattoo ink, to create an invisible tattoo. Black light tattoo ink can turn yellow over time, revealing the tattoo design on the skin, which is why it is best to use UV tattoo ink as part of a normal tattoo.

Above: A selection of UV inks, displayed under a black light to show the glow effect of the ink. Some inks glow better than others; the purple ink, fourth from the left, doesn't shine as brightly as the white UV ink on the far left.

UV Tattoos Combined with Regular Tattoos

UV tattoo inks can be used to compliment regular tattoo inks, so that the tattoo art is visible both during daylight and under a UV light. Because regular tattoo ink doesn't glow under UV light, tattoo artists can create a greater depth of shading in black light tattoos by creating dark shades with normal tattoo ink, and highlights with UV ink. During the day, the UV ink highlights will simply be the color of the person's skin or of the regular tattoo ink beneath.

Above: Black ink has been used in this tattoo design to create strong outlines and contrast. The color UV inks add interest to the design by glowing under a black light.

Above: Color UV ink has been used to highlight only part of this tattoo design. The skulls have been inked into the skin with normal tattoo ink, while the flames have been colored with both normal and UV inks. Under a UV light, the flames glow, making the skulls seem more evil in their darkness.

Above: This tattoo artist has used UV ink to highlight the skulls in the design. Non-glowing elements in front of the skulls create the impression that the skulls glow with a magical, eerie light of their own.

UV Face Tattoos

Many people have chosen to have UV tattoos inked onto their face and hands, as the tattoos are invisible during the day when they are working. Over time, however, these tattoos will likely become slightly visible as the ink ages and turns yellow after being exposed to daylight. Thank goodness for tattoo removal procedures!

Above: A pattern of stars and dots adorn this girl's forehead in this face tattoo design. The tattoo design is created using white UV ink that will appear invisible unless under a black light. UV tattoos, especially those on the face, need to be protected from sunlight to prevent the ink from taking on a yellow hue that will ruin the "invisible" tattoo.

Above: UV tattoo ink has been used to create designs beside this girl's eyes. The patterns will only glow when exposed to a UV or black light, making it the perfect party make-up; invisible at work but  glowing at a party.

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