InkCraftArchangel Tattoo Ideas, Designs and Meaning
20 original archangel designs drawn for InkCraftBy Uladzimir TumanauUpdated
An archangel is a rank, not a mood, and the armour is what carries it. Drawn unarmoured and unarmed the figure is simply an angel, which is a different subject with a much softer meaning.
Black and grey dotwork archangel and snake tattoo design: an archangel, likely St Try it on — Black and grey dotwork archangel and snake tattoo design: an archangel, likely St
Black and white blackwork archangel and angel wings tattoo design Try it on — Black and white blackwork archangel and angel wings tattoo design
Black and white blackwork archangel and angel tattoo design Try it on — Black and white blackwork archangel and angel tattoo design
Black and white linework archangel and angel wings tattoo design, outline stencil Try it on — Black and white linework archangel and angel wings tattoo design, outline stencil
Black and grey illustrative archangel and angel tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey illustrative archangel and angel tattoo design
Black and grey ornamental archangel and angel tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey ornamental archangel and angel tattoo design
Color illustrative archangel and angel wings tattoo design Try it on — Color illustrative archangel and angel wings tattoo design
Color neo traditional archangel and angel tattoo design Try it on — Color neo traditional archangel and angel tattoo design
Black and grey illustrative archangel and angel tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey illustrative archangel and angel tattoo design
Black and grey illustrative archangel and angel tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey illustrative archangel and angel tattoo design
Black and grey dotwork archangel and angel tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey dotwork archangel and angel tattoo design
Black and white blackwork archangel and angel tattoo design Try it on — Black and white blackwork archangel and angel tattoo design
Black and grey illustrative archangel and angel tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey illustrative archangel and angel tattoo design
Black and grey illustrative archangel and angel tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey illustrative archangel and angel tattoo design
Black and grey dotwork archangel and angel wings tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey dotwork archangel and angel wings tattoo design
Black and grey illustrative archangel and angel tattoo design: an angel in flight, holding a sword Try it on — Black and grey illustrative archangel and angel tattoo design: an angel in flight, holding a sword
Black and grey illustrative archangel and angel tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey illustrative archangel and angel tattoo design
Color traditional archangel and angel tattoo design Try it on — Color traditional archangel and angel tattoo design
Black and grey neo traditional archangel and angel tattoo design Try it on — Black and grey neo traditional archangel and angel tattoo design
Black and white traditional archangel and angel tattoo design Try it on — Black and white traditional archangel and angel tattoo design
Tap any design to see it on your own skin in the try-on — no signup.
This set of 20 archangel designs, by the numbers
- Styles represented
- illustrative (8), dotwork (3), blackwork (3), neo traditional (2), traditional (2), linework (1)
- Black-and-grey vs colour
- 85% black-and-grey, 15% colour
- Most often drawn with
- angel wings, angel, sword, snake
Counted from the 20 designs shown on this page. Every one was drawn for InkCraft — none are scraped or reposted. Free to reference with a link to this page.
What a archangel tattoo means
Michael is the one people mean, even when they do not know his name. He is the commander, the figure who throws the dragon down in Revelation, and he is also the weigher of souls — a scale-holder as often as a swordsman in older art, though tattooing has almost entirely dropped that half.
The appeal is protection with force behind it. A guardian angel watches; an archangel is armed and has already fought. That is why the image turns up so often on people in dangerous work, and why it reads as a request for defence rather than for comfort.
The four named ones divide cleanly and are worth distinguishing. Michael carries a sword or a spear and stands over a serpent; Gabriel carries a lily or a trumpet and announces; Raphael is the healer and travels with a staff and a fish; Uriel carries flame. Asking for "an archangel" gets you Michael by default.
Michael and the serpent is the oldest composition in the set and the most misread. The creature under the spear is not a defeated enemy in most depictions — it is pinned, alive, still coiling, which is a considerably more honest image about anything you are holding down rather than have finished.
Where the design comes from
Michael is the only angel with a military cult in Christianity, and shrines to him go back to the fourth century. The armoured type most tattoos descend from is Renaissance: Raphael, Guido Reni and later Luca Giordano fixed the pose of a young man in Roman lamellar armour, wings spread, spear or sword driven downward into a serpent under his feet. He reached tattooing through the same two routes as the Virgin — Catholic devotional culture carried by sailors and immigrants, and the Chicano black-and-grey school of the 1970s, which is where the enormous, heavily rendered Michael sleeves come from. The trumpet-blowing Gabriel is far older in art and far rarer on skin, which makes it one of the few genuinely unused compositions in the whole religious repertoire.
Choosing yours
- Say which archangel and give him his attribute. A sword and a serpent is Michael; a lily or a trumpet is Gabriel; a staff and a fish is Raphael. Without one the figure is generic and the tattoo says less than it could.
- Keep him armoured and armed. Lamellar plates, a cuirass, greaves and a helmet are what make the figure a rank rather than a species; an unarmed figure is simply an angel, with a softer meaning. They are also the first thing simplified away in a smaller design.
- Decide whether the serpent is beaten or pinned. Michael standing on a dead snake and Michael holding down a live one are different statements, and the coil around the greave is what tells them apart.
Size, cost and placement
How big, and what it costs
A full Michael with spread wings, armour and a serpent is a large piece: 25-30 cm and eight to twelve hours in black and grey, often across two sittings. A head study or a single wing with a hilt is 12-15 cm and three hours. The armour plates are what drive the time, not the size.
Where it sits, and how much it hurts
Full figures want height and a flat field: the outer arm from shoulder to elbow, the calf, the centre of the back, the outer thigh. Spread wings need width too, which is why the chest and the upper back suit them. Head studies go anywhere a portrait would.
What to ask your artist
- Which archangel, by name, and to include the attribute that identifies him.
- How the armour plates will be handled at your size, and whether they will still separate after a decade.
- Whether the wings will be individually feathered or shaded as mass, since that is the main price difference.
Prices vary widely by city and artist — treat these as session lengths rather than quotes, and expect a shop minimum on anything small. The cost guide turns hours into money by size, placement and style.
Common questions
What is the difference between an angel and an archangel tattoo?
Rank, and it shows in the drawing. An archangel is armoured and armed and usually has a name and an attribute. An unarmoured winged figure, however beautiful, is an angel, and reads as a guardian rather than as a commander.
Which archangel should I choose?
Michael for protection and conflict, Gabriel for a message or a beginning, Raphael for healing and safe travel, Uriel for insight. Michael is roughly nine in ten of what gets tattooed, which is worth knowing if you want something less common.
How big does Michael need to be?
Larger than people expect. The armour is made of dozens of small plates and the wings of hundreds of feathers, and both stop reading below about 20 cm. A head-and-shoulders study is the honest way to get the subject smaller.
What a archangel tattoo can mean
The meanings this motif carries on the pages that argue them. Each line is that page's own reason for including it.
- Christian tattoos
- The only angel most people can name, and the only one with a job description: armoured, armed, standing over what he has defeated. It is the protective piece in this set and the one most often worn by people in dangerous work.
- Protection tattoos
- The guardian rather than the gaze — armoured, armed and already standing over what he defeated. It is the protective piece most often worn by soldiers, police and paramedics, and the posture is what carries it.
See it on your skin before you commit
InkCraft places any of these designs on a photo of you — scaled, wrapped and shaded to the placement you pick.