Tattoo Placement Chart Guide – Plus 28 Inspirational Ideas & Meanings For You

Deciding on a tattoo is only half the task – placement matters too! But should you go for that spot inside your hip or be brave with an ankle tatt? Deciding the placement of your tattoo is not something to decide on a whim.

In our ultimate guide to tattoo placement, you’ll find a check list to help you decide on a tattoo placement, plus 25 cool tattoo placement ideas for inspiration! Some tattoo placements have hidden meanings too.

We bet you haven’t even considered half of the tattoo placements on our list…

Quick Tattoo Placement Chart

Here is our tattoo placement meaning chart! It covers everything you need to know, including the pain levels, the meanings of the placement, and the best tattoo sizes.

If you want to learn more, including the tattoo placement spiritual meaning, then check out our full list of tattoo ideas below.

And don’t forget, there aren’t really any strict tattoo placement rules. Your tattoo artist might think that a tattoo looks better in one placement instead of another, but that’s an opinion. While we advise that you listen to the placement ‘rules’ your tattoo artist prefers, it’s not something you absolutely have to follow. By all means, find another tattoo artist if you think a different placement is best!

But nonetheless, here’s our tattoo placement chart.

As arms are one of the most popular places for a tattoo, we considered making an arm tattoo placement chart too. Here are the most popular micro-areas of the arm that may be tattooed (but remember to consider tattoo placement pain as well as meaning):

Full sleeve: armor or expressing strong feelings
Upper arm sleeve: protection and strength
Lower arm sleeve: beauty and beliefs
Wrist band: decorate and promises
Wrist: beauty and symbols
Inner lower arm: personal meaning
Outer lower arm: portrait and decorative
Inner upper arm: strength and will
Outer upper arm: protection and armor
Wrist to hand: elegance and flow
Upper arm to shoulder: defense (e.g., giving a cold shoulder)

Best Tattoo Placements for Women

A female tattoo placement chart may look a little different to a placement chart for guys. While there is absolutely no reason why men and women can’t get the same tattoos in the same placements (with the exception of genitalia), we have noticed that women in general opt for placements that men prefer to avoid.

Examples of some popular tattoo placements for women include:

Collarbones to shoulder – this is a popular place for women to get floral or decorative tattoos, that’s less common for guys.
Thigh – more popular with women than men. We find that men tend to go for the lower leg more often, but not always.
Thigh to hip – this side of the body, stretching from the hip down to the thigh, is quite sexy and definitely highlights feminine curves. We rarely see this kind of placement on men.

Best Tattoo Quote Placement

Here are our top 3 favorite placements for quote and word tattoos:

Forearm: The long side of your forearm is the perfect shape for a quote or word. However, it is a very visible and public area of your body, especially if you live in a warm climate. Consider how often it will be visible before deciding on a placement!
Ribcage: The ribcage is a painful place for a tattoo but quotes look great here, especially if they are more of a paragraph! You can have the quote placed directly under a breast, or more on the side of the body – or even curling around the back.
Thigh: The thigh is a great place for a tattoo in general as it provides a wide canvas and isn’t too painful due to the fleshy nature of this part of the body. Quote tattoos can look good here, especially longer verses or quotes mixed with other symbols and designs.

Best Small Tattoo Placement

A small tattoo won’t look good everywhere on your body – fact! The placement really matters with small tattoos. For example, a small tattoo on your back often looks like it’s floating in space… unless the tattoo artist is clever. For example, a small unalome may look great at the base of your spine, or a small flower right near your shoulder.

However, a small tattoo slapped on the middle of your back is just going to look weird. Make sure you talk to your tattoo artist and get advice on what placement will look best for your design. In general, these are good places for small tattoos:

Ankle
Wrist
Inner hip (besides the bone)
Neck
Back of neck
Breast
Behind ear

Note that these placements are all small areas naturally.

One way to place a small tattoo in a large area (e.g., back or thigh) is to repeat the tattoo to create a trailing design. For example, a pattern of flowers, butterflies or stars, that trail up a leg or across your back. You can also incorporate small tattoos into a leg or arm sleeve.

Best Tattoo Placements for Guys

As mentioned above, there’s no reason why guys can’t get those feminine tattoo placements listed above, and no reason why women can’t get these placements listed below – even if they are more popular with men.

Upper arm sleeve – definitely more popular with men than women, although smaller upper arm tatts work well regardless of gender.
Chest tattoo – men with well-defined pecs can get circular style tattoos on either side, above or incorporating the nipple. This doesn’t look so good on the female form.
Neck and skull – traditionally more popular with men, but we’ve also seen rising popularity for these placements with women in recent years.

Discreet Tattoo Placement

The best tattoo placement for names is often somewhere private. The same goes for symbols and designs that have a special meaning for you. If you don’t want people to frequently see or ask about your tattoos, choose a discreet tattoo placement like:

Inner hip (between the bone and groin area)
Groin and ass areas
Breast and upper ribs
Foot (toes and sole)

These are places that are mostly – or often – covered by clothing. The most discreet places are covered by your underwear as they’d be covered even when you’re going swimming or on the beach.

