Tattoo trends aren’t as fickle as beauty trends. Many designs are timeless. (Barbed wire and floral tattoos will always be cool.) And even the most fleeting tattoo trends are in the spotlight for a few years. (Remember when everyone had a mustache on their finger?) But we still see new body art themes start to emerge from time to time, and, for 2023 and beyond, tattoo artists predict anime tattoos will be hugely popular.
Like nail art, tattoos are a way for you to wear your fandom on your literal and proverbial sleeve. And the sky’s the limit on what you can get. You could get a portrait of your favorite character or a full sleeve that marries elements of the shows you have on repeat. You can have a true-to-the-manga illustration or a tattoo artist’s take on a particular scene.
On Instagram, the hashtag #animetattoos has over 305,000 thousand posts, with Naruto and One Piece being two of the most popular anime for tattooists to draw inspiration from. London-based tattoo artist Mika Codner says that when her clients aren’t requesting her anime flash designs, they are asking for tattoos that are based on Studio Ghibli films or Sanrio characters.
New York City-based tattoo artist EJ Griffith, on the other hand, tells Allure that he will receive lots of requests for tattoos based on shows Chainsaw Man, Bleach, and My Hero Academia. Ultimately, it’s about finding the design you want permanently etched on your body.
With thousands of anime in existence, a list with designs inspired by every single one would be near impossible to create. Instead, we’ve curated 19 of the best anime tattoos we’ve seen to help inspire your next appointment.
1. Attack on Titan‘s Levi