Depending on your job, hiding tattoos may be essential. Even though you could wear long sleeves and high collared clothes every day, it may not be comfortable especially in the summer. So, think carefully about what parts of your body can be covered without making you feel too hot.

Best Tattoo Placement App

When you’re working out where your tattoo placement should go, you have a few options. You could literally draw it on your skin with skin-friendly markers, or you could ask your tattoo artist for advice.

Another option is to use a smartphone app. INKHUNTER is an app that uses augmented reality to project a tattoo onto any area of your body, so you can see what it will look like.

With INKHUNTER, you can:

Choose tattoos from a gallery in the app,
Upload tattoos from the internet,
Upload your own tattoo designs,
Project the tattoo onto your body through a photo.

What we really like about this app is that it makes the tattoos look real and you can view them from different angles. This is amazing!

There are some other tattoo placement apps that can help you too.

Tattoo You is a good app that also does placement. One cool feature is that it allows you to crop parts of the tattoo so you can tell what they look like when half covered by clothing.

Virtual Tattoo Maker is another app but with fewer features. You can’t upload your own image, but the app comes with a range of designs and texts to use. If you want a quote tattoo, this app has some great fonts to choose from.

How to Plan Tattoo Placement

Whether you have a specific placement in mind or you’re at a complete loss, make sure you carefully think about all these considerations before getting your tattoo.

Where the design looks best

This should be the first thing you consider. Placement can be the difference between a great tattoo and an odd-looking mistake. A good way to check the placement of very simple tattoos and tattoo outlines, is to draw it directly on your skin (try liquid eyeliner or use henna) to see how it looks.

In general, small tattoos look best on smaller areas of your body, or along a line. For example, a tiny star would look cute on the inside of your wrist, behind your ear, or even along your collarbones. But on your back? It will look like it’s floating in space or just be mistaken for a freckle.

Large and detailed tattoos need a larger space. Trying to cram a detailed portrait into the size of a postage stamp is not a good idea. You’ll lose the quality of the artwork.

Once you’ve created a shortlist of placements you like, run them past your tattoo artist. They’ll know when a tattoo design will look out of place in one area, or if it’s even possible to place your tattoo there.

Your Pain Tolerance

If this is your first tattoo, pain tolerance is likely your biggest concern and it’s totally okay to let this color your decision.

Getting a huge (but bad) design all over your back just to prove that you’re not afraid of pain will really backfire.

Instead, we recommend starting small if you know you have little tolerance for pain and choose placements that are known to be a little easier than others. Outer thighs, your inner hip, and any other area where there’s plenty of flesh between your skin and bones will help minimize the pain.

Some tattoo artists are happy to use a numbing cream, but don’t forget, you can’t avoid the pain completely! Even if the session itself is quite painless due to a numbing agent, the aftercare process as it heals can be sore, itchy, hot and uncomfortable.

Showing off your tattoo

Do you want your tattoo on display for everyone to see? There’s no right or wrong answer. Sometimes tattoos can have very personal, deep meanings – so if you don’t want to share that with strangers on the street, choosing a more private placement is advantageous.

Some private tattoo placements include your inner thigh, sole of your foot, breasts, and even your scalp where you can grow hair back over the tattoo. Anywhere that’s usually covered by clothing is a good private place.

See our list of discreet tattoo placements above.

Seeing your tattoo yourself

A full back tattoo might make your detailed artwork look fabulous, but you won’t get to see it all that much!

Think about why you want your tattoo. Is it all about the meaning, so it doesn’t matter if you can’t see it 24/7? Or do you want a tattoo so you can decorate your body and admire some stunning artwork?

Areas of your body that are visible to yourself can be private or public places. There are also some compromise areas. Your wrist, for example, might seem like a very public place to put a tattoo… but it’s also one of the easiest tattoos to cover up with a watch or jewelry. You wouldn’t even need to wear long sleeves all the time.

3 Dos and 3 Don’ts

First of all, do talk to your tattoo artist for their opinion. They will know best and may even have some placement ideas you haven’t considered yet. But don’t feel pressured into a particular placement by the artist or anyone else. After all, it’s you that has to live with it!

Do take as long as you need to decide on your tattoo and placement. The best tattoos are rarely rushed. From finalizing the design with a tattoo artist to getting the placement just right, to booking in the sessions. It takes time. Don’t rush into a professional tattoo parlor and expect to instantly be tattooed.

Finally, do research your options before you start. And we don’t just mean getting a tattoo. Think about what happens if you don’t like it – have you researched tattoo removal methods? Have you thought about if your future employment complicates things further? Read our article about laser tattoo removal for an idea of what’s in store. But don’t chicken out because of the pain and permanence of a tattoo. It’s an exciting and wonderful thing to do. We just don’t want you to have any regrets!